C&G action

At this stage of the C&G Trophy group phase, most of the games are sadly irrelevant under the new "only one team out of ten makes play-offs" rule, and this meant that there were some one-sided games this afternoon.

Lancashire maintained their lead of the North Conference with a nine-wicket win over Derbyshire Dominic Cork too four for 32 as Derbyshire, his former county, were bowled out for 193 and Mal Loye hit an unbeaten 120 as Lancashire won with six and a half overs to spare.

Andy Flower made 71 not out to steer Essex home by five wickets against Gloucestershire, who made 217. In a higher scoring game, Kent's 332 for two (Dexter 135, Hall 100) was 41 runs too many for Glamorgan.

Ireland recovered from 10 for three to make 216 against Sussex, but Richard Montgomerie's unbeaten 108 took them home with 13 overs in hand. Twin seventies from Owais Shah and Ben Scott helped Middlesex to 257 and only Ali Brown, with 57 not out, showed the heart for the chase in the Surrey team as they lost by 108 runs.

Jimmy Maher's 109 was outshone by Chris Read's 135, but the Notts wicketkeeper's effort was in vain as his side fell 28 runs short of Durham's 280. Worcestershire (Stephen Moore 80, Vikram Solanki 60) beat Warwickshire by 58 runs.