DEVON Malcolm's inspired start to the season, which he hopes will lead to a Test recall this weekend, has also earned him the first £500 monthly bowling award in the Whyte & Mackay rankings.

Malcolm has already taken 34 first-class wickets for Derbyshire, 30 of them in the County Championship, and the encouraging news for England is that Robert Croft and Darren Gough, both near certainties for the first Test at Edgbaston next week, are second and third. Yet another contender, Gloucestershire left-armer Mike Smith, is a close-up fourth.

Richard Harden has been outstandingly consistent for Somerset in both championship and one-day cricket and his innings of 85 in the AXA Life League match against Yorkshire on Sunday enabled him to claim the batting award for April/May.

Bill Athey, responding superbly to the challenge as mainstay of the new-look Sussex batting line-up, has amassed most batting points in the championship and he weighed in with a match-winning century as Sussex broke their duck in the Sunday League with a surprise victory over Kent last weekend.

Athey is equal second with Hugh Morris, with the other half of Glamorgan's prolific opening pair, Steve James, fourth - even before the double-century stand against Durham yesterday.

BATTING

1, R J Harden (Somerset) 142pts

2=, C W J Athey (Sussex) 138

2=, H Morris (Glamorgan) 138

4, S P James (Glamorgan) 132

5, G P Thorpe (Surrey) 130

6, D L Maddy (Leicestershire) 126

7=, C J Adams (Derbyshire) 120

7=, P Johnson (Nottinghamshire) 120

9, M R Ramprakash (Middlesex) 116

10, R C Russell (Gloucestershire) 114

BOWLING

1, D E Malcolm (Derbyshire) 163

2, R D B Croft (Glamorgan) 154

3, D Gough (Yorkshire) 150

4, A M Smith (Gloucestershire) 148

5=, P A J DeFreitas (Derbyshire) 141

5=, M J McCague (Kent) 141

7=, P J Newport (Worcestershire) 133

7=, A R Caddick (Somerset) 133

9, D J Millns (Leicestershire) 132

10, K P Evans (Nottinghamshire) 127

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