While little else favours West Indies in the second Test tomorrow, history is solidly in their camp. The tourists have never lost a first-class match at Trent Bridge.

Lancashire survived a late onslaught from Graham Napier to secure a 28-run win over Essex in Group A of the Clydesdale Bank 40 yesterday.

Warwickshire 557-6 dec Lancashire 197 & 122-3

A Labour MP's wife has spoken of her shock after being sent a dead bird in the post. Newly-elected councillor Jo White, the wife of Nottinghamshire MP John Mann, discovered the decomposing bird at their home earlier this week.

A Labour MP's wife has spoken of her shock after being sent a dead bird in the post.

Two men have been arrested after a car which sped away from a police patrol smashed into a house.

Yorkshire batsman gets nod ahead of Taylor to make debut in the first Test against West Indies

Nottinghamshire 423 & 174-7 Middlesex 300-9 & 87-0 (Match drawn)

Durham, who began the season among the favourites for the Championship, continued their troubled start by being bowled out for 125 by an injury-hit Somerset side containing five players aged 20 or under yesterday.

Petrol stations are not known for fuelling aesthetic enlightenment (think more financial ruin, as we watch our money flow away in a blur of digits) but there was a time when filling up required a sophisticated setting.

Stuart Broad emerged unscathed from his first match since a calf injury curtailed his involvement in the Test series in Sri Lanka but is likely to be given another opportunity to bowl himself into form ahead of the opening Test against West Indies on Thursday week.

David Cameron's dream of elected mayors in all major cities looked to be in tatters today.