Bob Willis Trophy: Worcester v Somerset and more – live!

Another lbw shout, a half-appeal almost, this time against Haynes, who crawls off the pitch, the most disappointed man in showbiz. Somerset need six wickets , Worcestershire 149. Last time I sat in this press box it was Septembe 2018, when Worcestershire gave Surrey a run for their money in a championship game, back when they were in division one and Surrey were about to be crowned county champions.

A philosophical question lands. “Please help me make a pivotal life decision,” writes Finbar Anslow, “head for a river picnic and a possible last swim of the season, or watch my beloved Somerset combatting Worcs resistance armed with light meters. A live stream link could make the difference.” This is what you are after. Though as I sit here with my hood up on my fleece, don’t dismiss thoughts of that last swim. It is going to be a long winter.

Worcester having a real go at this, and it is not easy batting out there. Should you be in the New Road area, the restaurant of the Premier Inn has a lovely view over the ground…

Around the grounds:

At Aigburth, Lancashire have declared after Danny Lamb collected his maiden first-class fifty. Derbyshire, hopes resurrected, maybe, by a kiss of life from the ECB’s technical committee, need to score 381 at 4.7 an over to win and be in with a chance of the final.

At The Oval, Sussex limped to 128, a career-best 6-70 for Dan Moriarty. Surrey need 156 for their first Bob win of the season. Their first non-Bob-defeat of the season, to be fair.

Glamorgan must gather a dreamlike 301 to beat Warwickshire (30-0); it is nearly over and out at Headingley where Leicestershire have only three wickets left and are still in arrears. Durham (158-2) are batting rather nicely at Trent Bridge to hold off Nottinghamshire’s first win for two years.

And there’s just been a wicket here at New Road, where the wind has picked up and Craig Overton is serving up impossible bouncers. Fell played across the line for 20, Worcs 76 for 3.

The boot studs echo down the pavilion steps and they’re back on – four overs have been lost from the day. Worcestershire 67 for 2.

The cathedral bell tolls eleven as the covers come off at New Road. The umpires pull on their coats and the stumps go in though, to be honest, it looks just as dark as it was when they went off.

They’re taking a reading for bad light…. and, after 21 minute’s play, off they come. Hmmmm, that’s thrown a match into the technical committee pyre. The covers are coming on and it really is dark.

A huge lbw shout against Fell from Overton, turned down in the gloom. We reckon the umpires might have been leaned on to takes their eyes off their light-meters. Worcestershire 67-2.

A lovely drive from Haynes brings the first boundary of the day to rapturous applause from the Worcestershire players on the outside seats of the Graeme Hick pavilion. It is overcast and facing Craig Overton, ten foot tall in his flip flops, from the Diglis end is a terrifying prospect.

Ok, so… having chatted to the BBCs Kevin Howells and the rest of the Worcestershire press box:

If Somerset win, Somerset go through with Essex, unless Derbyshire can somehow beat Lancashire with a high run rate.

If Worcestershire win, and Derbyshire win, then three teams finish on 90 points. Then we have to wait for the ECB’s technical committee to meet and ruminate on whether the Covid game was “complete”. The tie breaker will then be wickets taken (“complete”) or net run rate (incomplete).

Good morning everyone and welcome to the final day of the Bob Willis Trophy group stages. For all but two counties, this is it, the end of the first-class season. We’re almost a hundred per cent sure that one of those two counties is Essex – subject to an ECB ruling at the end of the round on whether the Covid-related abandoned game at Bristol was “complete”. If not, the tie-breaker reverts to net run rate, though that only matters in the unlikely case that Derbyshire beat Lancashire. Got that? Good.

I’m currently on my way to New Road where the Championship’s most romantic sides clash swords for the other place in the final. Somerset will have slept easiest – for Worcester to win, they will have to canter to the biggest total made against Somerset this summer, and when bad light stopped play they needed another 187, with eight wickets in hand. The dream, though, is still alive.

As the green-seated train meanders through middle England, the countryside is on the turn. Leaves crinkle at the edges, trackside buddleias brown at the tips; it is the end of the party, the last few stragglers about to leave. The Bob has been great, better than we could have dreamed of in the strange unreality of May. Don’t blow out the candles just yet.

Yesterday’s news,

and the highlight from England’s T20 thrash against Australia last night. Take a bow, Adil Rashid.