County cricket talking points: Surrey go 25 points clear in Division One

Surrey are not quite over the horizon, but the champions of 2022 look set to keep the pennant for another year. If their healthy lead at the top of Division One were the reward for sustained excellence, such dominance might be shrugged off as one of those things that can happen when a team comes together but, against Kent, excellence was not required to win the match convincingly.

The specialist batters were poor on both sides, few willing to deal with a ball that swung then nibbled a little off the pitch – the odd one bounced too. Sure the bowling was good, Tom Lawes in his 10th first-class match and Arafat Bhuiyan, six years older than the Surrey man but on debut, both finding the full-length delivery that would induce the booming drive or ineffectual prod. Too often, batters’ heads would be inside or outside the line of the ball, leaving them guessing and off-balance – one wondered what they had done all winter in the nets. The three completed innings saw the scoreboard show 105 for six, 18 for six and 83 for six before the bowlers showed their so-called betters how to play.

It looks like it’s going to be a long season for rock-bottom Northamptonshire, so the last thing they needed was a trip to the Ageas Bowl to face a Hampshire side with plenty to prove after a disappointing run of one win in four. James Vince led his side’s batting again with 95, but the visitors were dismissed twice inside 100 overs, the first time round for a dispiriting 56, with only Saif Zaib presenting much resistance in either innings.

Such is the gulf between the upper and lower echelons of Division One that the split of 10 clubs in the top flight and eight in the second tier appears somewhat perverse. Surely it would be better for everyone,