Ryan McLaren played a valuable part in keeping Hampshire alive when they battled through to a total of 453 to counter Yorkshire’s 593 in the latest County Cricket round.

In a surreal chapter in the County Championship, 6 872 were accumulated by the six teams in action over the four days. There were three double hundreds and 11 centuries. One of those doubles was from Jonathan Trott, whose 219 went some way to countering Sam Robson’s 230 in the Warwickshire-Middlesex draw.

McLaren was called on to help Hampshire avoid the follow-on, which could have made things awkward, and he responded with an unbeaten 55.

Hampshire declared 140 runs behind and McLaren took 2-26 off 10 as Yorkshire stumbled to 183-8 by the close.

Wayne Madsen was among the hundreds as Derbyshire drew with Gloucestershire. Madsen scored 150 in Derby’s 444, to which Gloucestershire replied with 563. Just five of those came from their Durban-born captain Gareth Roderick.

Lancashire’s eight-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire belonged to the Saffa-turned-Kiwi Neil Wagner who took 11-111 over the two innings. Alviro Petersen also played a strong role, one of the mainstay of Lancs’ first innings of 332 with a 48, and seeing out the match with an unbeaten 31. Riki Wessels had a lean time in the Notts batting line-up, scoring 27 and 16.

Jacques Rudolph had a similarly torrid time as his Glamorgan outfit went down to Leicestershire by 10 wickets. He contributed 6 and 39, while Chris Cooke (56 and 8) and Craig Meschede (44 and 1) lacked the consistency to stop the rot.

Compiled by Mark Salter

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