Week five of the Rothesay County Championship saw seven games take place, with three in the top division while there was a full fixture list in Division Two. Division One saw two thrilling run chases as Warwickshire and Somerset secured victory over Yorkshire and Essex respectively, leaving the two defeated counties languishing towards the foot of the table.
In Division Two, early high-flyers Leicestershire picked up their third win of the season after a strong first-innings performance saw them breeze past Northamptonshire, while Middlesex chased down 365 to deny Kent an almost certain victory. There were three draws across the country, with the most notable coming from Sophia Gardens where the match ended with Derbyshire needing 30 runs and Glamorgan needing one wicket to force a result.
1. Rishi Patel – Leicestershire (105 & 0)
Rishi Patel was many people’s pick for top run scorer in Division Two this campaign, but his season was halted immediately after sustaining a hand injury while fielding on day one of the Foxes opening game. He batted at 11 – failing to score – before returning last week, making just one run across two innings.
Scoring 105 against Northamptonshire, Patel was back to his old self, churning out a classic openers century at a strike rate of 55. His ton set up the host’s score of 304, becoming even more important considering both sides failed to break the 200 run mark in the three remaining innings. With Patel and the more aggressive Sol Budinger at the top of the order, the Foxes are sitting pretty at the top of Division Two, 21 points clear of second-placed Derbyshire and 30 clear of Middlesex in third.
2. Daniel Bell-Drummond – Kent (5 & 223)
It has taken five weeks, but we finally have moved a number three batsman up to open for the sake of balance. Alarm bells were ringing in the away dressing room at Lord’s when Kent were trailing by 29 runs at the close of play on day one after winning the toss and electing to bat. An innings-break deficit of 109 looked a tough challenge to navigate on a wicket that had saw only two players score more than 40 across both sides.
Captain Daniel Bell-Drummond notched his 19th First Class century in style, going on to score 223 – passing 9,000 First Class runs in the process – and give the Canterbury-based side an unlikely shot at victory. Partners came and went, with Zak Crawley’s 68 the next highest contribution, but Bell-Drummond batted with the lower order and was the last wicket to fall as Kent posted 473, setting Middlesex 365 to win.
3. Ollie Price – Gloucestershire (253*) (1-54 & 0-32)
Ollie Price is one of the country’s brightest young batting talents, scoring over 2,500 runs since his Gloucestershire debut in the summer of 2021. His unbeaten 253 at Old Trafford was a career best for the 23-year-old who racked up his second century of the season, remaining at the crease for a staggering nine-and-a-half hours.
In response to Lancashire’s 450, Gloucestershire’s number three put on a 203-run stand with Miles Hammond to move the visitors within touching distance of avoiding the follow-on. As the lower order all got settled at the crease but departed before seriously impacting the scorers, Price stuck around, allowing the visitors to declare eight wickets down for 589.
4. Marcus Harris – Lancashire (167 & 24)
Marcus Harris spent two years at Gloucestershire in 2022 and 2023, but the Australia opener came back to haunt his former side in Manchester. Harris scored 167, acting as the backbone to strong partnerships with Josh Bohannon and Matty Hurst – with the latter combining for 212 runs.
The 32-year-old has scored 585 runs in a Lancashire shirt at an average of 83.5, the highest in Division Two and 258 more than the Red Rose’s second highest scorer, Bohannon. After last year’s disappointing campaign from 2024’s overseas signing Tom Bruce, Harris has provided an air of much-needed stability to a middle order that has a tendency to collapse quickly and dramatically.
5. James Rew (WK) – Somerset (9 & 116) (2 catches)
Arguably the performance of the week, James Rew steered Somerset home to chase down 321 on a wicket that was almost indistinguishable from the grass surrounding it. Facing an attack consisting of Jamie Porter, Simon Harmer and new England man Sam Cook, Rew batted beyond his years to move Somerset into a winning position. By the time the wicketkeeper was eventually dismissed, the men from Taunton required just nine runs with three wickets in hand.
Rew will undoubtedly play Test cricket in the future. In just 45 First Class matches, the 21-year-old has scored 10 centuries and eight half-centuries, averaging over 43 in Division One. For comparison, at the time of Joe Root’s England debut, the then 21-year-old Root had eight centuries from 37 matches at an average of 38. In a time of uncertainty regarding England’s batting lineup, it is not unreasonable to see Jamie Smith promoted up the order to accommodate Rew behind the stumps.
6. Graham Clark – Durham (160)
Durham’s draw at away at Hampshire was hardly the most thrilling of games, with the draw becoming almost a certainty halfway through the second day of play. The visitors were sitting precariously on 82-4 as Graham Clark walked to the crease, but the 32-year-old produced a gritty 160 to extinguish any scares of a lower order collapse.
Clark stayed at the Southampton crease for 309 deliveries, allowing the tail-end to add valuable runs to an already sizeable total. Durham were dismissed for 511, with Hampshire replying with 470. Durham’s openers Alex Lees and Emilio Gay steadily made their way to 61-0 before rain forced both sides to shake hands and call time on a bat-dominated draw.
7. Ben Kellaway – Glamorgan (22 & 74) (0-17 & 5-101)
Glamorgan’s Ben Kellaway is one of the County Championship’s most unique bowlers. The 21-year-old is an ambidextrous bowler who is able to bowl right-arm off-spin as well as left-arm orthodox. It was his right-arm that did the talking against Derbyshire, taking a crucial five-wicket haul in the fourth innings of the game to slow down the visitors’ charge to victory.
Kellaway already had two wickets to his name, but with Derbyshire needing 60 runs from 54 balls with five wickets in hand, the game was in the balance. Dangerman Martin Andersson top-edged a reverse sweep into the hands of wicketkeeper Chris Cooke, before Kellaway turned one through the gate of new batsman Zak Chappell with the very next ball. He would grab the wicket of Anuj Dal to claim career best bowling figures, but the visitors would bat out for a draw with a single wicket remaining.
8. Simon Harmer – Essex (3 & 4) (4-43 & 4-120)
On the previously mentioned Somerset wicket, Simon Harmer produced his usual magic to take eight wickets in the game. Despite Taunton often providing favourable wickets for quality spinners, many sides would have been forgiven for selecting an all-seam attack, but you can’t leave out Harmer.
The South Africa man prized the wickets of Tom Lammonby and Tom Abell in the first innings, reducing Somerset to 78-5. Coincidentally, the leg spinner would dismiss the duo again second time around – along with Tom Banton – to leave Somerset hanging by a thread on an identical 78-5. His magic would be put on hold by Rew’s spectacular salvation innings, but Harmer would continue to hold up an end, ticking along at just above three runs per over.
9. Ben Sanderson – Northamptonshire (18 & 32) (3-62 & 6-72)
Northamptonshire duo Ben Sanderson and Harry Conway bowled in tandem to take a combined 17 wickets in the game, but it is the former that sneaks into this team having taken nine wickets for 134 runs. After Patel’s earlier century had put Leicestershire in the driving seat at Grace Road, Sanderson came back with a vengeance in the second innings, dismissing all of the top five to reduce the hosts to 52-5.
Partner Conway would take over, handling the majority of the lower order after his own first-innings fifer, before Sanderson would finish off the assault with the wicket of number nine Ben Green. A top-order collapse of their own would follow Northants as Josh Hull clean bowled Ricardo Vasconcelos, Luke Procter and James Sales to leave the efforts of Sanderson and Conway in vain.
10. Toby Roland-Jones – Middlesex (24 & 23*) (5-33 & 3-107)
Middlesex stalwart Toby Roland-Jones rolled back the years to take an eight-wicket haul as his side secured a narrow victory over Kent at Lord’s. Roland-Jones – now 37-years-old – would take the wickets of five batsmen in the Kent middle order, quickly seeing them falter to 102-8, while Dane Paterson, Henry Brookes and Ryan Higgins cleaned up around him.
A handy 24 with the bat would turn out to prove more important than initially thought after Bell-Drummond’s mammoth knock to set up a close encounter. The Middlesex skipper would return with ball in hand to dismiss the dangerous Ben Compton and Jack Leaning, before he would partner Zafar Gohar at the crease to see his side over the line with bat in hand. The duo put on a 52-run stand while number 11 Paterson sat nervously in the pavilion as Middlesex move above Kent into third in Division Two.
11. Ethan Bamber – Warwickshire (0*) (5-47 & 4-60)
Ethan Bamber’s move from Middlesex to Warwickshire is possibly one of the most underrated moves over the county winter. 26-year-old Bamber was already considered a leader of the Middlesex attack, partnering with Roland-Jones to take the new ball. Bamber has taken 18 wickets at an average of 27.5 since his move up the M40.
In partnership with Ed Barnard, the duo made lightwork of Yorkshire’s top order, leaving them 32-3, before Bamber would come back to dismiss new England White Ball captain, Harry Brook. In the second innings, Bamber would get the wickets of Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root – with Root on 90 at the time. Add in the runout of James Wharton along with his nine-wicket haul, the Warwickshire seamer was easily man of the match as the Bears move up to second in the division.