Cork's efforts to no avail as Northamptonshire win again

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Northamptonshire, the Championship leaders, earned themselves a couple of days off as yet another match, this time at Derby, failed to go the allocated four days. Their four-wicket victory against Derbyshire means Allan Lamb's team have now won five of their first six Championship games - their best start since 1912. Lamb, however, failed to appreciate the pitch. "It was a below average four-day wicket. There was too much movement," he said.

After bowling Derbyshire out for 139, they reached their target despite another four wickets from Dominic Cork. He followed his unbroken spell of 22 overs and 9 for 43 on Thursday with another 20.3 consecutive overs yesterday that brought him four more wickets.

It was a familiar tale for Durham at Chelmsford with their batsmen struggling but Darren Blenkiron's 94, that included 15 boundaries off just 99 balls helped them avoid the follow-on.

None of his team-mates scored 25 but Durham reached 246 for 9 after earlier dismissing Essex for 373. The two remaining Essex wickets yesterday morning were taken by Alan Walker to give him career-best figures of 8 for 118.

Tom Moody blasted an unbeaten 132 and Philip Weston hit 105 to take Worcestershire, bottom of the table, within 22 runs of Nottinghamshire's 301 with only three wickets down at Trent Bridge.