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It’s the Wills 2017! The complete review of the county cricket season

Essex and Worcestershire will remember the 2017 season for ever while Middlesex and Yorkshire cannot forget it soon enoughWith a word for Worcestershire, another of the little guys whose overachievement has been fostered at home, this has to be Essex. Well supported from east London to East Anglia, brilliantly coached and captained, and with the best spinner, seamer and eight blokes who scored a ton. Little wonder they won. Related: Hampshire’s James Vince ensures Middlesex complete slide to relegation Related: County Championship: fans from all 18 counties look back on the season Continue reading...

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The Joy of Six: county cricket cult heroes

From the overweight to the utterly inept via the unfairly uncapped, a celebration of six of county cricket’s most-loved figures from past and presentDon Shepherd died on Friday, less than a week after turning 90, thus ending a lifelong love affair with Glamorgan cricket. The feeling was very much reciprocated. Related: The Joy of Six: Wimbledon wildcards | Niall McVeigh Related: The Joy of Six: boxing and UFC comebacks from the canvas Continue reading...

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Pink balls at night may not be every County Championship batsman’s delight | Vic Marks

All this week’s county matches will be day/night in a pre-Test experiment but players who are colour blind may have difficultiesThere may be some splutterings from the disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, with cornflakes flying into the marmalade as if propelled by a Purdey after reading about County Championship matches starting at 2pm, finishing around 9.30 under floodlights and being played with a pink ball. On Monday this will be the case in all nine games around the country.A pink ball! The colour pink has so many connotations. Many years ago I was accosted by a mischievous EW Swanton, who asked: “Whatever are you doing writing for that pinko rag?” (After a moment of confusion I realised that he was referring...

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County cricket: Surrey v Essex, Somerset v Yorkshire and more – as it happened

All the action from another exciting day of Championship action, as Mark Stoneman scored a brilliant century for Surrey against Essex 9.40pm BST Related: Mark Stoneman shines again to give Surrey a strong start against Essex 7.17pm BST Right, folks, time for me to wrap up! Have seen a brilliant innings today, which is always nice. Wickets tumbling all over the place and they are still playing at Northampton! I can’t stay in a tent in Guildford forever, though. Here are out scores:Division One: 6.59pm BST Remarkably, there is still one game going on... A whopping 10 overs remain at Northampton. I’ll leave this open for a little while longer. 6.57pm BST Stumps at Guildford, where Surrey have racked up...

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County cricket: Hampshire go top, Middlesex and Somerset draw - as it happened

All the action from around the grounds as Middlesex and Somerset drew, while Hampshire went top by thrashing Warwickshire 7.03pm BST Right, time to pack up another round of Championship action. Thanks so much for your company, it’s been a (Natwest T20) blast. Here’s the results from today. 6.33pm BST Dramatic finish as @NorthantsCCC scramble through to win off the penultimate ballOutstanding effort by Durham to make it so close pic.twitter.com/9gORfQkFfD 6.27pm BST They have scrambled through for a bye and Northants have won with a ball to spare! What an effort from Coughlin, who ends with 10 in the match and so nearly defends three of the final over, in which he took two wickets. He bowled 20 overs...

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