The small fourth day crowd witnessed some bizarre scenes after tea as the entire Middlesex XI plus coach John Emburey turned their hands to assisting the ground staff in order to enable their CricInfo Championship match against Notts to re-start after a downpour.

A heavy thunderstorm had halted play with Notts on 193-8, still 20 runs short of making their opponents bat again. Needing just two more wickets to cement their lead at the top of Division Two the Middlesex players helped drag covers off the playing surface and generally assist with the entire mopping up operation.

Once the umpires were satisfied with their efforts play re-started just before 5pm with a minimum of 19.3 overs left to be bowled. But only three of those overs could be delivered before yet another shower dashed the Middlesex hopes.

At the interruption Notts were on 202—8 but, somewhat incredibly, play once again resumed. Two Read boundaries off Fraser helped Notts sail past the 213 needed to make Middlesex bat again as finally the umpires called it off. Read had batted heroically to end undefeated on 76 and Harris finished on 14. Tim Bloomfield was the pick of the Middlesex bowlers with figures of 5-58

Beginning the day on 93-3 Notts last three wickets inside just five overs. Bilal Shafayat and Darren Bicknell both fell to Tim Bloomfield and Paul Johnson was caught at forward short leg off Phil Tufnell for 0.

David Lucas scored 11, sharing in a stand of 38 with Read but when he and Richard Logan fell hopes of saving the match seemed to have been extinguished.

Read went on the offensive and reached his third half-century of the season in just 69 balls. With Harris as support tea was reached on 187—8. Nine deliveries were possible after the resumption before the showers came but despite the efforts of the Middlesex players there was no longer enough time for them to force a win.

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