Wednesday 21 September 2016 00:04, UK
Opener Nick Gubbins struck his fourth first-class century of the summer to rally leaders Middlesex to 208-5 on day one of their crunch County Championship clash against Yorkshire, at Lord's.
The left-hander, who was dropped on 22 by Azeem Rafiq and survived a strong caught behind shout on 96, reached three figures with a six over mid-wicket off Ryan Sidebottom.
Gubbins was unbeaten on 120 and James Franklin, dropped by Gary Ballance on one, was 20 not out when the umpires halted play due to bad light.
Yorkshire had little hesitation in asking Middlesex to bat under gloomy skies, the toss uncontested, and made steady in-roads thanks to Jack Brooks (3-45) despite not being able to find a place for England's Liam Plunkett in the XI.
Brooks removed Sam Robson and Nick Compton lbw before Dawid Malan (22) dragged David Willey into his wicket. Stevie Eskinazi and John Simpson offered solid support to Gubbins, who made the visitors pay dearly for the life he was given.
Somerset remain firmly in the hunt after a hobbling James Hildreth (135) and skipper Chris Rogers (132) shared a stand of 269 - only for already-relegated Nottingham to peg the Taunton outfit back to 322-9 with a glut of late wickets.
Gutsy Hildreth batted with a runner for most of his innings after being hit on the ankle by Jake Ball (6-47) when on seven, striking 17 fours and a six.
Together with former Middlesex skipper Rogers, whose hundred was his 75th in first-class cricket, he revived Somerset after Marcus Trescothick (25) and Tom Abell fell in quick succession to leave the hosts on 33-2.
Somerset, who have never won the Championship, appeared to be cruising towards maximum batting points only to lose seven wickets for 20 runs - Ball and Imran Tahir (2-66) wreaking havoc late on.
James Vince responded to being dropped from the England Test squad with an impressive 92 to boost Hampshire's hopes of retaining their division one spot.
Vince struck 12 fours and a six in his 109-ball innings as the Ageas Bowl outfit racked up 370-6 against Durham.
Former Durham batsman Will Smith (90) shared century stands with Jimmy Adams (53) and Vince, who passed 6,000 Championship runs, and 7,000 first-class runs during a quick-fire knock.
Vince, after adding 57 with Sean Ervine, looked destined for a first century since April, but foolishly took on Ben Stokes' rocket arm and was run out eight short of three figures.
Ervine reached his half-century, a fifth fifty in six innings since returning from a calf strain, in a mature 80-ball innings, but then fell very next ball. At stumps Liam Dawson was 47no.
Warwickshire picked up a single batting point after being bowled out for 219 by Lancashire as Tom Bailey claimed 4-52 and Jordan Clark picked up 3-20.
Ian Westwood was lbw to Bailey's fourth ball and while Jonathan Trott put on 44 with Alex Mellor and 37 with Ian Bell, the Royal London One-Day Cup champions continued to lose wickets at regular intervals.
Lancashire openers Rob Jones and Haseeb Hameed reached the close on 14-0 after the latter was dropped on two by by Rikki Clarke at second slip.
Coverage of the County Championship title race continues on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports Mix from 10.25am.
