Snow and sleet play havoc with county fixtures

There is winter weather at The Oval, Chester-le-Street and Edgbaston

The scene at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday (getty)

Atrocious weather around the country wreaked havoc with the County Championship matches on Tuesday - snow stopped play at The Oval for heaven's sake - leaving the majority of fixtures heading for draws. To go with the snow storm in south London, there was sleet at Edgbaston and more snow and rain at Durham.

One man who shone between the showers was Varun Chopra, who made a lovely century in the bitterly cold match between Warwickshire and First Division champions Yorkshire at Edgbaston. Chopra was unbeaten on 101 out of his team's 205 for 2, in reply to 379 all out, when rain returned again just after tea on the third day to ruin most of the last session.

Lunch was taken early when sleet swept in on a biting wind that forced the fielding players to take cover under woolly hats. Either side of that Ian Bell made a neat 59 before he edged Adil Rashid to Adam Lyth at slip. Another former England middle-order man Jonathan Trott was unbeaten on 38 when play was abandoned for the day.

There was no play possible at Chester-le-Street in the match between Durham and Middlesex much to Ben Stokes' irritation. "Still can't get over the fact that it's April and we had a full day abandoned thanks to snow," the England all-rounder said.

The indefatigable Marcus Trescothick hit his 59th first-class century as Somerset were all out for 353 at a soggy Oval, the visitors trailing Surrey by 110 after first innings.

The team most likely to get a result are Essex in the Second Divsion after they forced Northamptonshire to follow on after they bowled them out for 119 with 22-year-old quick bowler Jamie Porter taking 5 for 46.