The fourth round of the Rothesay County Championship was the first that saw a reduced number of games. Five matches took place this week, while eight teams spread across the two divisions took their chance to rest and recover, having a much-needed break in a hectic start to the summer.
Nottinghamshire claimed an important win in an early top of the table clash with Sussex, while Surrey recorded their first win of the season at home to Somerset. There was a low-scoring shootout at New Road as Durham bettered Worcestershire, while Leicestershire continued their exciting start to the season with victory away at Gloucestershire. In a week dominated by the bowlers – meaning some rejigging of the order – let’s assess the best performers of the round.
1. Rory Burns – Surrey (76 & 20*)
Surrey captain Rory Burns has endured a disappointing start to the First Class campaign, drawing a parallel with his side’s underwhelming start to their third consecutive title defence. After a first innings 73 against Essex during the opening game, the former England man failed to pass 25 runs in each of his last four innings.
In his familiar opening partnership with Dom Sibley, the duo put on 129 for Surrey’s first wicket, in response to 283 from Somerset. Burns would contribute 76 of those runs, finishing as the Brown Caps’ highest scorer. He would put in a fantastic captains display in the field, assisting his bowlers as the visitors were limited to just 119, before finishing not out as his side coasted home to chase a miniscule target.
2. Haseeb Hameed – Nottinghamshire (85 & 62*)
In response to Sussex’s below par 169, Haseeb Hameed held together a Nottinghamshire innings that always threatened to fall apart at any moment. When Joe Clarke was dismissed for 19, the hosts sat on 80-3, albeit a much prettier position than their south-coast counterparts but still a couple of wickets away from being dragged into a dogfight. Contributions from Jack Haynes and Liam Patterson-White helped steady a ship that Hameed was guiding through danger.
The Notts skipper went on to score 85 in the first innings, before ticking along nicely to finish unbeaten on 62 as his side went clear at the summit of Division One. Hameed would play second-fiddle to Ben Duckett, with the England man smashing 59 from 31 balls to see the hosts over the line. Hameed has moved onto 443 runs at an average of 110.75 this season, the third most in the top tier of the County Championship.
3. David Lloyd – Derbyshire (93) (0-1 & 0-15)
Opening batsman David Lloyd has dropped to number three in order to give this side some balance. Often overshadowed by the blistering starts fellow opener Caleb Jewell has given Derbyshire this season, Lloyd stepped up to the plate when his Australian partner was dismissed for a four-ball duck. A 156-run stand with Harry Came guided Derbyshire to a much more stable position, although Lloyd was sent back to the pavilion just seven runs short of a seventh First Class ton.
Lloyd’s knock was much needed as the 32-year-old made his first significant contribution of the season. In his six prior visits to the crease, the opener had mustered a mere 76 runs and had failed to score more than 23 in a single innings.
4. Ian Holland – Leicestershire (52 & 2) (3-36 & 4-32)
Ian Holland has made a fantastic start to the 2025 campaign with ball in hand, taking 20 wickets across Leicestershire’s first four games. On Friday, Holland dismissed the dangerous Ben Charlesworth and Oliver Price within the first nine overs as Gloucestershire were 14-2. He would later come back into the attack to see off Dominic Goodman, limiting the hosts to 252. He dismissed the trio again in the second innings – this time with Goodman coming in as nightwatchman – as well as tailender Ajeet Singh Dale, claiming seven wickets for the match.
Having played as a makeshift opener and in the middle order this season, Holland will bat at four in this team, one of the main casualties of the rejigging mentioned at the start. Leicestershire had an innings break lead of 10 runs, thanks in part to Holland’s 52. The USA international came to the crease with the foxes 37-4, but steady partnerships with fellow half-centurions Lewis Hill and Ben Cox allowed the visitors to not only stay in the game – but start to take control of it.
5. James Bracey (WK) – Gloucestershire (93* & 5) (3 catches)
James Bracey again makes the cut, however this week the focus is almost solely on his batting efforts. Gloucestershire were faltering at 21-3 when the wicketkeeper came to the crease, and would soon collapse to 88-7, leaving Bracey to bat with the tail in order to give his side any hope of a respectable total.
Fortunately for him, Zaman Akhter and Josh Shaw scored a combined 74 runs to aid Gloucestershire’s revival efforts, while more importantly surviving 128 balls between them. This allowed Bracey to have invaluable time at the crease, scoring an unbeaten 93 from 141 deliveries. His efforts set up a close game before a second innings collapse saw the hosts jump from 87-1 to 105-7, setting Leicestershire up to snatch victory.
6. Martin Andersson – Derbyshire (107) (1-12) (0-2)
Martin Andersson faced his former county Middlesex after departing the Lords’ based side over the winter, heading to the East Midlands to join Derbyshire following a short stint with the county in the latter stages of 2024. Two weeks ago, Andersson hit his maiden First Class century against Leicestershire, and this week scored his second with a career-best 107.
Following on from Lloyd’s 93 and Came’s 73, Andersson put further pressure on the Middlesex attack to guide Derbyshire to 472. The score was so big that the visitors replied with 315 from 110.1 overs, yet were still made to follow-on by Derbyshire. The placid nature of the wicket at the County Ground meant that the hosts never got a real chance at securing the win as Middlesex finished the game on 307-7.
7. Jordan Clark – Surrey (9) (5-68 & 3-24)
You would have got good odds at the start of April if you said that Surrey would have to wait until week four to have a bowler in this team of the week, but Jordan Clark’s performance against Somerset has finally seen a Surrey man enter this bowling attack. The all-rounder took his seventh First Class five-wicket haul at The Oval, dismissing four of the Cider Men’s lower order.
Clark bagged his first wicket at an important time, seeing off the destructive Tom Banton just as the batsman was starting to look comfortable at the crease. Clark would return before Surrey took the new ball to claim the wickets of Kasey Aldridge and Migael Pretorious, leaving the visitors sitting dangerously on 187-7. In the second innings, Surrey ran riot, with Clark bagging his three wickets in the space of 13 balls from his end. His partnership with Dan Worrall had the hosts on course for an innings victory – with Somerset 38-7 – before Pretorious’ 54* forced Surrey to bat again.
8. Farhan Ahmed – Nottinghamshire (9) (1-19 & 4-54)
You can’t speak about Farhan Ahmed without prefacing that he is the younger brother of Rehan, but he may just be carving out a name for himself. While many sides have opted for an all-seam attack in April, the off-spinner has been trusted to feature in all of Nottinghamshire’s games so far this season, although rather predictably for a spinner bowling on early season English wickets, Ahmed has played a holding role so far.
His performance against Sussex played a crucial role in the setup of Nottinghamshire’s fourth innings chase of 148. Ahmed claimed season best figures four wickets for 54 runs on a pitch that opposition spinners James Coles and Jack Carson managed a combined 1-37. He claimed the early wickets of Daniel Hughes and Tom Clark before returning to dismiss captain John Simpson, extinguishing all hopes of the visitors posting a sizeable target.
9. Jake Ball – Durham (13*) (5-47 & 2-27)
Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Brydon Crase, Brendan Doggett and Ben Stokes. Five seam bowlers that could very easily form an attack at Test match level, but in this instance, it is five seam bowlers that were unavailable for Durham’s trip to Worcestershire. The Chester-le-Street outfit scrambled to sign Jack Blatherwick and Jake Ball on loan from Lancashire and Somerset respectively, bolstering a makeshift attack in a must win clash.
Ball set the tone in the first hour of play, taking three wickets that reduced Worcestershire to 22-3, before a duo of lower order wickets would complete his fifer. In a low-scoring affair where just 487 runs were scored while 34 wickets fell, Ball would claim another two wickets in the second innings, marking a welcome return to a format in which he hadn’t featured since August.
10. Josh Tongue – Nottinghamshire (39*) (5-44 & 1-78)
For the second time in 2025, Josh Tongue has made this team of the week after starting his Nottinghamshire career in blistering form. The tall quick joined the Trent Bridge side in 2024, but a series of injuries prevented him from featuring in the East Midlands. After an opening day five-wicket haul against Durham, Tongue repeated the feat against Sussex.
I recommend anyone who loves fast-bowling to watch the LBW that saw Tom Alsop trudge back to the pavilion. Struck on the toes, Alsop could not deal with the late movement, causing him to fall over before the umpire could make his decision. Tongue finished the innings with three wickets in the same over, seeing off Sussex’s bowlers. It would come as no surprise to see the 27-year-old rested ahead of England’s one-off Test with Zimbabwe in three weeks’ time, also being played at Trent Bridge.
11. Dominic Goodman – Gloucestershire (1 & 0) (5-54 & 4-33)
Dominic Goodman claimed a maiden First Class five-wicket haul in the first innings of Gloucestershire’s home defeat to Leicestershire. The new-ball bowler took the early wickets of the returning Rishi Patel and England prodigy Rehan Ahmed, before returning late in the innings to dismiss set batsmen Hill and Holland. He would also beat the defence of Logan van Beek, leaving the tail exposed.
With Leicestershire chasing a fourth innings target of 143, victory looked a certainty, but Goodman and Singh Dale tried in vain to record a thrilling home victory. Goodman claimed the wickets of the visitors top four, leaving them on 35-4 after just 10.1 overs. The foxes would trundle their way to a tricky target with two wickets in hand, but the efforts of the 24-year-old saw Gloucestershire come remarkably close to securing an unlikely first win of the season.