Line and Length - Times Online - WBLG

New one-day sponsors

The ECB has announced today that Friends Provident is to be the new sponsor of what was once the C&G Trophy and has been simply called the ECB Trophy while the marketing men hunted for a new sugardaddy. The 50-over competition in England was won by Sussex last year but was roundly criticised for its format, with two leagues of nine and only one team from each league progressing to the final. This year there will be semi-finals, which should mean fewer meaningless games at the end of competition. Shame that the final is no longer of the August bank holiday weekend.

I'm rather concerned that the ECB felt the need to seek Paul Collingwood's view on this before issuing its press release. I know that some PR people think that no press release is complete without a bland quote from someone famous, and I'm sure that Collingwood wasn't up all night worrying about what to say, but surely there's a rather more important 50-over match that should be concerning the ECB and Collingwood in 15 or so hours' time.

A good day to bury bad news

While all eyes were on the Oval this afternoon, the ECB saw it as a good moment to slip out a press release about Dominic Cork receiving a one-match suspended ban and a £1,500 fine (plus £1,000 costs) for swearing at a doping officer after the C&G Trophy final last month. Line and Length sees it as its duty that this story should not go unremarked.

Cork, you will recall, had batted for an hour and a half at Lord's, making 35 not out, in a valiant attempt to resurrect Lancashire's chase of a small Sussex total. When the last Lancashire wicket fell, and Sussex had won by 15 runs, Cork was understandably a bit emotional and not all that interested in urinating into a bottle.

I don't know how impolitely Cork told the doping officer that he wouldn't undergo the test, or where he told him to put his bottle, but surely a bit of leniency could have been observed. Cork's action will have been done in private and will not have brought the game into disrepute (I wasn't even aware that there had been a row until today). The ECB disciplinary panel was upset that no one in the Lancashire dressing-room had tried to defuse the situation. Can you blame them?

Conference call

By DT

Congratulations to Lancashire and Sussex for reaching the final of the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy but not to the ECB for their new two 'conferences' that rendered so many games meaningless so early in the competition. The ECB have promised to look again at the widely-criticised format before next year but initial soundings suggest they will simply add semi-finals to the existing schedule. (By the way boys, when you divide 20 teams you create two divisions, not two conferences.)

A much better way might be to adopt a genuine conference system.

Now a reliable maxim in life is that if they do it in the USA avoid it like a second-pizza-for-half-price offer but on this one occasion our baseball-loving trailer park cousins may be onto something. How about four proper conferences of five teams each for the C&G next year, with each team playing the other four in their group once, but also playing a random four teams from the other conferences with the points gained from all eight matches counting, similar to the NFL system? The top two teams in each conference would go through to quarter-finals. Such a system would maintain the number of games each county played while eliminating many of the dead rubbers.

I ran this idea past Middlesex chief executive Vinny Codrington yesterday at Lord's and he thought it had legs, so did Ed Smith, who also suggested swapping the C&G with the Pro40 in the calender and playing the shorter games, with their later starts, in April and May, thus taking damp pitches out of the equation. Any better thoughts out there?

C&G action

Yes most of these games are pointless now that Sussex have qualified from the South Conference and Durham and Lancashire are the only teams contesting the North Conference, but there is nothing like playing only for pride to bring out the best in cricketers. Certainly the incentive of ending their losing streak was enough for Northamptonshire to maintain their focus as they denied Derbyshire by one run. Steve Stubbings had hit 110 to take Derbyshire to the cusp of victory but when he was run out in the last over, Northants held on to win.

James Benning's 189 not out was also in vain as Surrey came within two runs of overhauling Gloucestershire's 339 for eight, which was boosted by Ian Harvey's 108 and a 26-ball innings of 63 by David Brown.

Durham did not have the hardest task in keeping alive their hopes of winning the North. They bowled Scotland out for 161 and then won a rain-reduced chase to 99 with seven balls remaining. They must now beat Derbyshire in their final game and hope Lancashire don't beat Warwickshire.

Warwickshire are still reeling from a heavy defeat to Nottinghamshire, however. They were bowled out for 186 and then Anurag Singh made 78 not out to secure the win.

Mark Pettini made 80 and James Foster 49 not out as Essex overhauled Kent's 281 with almost four overs to spare. Middlesex won a close game against Somerset by three runs, with Eoin Morgan's unbeaten 50 and Chris Peploe's four wickets proving crucial.

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.

Bank Holiday C&G action

Yesterday's C&G Trophy matches contained few shocks, apart from Michael Vaughan completing a full match for Yorkshire, as his side beat Scotland by six wickets. The idiocy of only one team from each of the new ten-team conferences qualifying for the play-offs is becoming more apparent as more games become meaningless.

That did not stop Surrey and Glamorgan from conjuring a gripping game yesterday in the only match that did not require the services of Mr Duckworth and Mr Lewis. Both sides dominated with the ball as Surrey recovered from 37 for five and 117 for seven to post 200, a target that was 68 runs too high for the Welshmen, who also reached 117 but did not have an Azhar Mahmood to steer the tail home.

Derbyshire won a rain-affected match against Worcestershire by seven wickets, Michael Di Venuto making an unbeaten 93.

Hampshire beat Gloucestershire by 62 runs, James Bruce taking four for 18.

Durham beat Leicestershire by three wickets with 14 balls to spare.

Lancashire saw the chasing pack catch them up in the North Conference after their match with Nottinghamshire was abandoned after 21 overs.

Warwickshire beat Northamptonshire by 36 runs in an odd game that was curtailed dramatically by rain and would have been abandoned if the showers had come five minutes earlier.

Kent made 194 for four in 23 overs then pinned Ireland back to 16 for five on the way to an easy win.

Robin Martin-Jenkins and Luke Wright had an unbroken stand of 57 as Sussex continued their unbeaten season with victory over Somerset.

Marvellous Murray

Murray Goodwin judged his innings to perfection, hitting 158 off 151 balls, as Sussex chased down Essex's target of 297 with an over to spare. Ronnie Irani earlier made an unbeaten 132 and Andre Adams took three wickets for Essex but the county's lack of bowling depth was critical. The Times is supposed to be unbiased in all sporting events, but this Essex boy must be permitted a brief "grrrr" as Sussex leapfrog Essex at the top of the South Division.

Lancashire stay at the top of the North Division despite losing to Yorkshire in another high-scoring run chase. Mal Loye's 95 out of 287 was outdone by contributions from all of Yorkshire's batsmen as they won with eight balls to spare.

Derbyshire could have overtaken Lancashire but they lost meekly to Scotland. A total of 180 was chased down for the loss of just two wickets, Ryan Watson making 108.

Worcestershire beat Northamptonshire by 50 runs, Phil Jaques making 112 for the home side and only Lance Klusener (85 not out) having any response.

Middlesex had no difficulty in beating Ireland at Lord's. Chad Keegan took four wickets to bowl the visiting side out for 184 before Ed Joyce and Ed Smith made a first-wicket stand of 181.

Gloucestershire beat Glamorgan by five wickets, chasing down 169 in a match shortened to 36 overs.

Flowering of Scotland

They may have gone for two little known Australians as their overseas players rather than established international stars as Ireland have done, but Scotland's gamble on signing Corey Richards and Ian Moran is paying off with a second successive win in the C&G Trophy.

Richards made 73 and Moran took five for 28 as Scotland beat Northamptonshire to add another first-class scalp to go with their win over Worcestershire earlier in the month. But could the inclusion of the pair actually harm Scotland's chances in the World Cup? Obviously neither will be able to play in the West Indies and by taking the place of two Scotsmen who would be in the international side, Richards and Moran could be doing more harm than good.

Take Richards´s 88 and 73 away from the last two games, and Moran´s six wickets and 53 runs for once out, and Scotland´s resources look bare. Playing two Scots in their place would make it less likely that they would win any games against the counties but it would give a full XI vital practice against good opposition. Then again, perhaps the good publicity from winning these games will help to ingnite passion in the next generation of Scotland players.

C&G round-up

A quick run through yesterday's C&G Trophy results:

Mal Loye hit a career-best 127 as Lancashire set a target of 308 that was 125 runs too high for Durham.

Derbyshire beat Warwickshire by nine runs thanks to five wickets for Steffan Jones.

Yorkshire won a high-scoring match at Northampton by two runs. Having set the home side 342 to win, Yorkshire were almost denied by David Sales's 161.

Leicestershire lost six wickets in the first 14 overs to scupper any chance of chasing Worcestershire's 191 for eight.

Kent beat Hampshire off the last ball of their match at Southampton. Matthew Walker scored all 12 of the runs needed off the final over.

Ravi Bopara's hundred helped Essex to chase down Somerset's 188.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan continued his fine form by taking five Glamorgan wickets for five runs as Sussex won by 97 runs.

Surrey's match against Ireland was abandoned when only 15 overs could be bowled.

C&G Trophy round-up

Northamptonshire stay rooted to the bottom of the North Conference after an eight-wicket loss to Lancashire. The crowd at Wantage Road were denied a sight of Andrew Flintoff batting, although the England captain took three for 30 to limit the home side to 172. Brad Hodge and Stuart Law saw Lancashire home safely.

Middlesex won their first game in any competition this year, beating Hampshire by 13 runs. Kevin Pietersen (43) and Michael Carberry (52) led the Hampshire charge towards 255, set by Middlesex thanks to Ed Smith's 88, but they fell just short.

Essex made light work of Ireland at Chelmsford. Alastair Cook showed his one-day credentials with 91 not out as Ireland failed to defend 192.

Marcus Trescothick was rested but that didn't stop Somerset from beating Surrey by 26 runs. Matthew Wood's 92 and Arul Suppiah's 63 set up a target of 280 and Suppiah then took four for 39 to ensure victory.

Derbyshire continued their fine form with a five-wicket win over Leicestershire. In a rain-affected match, Chris Taylor's 66 not out proved crucial.

Scotland won their first victory of the year, beating Worcestershire by eight wickets.

Durham took advantage of rain to set a target of 225 off 36 overs that was 67 runs too steep for Warwickshire.