Cricket: Final day washed out

(First Edition)

Nottinghamshire. . . . . . . . . .350 for 7 dec

Middlesex. . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 for 0

Match drawn

RAIN washed away the possibility that Nottinghamshire or Middlesex might pip Leicestershire for the runners-up cheque, from the Britannic Assurance pool, forcing the final day here to go the way of the first - abandoned without a ball bowled.

With only 132 overs possible in between, the chances of either side gaining the necessary win had been poor and they had probably settled for finishing respectively third and fourth when yesterday's watery sky was first glimpsed.

There was more satisfaction for Nottinghamshire, who improved four places on last summer, than for the vanquished champions, Middlesex. Indeed, the Midlands team, emerging from another winter of turmoil, exceeded expectations.

'We might have done better still with a bit more consistency,' Tim Robinson, their captain, said. 'But if you had said in April that we would finish third I would have been well pleased.'