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

Nottinghamshire 169 Lancashire 48-1

England seamer James Anderson came through an injury scare with nothing more than bruising to his right thumb after returning to county action at Old Trafford this morning.

Police are appealing for information after a woman and her father were found with gunshot wounds in a house nearly two weeks after her mother's body was recovered from a river.

Police hunting the killers of a teenager gunned down outside a pub have arrested two more people in connection with his death.

Worcestershire are set to go on flood watch after the abandonment of their match with Nottinghamshire at rain-battered New Road yesterday.

Nottinghamshire 243 & 88-2 Worcestershire 157 (Nottinghamshire lead by 174 runs)

Somerset batsman Nick Compton has been rewarded for his prolific form in a so-far bowler-friendly season with a place in a 12-man England Lions squad to play West Indies at Northampton from 10 May.

A former leader of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers has been jailed for four years for stealing almost £150,000 from a charity which cared for elderly miners.

After Andrew Strauss's frustration at Lord's last week, Ian Bell's bid to find form in the County Championship ran into trouble against Sussex yesterday. Bell made a seven-ball duck, in complete contrast to his Warwickshire and England team-mate Jonathan Trott.

England's Lee Westwood successfully defended his Indonesian Masters title after completing 32 holes yesterday at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club.

It is all very well being sent to the shires to make some runs, but when the month you have been given to rebuild your claim to an England place is April you might argue that the playing field is not exactly level.