By Charles Randall at Northampton
First day of four: Warwicks (17-1) trail Northants (319) by 302 runs
ONE can imagine Desmond Haynes arriving at Northampton next Tuesday as the county's new batting coach in an emergency vehicle with blue flashing light, because some sort of rapid action seems overdue.
Northamptonshire, second to bottom in the County Championship, have tried seven opening partnerships unsuccessfully, a phalanx of batsmen have been failing regularly and Tony Penberthy's second hundred of the season yesterday served only to emphasise the problem.
Penberthy was promoted from the middle order to open in a championship game for the first time, and the left-hander looked thoroughly at home during his career-best 128, an innings marred only by two let-offs in the slips from Brian Lara with his hundred safely in the bag.
Until July, Northamptonshire had the small satisfaction of not losing a match, but since then there have been three defeats and a pause for quiet introspection broken only by the sound of Mal Loye crashing the ball to all quarters.
Yesterday's first-wicket pairing went the way of all others when Rob Bailey nibbled fatally in the second over and Loye was surprised by some extra bounce as Dougie Brown exploited some sheen on a close-shaved strip to hustle the new ball through.
Brown, back after breaking the middle finger of his right hand a month ago, took four early wickets, but Warwickshire possibly went into this match a bowler light. Ed Giddins and Tim Munton bent their backs without luck, and pressure on a vulnerable Northamptonshire side eased.
Neil Smith and Mark Wagh, both off-spinners, were called into the attack before lunch, and batting began to look a simple process while Penberthy and the admirable David Ripley built a steady partnership of 195 for the fifth wicket.
Penberthy gloried in his driving on both sides of the wicket, earning most of his 18 fours that way over a glassy outfield, though he brought up the second hundred of his 10-year career with an all-run four to Smith, chasing to extra cover.
Ripley, one of the few consistent run-scorers this summer, worked the ball away confidently for almost 3.5 hours before he followed an outswinger from Munton. Warwickshire then took a grip through Smith and Giddins, which was loosened briefly by two sixes each from Penberthy and Graeme Swann and capped by a huge drive from Devon Malcolm that tested the glass of the £1.7 million cricket school.
order colleagues cashed in against a wobbling home attack, which lost Graeme Swann with back trouble and Devon Malcolm with stitches in split finger-webbing.
Lara flayed 18 fours and five sixes, mostly with the crispness reminiscent of his 197 at Wantage Road in 1994.
Brown eventually repaired his bloodied analysis by dismissing Lara and Anurag Singh - the Cambridge Blue holed out after reaching his highest Warwickshire score - in the same over.
Further mauling came from Neil Smith, though wickets fell quickly enough to keep Northamptonshire in the match, by their fingertips. Paul Taylor made early inroads and he might have held a drilled return catch from Lara, when 18, on a luckier day.
David Hemp, dwelling uninspired for two hours, survived an early slip chance off Taylor to Mal Loye and gained five runs when the ball ricocheted against the parked fielding helmet.
A far more serious error was to follow, as Loye seemed unsighted when he dropped Lara similarly off Malcolm when his score was 71, less than halfway through his punishing reign.
South Africa pace bowler Allan Donald, 31, is set to commit himself to Warwickshire for the next two seasons by signing a one-year contract for next summer.
Day 3:Warwicks survive comedy of errors
By Charles Randall at Northampton
Third day of four: Warwicks (413 & 122-6) bt Northants (319 & 214) by 4 wkts
THIS contest was settled with a day to spare in a weird evening confrontation at Wantage Road yesterday when Warwickshire, with two injured batsmen, shipped wickets and achieved a run-rate of around seven an over in pursuit of a relatively modest winning total.
The bare knuckle atmosphere of the final two hours, occasionally comical and always exciting, could have made a mockery of some top-drawer seam bowling by Tim Munton, whose five wickets pointed Warwickshire to a seemingly straightforward path to maximum points.
Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the ECB, and David Graveney, chairman of England's selectors, visiting the new cricket school, had disappeared by the time the tempo stepped up several gears in the middle with meaty boundaries, slices, frequent edges, suicidal runs, misfields and desperate appeals.
Northamptonshire, barely alive after their mauling by Brian Lara's hundred the previous day, at least succeeded in hassling their opponents amid gloom and brightness that alternated like a strobe light with each passing cloud.
An idea of the surreal atmosphere could be gained from an over costing 18 from the admirable left-arm seamer Paul Taylor. Two balls were bowled to the left-hander David Hemp with only one fielder, long-leg, on the leg side, accounting for seven of the runs.
Warwickshire lost three batsmen early, including Keith Piper, who retired after having his hand bruised by David Follett. Their batting order had already needed adjusting after the injury to Michael Powell, who was injured earlier in the day.
Hemp's unexpectedly rapid 31 seemed to encourage a gung-ho approach, which Lara discouraged by playing and missing regularly before missing one from Taylor that kept low.