County cricket: Hampshire start last dance as Middlesex get ducks in row

The first week of April is hardly the ideal time to play cricket, but not because the ball seams around unplayably on greentops or because spinners cannot get into the game, fingers frozen as if by Captain Birdseye. Every year, one hears this kind of stuff and every year the evidence shows otherwise. Nine Championship matches produced 13 innings over 300 (including four of 400+ and two of 500+), 19 batters posting centuries and four spinners (all Test players) taking four wickets or more in an innings.

It’s great to see the Championship increasing its presence in high summer, but not because the sport is a lottery in April. Cricket is a more pleasant experience on and off the field in June and July, but it’s also good for the game (in England especially) to present players with different conditions and invite captains to vary tactics to get a result. They are all professionals – including the groundstaff – and most can do a job when required to do so. They are doing it in April, so let’s embrace it.

Hampshire posted the first win of the season, a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Nottinghamshire, who could only muster one stand over 50 against James Vince’s battery of experienced bowlers.

Having come close in recent years, is this the last chance for Keith Barker (36 years old), Kyle Abbott (35) and Mohammad Abbas (33) to deliver the title to the south coast for the first time in 50 summers? Sixteen wickets from three of the wiliest operators on the circuit suggests their powers are undiminished for now, but will ice baths, pilates and the healing hands of a physio keep them on the field for the next six months? We will find out.

Middlesex’s batters were welcomed back to Division One by Jamie Porter and Sam Cook, who