Leicestershire's hopes of taking over at the top of Division One of the Frizzell County Championship suffered a mauling as Somerset dominated the second day of their fixture at Taunton. Somerset reached 565, with Keith Dutch top scorer on the day with 77. Then, despite an innings of 73 from Iain Sutcliffe, the Somerset bowlers gnawed away to take seven wickets before the close, by which time the Leicestershire total had reached 241 with the deficit still 324.

An innings of 149 not out from Stuart Law was enough to help Lancashire avoid the follow-on against Sussex at Old Trafford. Law had company from Alec Swann (51) in a third wicket partnership worth 132, and has put on 58 with Gary Keedy for the tenth wicket so far. This was after Jason Lewry had taken wickets with the second and third balls of the innings. The left-armer finished the day with five for 63. Earlier, Chris Adams was the last man out for Sussex with an innings of 217 out of 423.

Another double-centurion was Warwickshire's Nick Knight who was 255 not out at the end of a record-breaking tenth wicket partnership with Alan Richardson at Edgbaston. The pair put on 214 before Richardson, whose previous best had been 17 not out, was stumped for 91. Hampshire's reply was somewhat tortuous, reaching 89 for three by stumps from 45 overs. They trail by 383.

After David Fulton, who made71, and Robert Key with 114 had extended their opening partnership for Kent to 198 at Canterbury, the Yorkshire bowlers began to get some reward for their efforts, but at a price. While no other batsman reached 50, Andrew Symonds contributed 48 as Kent reached 418 despite four wickets for Chris Silverwood. Yorkshire faced a deficit of 179 and lost two early wickets before reaching stumps with the total on 22, still 157 behind.

In Division Two, Michael Powell was left on 62 not out as Glamorgan took a first innings lead of 43 against Durham. Durham had lost four wickets before that deficit had been cleared, but Paul Collingwood made 99 and Gordon Muchall 77 in the second innings as Durham reached 239 for nine to lead Glamorgan by 196.

Gloucestershire took a more than handy 150-run first innings lead against Nottinghamshire at Bristol. Craig Spearman, who was 99 not out overnight, went on to 118, Matt Windows to 53, and there were useful forties from James Averis and Ian Fisher down the order. There were four wickets for Nadeem Malik. In reply, Nottinghamshire struggled to 108 for 5, still 42 runs behind despite 68 from Guy Welton who was out to the last ball of the day.

At Northampton, Paul Weekes went on to 107 and David Nash to 55 as Middlesex reached 541 all out. In reply, Mike Hussey and Andy Rollins gave Northamptonshire a solid start by putting on 167 for the first wicket. Then Hussey went for 84 to Simon Cook who took two more quick wickets and, with Ashley Noffke taking another, Northamptonshire closed on 202 for four. They trail by 339 but Rollins is still there with 69.

Aftab Habib finished the day on 96 not out as the Essex batsmen promised to take their side into a strong position against Worcestershire at New Road. At the close they were 51 runs behind the home team's first innings total, but with six wickets in hand. Ronnie Irani is 46 not out and earlier there had been contributions of 71 from Darren Robinson and 45 from Andy Flower

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