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This is a list of characters in the [[comic strip]] [[Garfield]], as well as the [[animated cartoon]] series ''[[Garfield and Friends]]''.
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== Primary characters ==
===Garfield===
{{main|Garfield (character)}}
[[Image:Garfield.JPG|130px|thumb|right|Garfield]] '''Garfield''' is the main central character in the [[Jim Davis]] [[comic strip]] ''[[Garfield]]''. He is a [[lazy]], [[selfish]], [[overweight]], [[orange (colour)|orange]] [[tabby cat]] who enjoys eating, sleeping, stealing Jon's dinner, and tormenting Odie by kicking him off the table. He loves [[lasagna]] and enjoys entertaining (or annoying) an unseen neighboring audience on top of a fence in the middle of the night (and gets bombarded by various objects by the agitated audience for it). He hates [[spider]]s, and often splats them until they are as flat as a pancake with a rolled up newspaper. His first appearance was June 19, 1978. His first TV appearance was on [[Here Comes Garfield]]. His last was on the [[Garfield and Friends]] episode, [[The Ocean Blue]].
{{-}}
===Jon Arbuckle===
In the [[2005 English cricket season]], the Second Division of the [[Frizzell County Championship]] was contested between the following county [[cricket]] teams:
[[Image:JonArbuckle.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Jon Arbuckle]]
Jon is the owner of Garfield and Odie, a total [[nerd]], and a clumsy [[individual]]. He is the primary [[fodder]] and conversation partner to Garfield and is often the butt of his jokes. He makes his living as a cartoonist. This reference has not been seen in the comic strip since its early days, but the animated show Garfield and Friends does show him several times in his job as a [[cartoonist]]. Jon manages to make enough money to keep Garfield well fed — no easy feat. Often, Jon, as well as Garfield, gets bored, and comes up with "fun" ways to cure boredom (such as buying new [[socks]], clipping his [[toenails]], or playing "Guess the [[Burp]]" with Garfield). His full name has been revealed as Jonathan Q. Arbuckle (the "Q" might stand for "[[Quack]]") in a [[Christmas]] strip. He is played by [[Breckin Meyer]] in the [[Garfield film]]s. His first television appearance was on [[Here Comes Garfield]]. Hist last was on [[The Ocean Blue]].
===Odie===
* [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] (finished 8th in the 2004 season)
{{main|Odie}}
* [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] (finished 9th in the 2004 season)
[[Image:Garfield character Odie.png|thumb|right|Odie.]]
* [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] (finished 5th in the 2004 season)
He is a lovable but intellectually challenged yellow-furred, brown-eared [[beagle]] constantly panting with his very large tongue, and the only character without a "voice" as he was portrayed as a "normal" house dog. However, he was once shown to be thinking "I'm hungry". He also says "I don't know, I'm kinda scared," as a "mistake" in the cartoon episode "Mistakes Will Happen". More recently, he was seen actually speaking in one of Garfield's dream sequences. [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?2005-ga050710] He also sometimes thinks like Garfield. [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1995-ga951221] He sometimes says minor things in episodes of the television series, such as "Ta-da!", "Huh?", or more commonly, panting "Yeah, yeah, yeah!". In the [[live-action]] [[film]]s based on the strip, Odie was a real-life [[dachshund]]. Though he may seem stupid, in one strip, he was seen reading "[[War and Peace]]" and listening to [[Mozart]]. First appeared: [[Here Comes Garfield]]. Last appeared: [[The Ocean Blue]].
* [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] (finished 8th in Division One in the 2004 season and were relegated)
<br clear=all>
* [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] (finished 6th in the 2004 season)
* [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] (finished 9th in Division One in the 2004 season and were relegated)
* [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] (finished 4th in the 2004 season)
* [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] (finished 7th in Division One in the 2004 season and were relegated)
* [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] (finished 7th in the 2004 season)
===Arlene===
Before the season Lancashire, Worcestershire and Essex were widely perceived to be the major challengers for the title. Lancashire, historically one of the stronger sides in the County Championship, had been embarassingly relegated after internal struggles in the team and supporters regarded anything but instant promotion back to the top division as unacceptable.
[[Image:Arlene.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Arlene]]
'''First Appearance:''' [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1980-ga801217 December 17, 1980]
Garfield's female friend. She is a [[pink]] cat with a long neck and buck teeth. She once wished their relationship would take a few steps, but Garfield does not seem to notice. Garfield once quipped in the early strips that he and Arlene have an apparent love-hate relationship: Garfield loves himself, and Arlene hates that. Garfield loves to tease Arlene about the gap between her front teeth, which also infuriates her. She seems somewhat more clever than Garfield and repays his teasing with witty comebacks.
==Table==
Although she never appeared on the animated series (with the exception of a cameo appearance in the fourth season), she appeared in the film version as well, where she was voiced by [[Debra Messing]]. Arlene, whom is never shown talking in animation, will possibly have a speaking line in the 2007 direct to video movie, [[Garfield Gets Real]].
The table, showing all completed matches is as follows:
In the book ''Garfield's Judgment Day'', it was revealed she was a stray cat, which she had never revealed to Garfield until emergency situations brought it to light.
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | [[County Championship Division Two Current Table|2005 County Championship - Division Two]]
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 16 || 7 || 6 || 3 || 0 || 43 || 47 || 212
|-
|| 2 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 16 || 6 || 8 || 2 || 0 || 45 || 44 || 205
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 16 || 5 || 10 || 1 || 0.5 || 49 || 42 || 200.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 16 || 5 || 8 || 3 || 0 || 45 || 46 || 193
|-
|| 5 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 16 || 5 || 7 || 4 || 0 || 51 || 36 || 185
|-
|| 6 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 16 || 5 || 4 || 7 || 5.5 || 53 || 46 || 179.5
|-
|| 7 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 16 || 3 || 7 || 6 || 0.5 || 45 || 45 || 159.5
|-
|| 8 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 16 || 4 || 5 || 7 || 0 || 42 || 37 || 155
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 16 || 1 || 7 || 8 || 0 || 31 || 43 || 116
|}
===Pooky the Teddy Bear===
==Match details==
[[Image:Pooky.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Pooky]]
'''First Appearance:'''
[http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1978-ga781023 October 23, 1978]
Pooky is Garfield's teddy bear and best friend that Garfield discovered stuffed in a drawer. Despite the fact that Pooky is a stuffed animal, Garfield acts as though he can communicate with him. At one point, Garfield pretended to teach Pooky how to jump through hoops then Garfield turned around to talk to Jon. When he turned back Pooky was on the other side of the hoop. Garfield is generally overprotective of Pooky. Once Garfield thought he lost Pooky so he turned into "The Caped Avenger", a repeating storyline, and tried to find Pooky. It turned out that Jon had just thrown him in the wash.
===Round one===
The strip shows Garfield searching through Jon Arbuckle's bottom drawer, finding Pooky, and adopting him as his own. Once, Pooky lost an eye for several comic strips. It was replaced the following [[Christmas]]. In addition, Pooky was over-squeezed by Garfield and had an inflated head. Afterwards, Garfield tried to squeeze him back but made his head thin and body thick. Then, Jon "completely restuffed" Pooky and made him fat on both ends. Also, Pooky had lost his arm on one occasion on the week of January 1, 1983, but was sewn back on. Garfield looks at Pooky as the only one that he can truly trust. Outside of dream sequences and the like, Pooky has never been "brought to life" (as in the case of [[Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes character)|Hobbes]] of the comic strip ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'') "on camera" in the strip, but on rare occasions, the possibility that Pooky is more than just a stuffed bear is brought up, though never confirmed or denied. (Garfield was pretending to teach him to jump through a hoop. Jon asked what was happening. Garfield looked away for a moment. Pooky appeared on the other side of the hoop). In the Spanish translation of the strip, Pooky was initially named "Doggy" ("perrito") but suddenly changed name to Pooky in further lines. In a few strips, he is referred to as "Pookie" but "Pooky" is clearly used more often.
====Derbyshire v Worcestershire (13-16 April)====
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===Nermal===
'''''Worcestershire (21pts) beat Derbyshire (3pts) by 10 wickets'''''
[[Image:Nermal.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Nermal]]
'''First Appearance:''' [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1979-ga790903 September 3, 1979]
Nermal is a small gray [[kitten]], self-proclaimed "The world's cutest [[kitten]]." He frequently makes unannounced visits into Garfield's home, where he flaunts his cuteness and becomes the focus of Jon's attention for the entire duration of his visit, much to Garfield's dismay. Nermal especially does this on Garfield's birthdays to remind him of how he is getting older.
At [[The County Ground, Derby|Derby]], [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] won the toss an chose to bat. [[Stephen Moore]] was run out early for 19. He held his pose, showing off his defensive shot during an appeal for [[leg before wicket]], as Moss came in on the blind side and threw the ball at the stumps. The other opener, [[Stephen Peters]], stayed around though, and made 55. Once Moore was out, Peters was joined by [[Graeme Hick]], who was given lives on 8 and 57, and made 80 off 119 balls before finally being lbw for 80 off one that kept low. [[Vikram Solanki]] then went for a duck, but Worcestershire were never in trouble, finishing on 305 for 6 at close.
Nermal is a male kitten, but his voice actress in the cartoon ([[Desirée Goyette]]) and long [[eyelashes]] have led to some confusion over his gender. It is revealed in one strip that he is a model for cat calendars and greeting cards. He once mentioned that he is going to stay cute and small forever because he's a midget. ("I think small," he once quipped, "and the coffee and cigarettes don't hurt.") However, there is evidence that Nermal preserves his cuteness by mud packing his face. In exasperation and feelings of being degraded for ugliness and advancement in age, Garfield ultimately attempts to ship Nermal to [[Abu Dhabi]]. In later strips Nermal grows up and appears to be in what could be considered adolescence, but retains his vanity and continues to poke fun at Garfield.
Worcestershire kept batting on the second day, before declaring after winning their fourth bonus point on 350 for 9. Derbyshire's batting was woeful, with no-one scoring more than 30 as their first innings ended on 135 all out, 215 behind. [[Matthew Mason]], who took two wickets and a [[bowling analysis]] of 10-6-6-2, [[Alamgir Sheriyar]] and [[David Wigley]], who took three each, were the main contributors with ball in hand for Worcester. The [[follow-on]] was enforced, and Derbyshire were 10 for 0 when stumps were drawn.
The Spanish-dubbed version of the TV series changed Nermal's name to Thelma during some seasons. His first television appearance was on [[School Daze (Garfield and Friends)|School Daze]]. His last was on [[Change of Mind]]. In ''[[Garfield (film)|Garfield: The Movie]]'', Nermal is portrayed as an adult (and slow witted) [[Siamese (cat)|Siamese]] cat rather than a small gray kitten, and is voiced by [[David Eigenberg]].
Only 74 [[over (cricket)|overs]] were bowled on the third day, with rain ending play at tea. [[Michael di Venuto]] put up the Derbyshire resistance, scoring 111 in an innings that included 12 fours and 1 six before finally being [[stumped]] off [[Gareth Batty]]. [[Steve Stubbings]] played the anchor role, and had made only 33 when the first wicket fell for 150. Batty bowled unchanged for a 32 over spell as Sheriyar and Wigley tried, and failed, to get di Venuto. Once he was gone, there was a flurry of wickets to 175 for 4. At close Derbyshire were within sight of a draw, being 11 runs behind with six wickets remaining.
===Mom===
Gareth Batty increased his second innings tally to 5 for 87 to dismiss Derbyshire early on the fourth day, as Stubbings' innings ended with just 10 added to the previous day's score for a total of 58. By the time they were all out for 285, Derbyshire had set a target of just 71 in 68 overs. It took them only 14 as Peters and Moore won the match for them by 10 wickets. It was an easy victory for Worcestershire in the end, helped by Derbyshire dropping 6 catches along the way. Worcester coach [[Tom Moody]] said, "We haven't got our overseas players here but this was a good example of the depth of our squad. To have a successful season, you need players who can come in and stand up and be counted and they've done that. The game proved that catches win matches with Derbyshire dropping six while Worcestershire hardly missed an opportunity. We were let off the hook a bit in the first innings with some dropped chances but our catching was exceptional, particularly with the conditions being so cold. I think the cold weather was the hardest thing for Gareth [Batty] because it's difficult for a spinner to get his hands warm and grip the ball." [http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/13-16APR2005/DERBY_WORCS_CC2_13-16APR2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
[[Image:JonsMom.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Mom]]
'''First Appearance:''' [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1980-ga800213 February 13, 1980]
Jon’s mother lives on a farm and is known to be a great cook (she can make just about anything out of potatoes, proven in a 1980s strip when she creates five different kinds of potatoes(Scalloped, Whipped, Fried, Baked and Broiled.) She also always has the same expression on her face. Based on Jim Davis' mother Betty Davis, Jon's mother is also known for sending him and Garfield cooked meals in packages. Jon once got mashed potatoes and Garfield got gravy, which started to leak from the corner of the envelope. On one Christmas occasion, after Dad said, "Please tell me they were adopted.", her response was "I don't know, I was out at the time."
====Essex v Yorkshire (13-16 April)====
In ''[[A Garfield Christmas Special]]'' and the Garfield episode, ''[[Feeling Feline]]'', she was voiced by [[Julie Payne]].
'''''Essex (12pts) drew with Yorkshire (5.5pts)'''''
===Dad===
At [[Chelmsford]], [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] won the [[toss (cricket)|toss]] and put [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] in to bat. Essex never looked by, as [[Will Jefferson]], Essex' 6'10<nowiki>''</nowiki> opener put on 149 before being out [[lbw|leg before]] just before the end of the first day's play. Essex captain, [[Ronnie Irani]], said, "People think his height is a weakness, they try and over-test it — they try and pitch it up too much or bowl short too much." Jefferson could have been run out for 0 after a mix-up with Cook, and was dropped on 6. [[Alastair Cook]], hero for the [[Marylebone Cricket Club|MCC]] at [[Lord's]] fell early for 11. However, Jefferson was given admirable support by [[Zimbabwean cricket team|Zimbabwean]] [[Grant Flower]], who was 55 [[not out]] at close, with Essex on 224 fo 2, after 26 overs were lost to rain. Seven Yorkshire bowlers were used, but few had any success, and [[English cricket team|England]] bowler [[Matthew Hoggard]] went wicketless on the first day.
[[Image:JonsDad.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Dad]]
'''First Appearance:''' [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1980-ga800213 February 13, 1980]
Jon's father who tends the family farm. In his sole animated appearance, ''[[A Garfield Christmas Special]]'', he was voiced by [[Pat Harrington Jr.]] and as proved in one strip has not been off the farm in a long time. Based on Jim Davis' father, James William Davis.
A total of 47 overs were possible in the next two days, as Essex moved on to 394 for 4 - losing two men to Hoggard. [[Andy Flower]], Grant's brother, and [[Ronnie Irani]] were on unbeaten half-centuries at the close of the third day's play, a draw a virtual certainty.
===Doc Boy===
After adding only 7 in 11 balls on the fourth and final day, Essex declared on 401 for 4, batting on to score the extra bonus point before putting Yorkshire in. Yorkshire found it difficult on a pitch that must have been affected by the rain. Whilst Yorkshire's captain, [[Craig White]], resisted with 59 not out, the team disintegrated to 205, 196 behind. Essex enforced the [[follow-on]], but in yet another rain-affected day, Yorkshire held on. Jaques scored 67 not out from 88 balls out of his team's 105 for 2. Essex scored maximum bonus points, but were denied by the weather. Yorkshire escaped with the draw, but were fined 0.5 points for a slow over rate during Essex' innings. [http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/13-16APR2005/ESSEX_YORKS_CC2_13-16APR2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
[[Image:DocBoy.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Doc Boy]]
'''First Appearance:''' [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1983-ga830517 May 17, 1983]
Jon's brother who lives on a farm with his mother and father, and often fights with Jon, calling him a "city slicker". Hates being called "Doc Boy" and Jim Davis addresses in a strip once that he did not like the name since he started wearing pants. Based on Jim Davis' brother David "Doc" Davis, who's not nearly as goofy as his cartoon counterpart.
====Lancashire v Somerset (13-16 April)====
In ''A Garfield Christmas Special'', he was voiced by [[David Lander]].
'''''Lancashire (10pts) drew with Somerset (9pts)'''''
===Grandma===
At [[Old Trafford (cricket)|Old Trafford]], [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] won the toss and elected to field on a seaming pitch after a delayed start. [[Mal Loye]] was the only Lancastrian to score a half-century, as Somerset made the most of the conditions. [[Ian Sutcliffe]], [[Stuart Law]] and [[Mark Chilton]] all worked themselves into the 30s, but failed to progress. [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] finished the first day on 235 for 7.
[[Image:JonsGrandma.jpg|180px|thumb|left|Grandma]]
Jon and Doc Boy's grandmother. She is a [[Harley-Davidson|Harley]]-riding, [[leather]]-wearing old lady who carves turkey with a chainsaw. She loves Jon, Garfield, and Odie, and occasionally makes appearances throughout the series. The most is revealed about her in Garfield's Christmas special, where it is revealed that her husband has died and she talks about her life with him. She is undoubtedly Garfield's favorite of Jon's family. In the strip, Grandma was originally depicted as a stereotypical elderly woman, wearing a shapeless, plain dark dress and her hair in a tight bun; her animated appearances outfit her as a more modern-looking woman. In ''[[A Garfield Christmas]] Special'' and ''[[Garfield's Thanksgiving]]'', she was voiced by [[Pat Carroll (actress)|Pat Carroll]]. She also appears as the DVD seller on the DVD store on the Garfield website.
{{-}}
===Lyman===
Second day honours went to Lancashire. First their not out batsmen, [[Dominic Cork]] and [[Sajid Mahmood]], took the eighth wicket partnership to 94, and Lancashire finished on 323. [[Andrew Caddick]] took 4 for 78. [[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] and [[Dominic Cork]] then set about damaging Somerset's batting. Only [[Ian Blackwell]], who was dropped by Law at [[slip (cricket)|slip]] when on 17, put up much resistance, with captain and England opener [[Marcus Trescothick]] making only 11. At one stage Somerset were 53 for 4, and they finished the day on 193 for 7, with Blackwell not out on 74.
[[Image:Ga790308.GIF|thumb|right|Lyman & Garfield.]]
'''First Appearance:''' [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1978-ga780807 August 7, 1978]<br/>
'''Last Appearance:''' [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1988-ga880619 June 19, 1988]
Friend of Jon's who lived with him for a while and was the original owner of Odie. He first appeared on [[August 7]], [[1978]]. However, he disappeared from the comic on April 24, 1983 and his disappearance was never fully elaborated upon. His last appearance in the strip was a cameo on Garfield's 10th Birthday [[June 19]], [[1988]] where he appears in the title panel seated between Jon's Dad and Liz, he also appears in a flashback panel within the strip. Recently, Davis was forced to directly address the issue of 'What happened to Lyman?'. According to Davis, Lyman's original purpose was to be someone who Jon could actually talk to and express other ideas—a role more and more taken over by Garfield himself. Hence, he was removed without explanation. The closest thing Davis has ever given to explain his absence is "Don't look in Jon's basement". In the Web game [http://www.garfield.com/fungames/scavengerhunt/scavengerhunt.html "Scary Scavenger Hunt"], Lyman is shown chained onto the wall in the basement of a haunted mansion, as well as screaming in a bathtub upstairs (in a scene clearly referencing the "shower scene" in the film ''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]]''; even the screeching violins from the infamous scene are played here) and his head is also shown in a room under a blanket. In [http://www.garfield.com/fungames/scavengerhunt2/scavengerhunt2.html "Scary Scavenger Hunt 2"], his head is found inside the kitchen oven. This "in the basement" joke was revealed by Mr. Davis to not be entirely true. In an interview he mentioned that the real reason that Lyman disappeared was that he joined the [[Peace Corps]] and was never heard from again. Lyman has appeared on the Garfield website as the seller at the bookstore.
Just as Lancashire's tail had pushed on at the end of their innings, so did Somerset's on the third day. Blackwell made his second century in two innings, finally surrendering on 122. The second-highest scorer was [[Richard Johnson (cricketer)|Richard Johnson]] with 40. Blackwell explained, "I've changed a few things this year and started to bat on off stump. A lot of bowlers have been going across me because they know that I go at widish balls. The ball's now closer to me if it's slanted across and I'm backing my hand-eye co-ordination to avoid being lbw." The day itself was very cold, with Blackwell saying, "It was absolutely perishing out there. I think play should be abandoned if it gets that cold." After Somerset were dismissed for 272, six Somerset men came out to field sporting woollen hats. Bad light and rain meant the day ended at 2.07pm, with Lancashire on 33 for 1, 84 runs ahead. Whilst a Lancashire victory was not out of the question, the most likely result was the draw.
===Irma===
Lancashire batted on for another 49 overs, scoring 195 for 6 declared, and setting Somerset a target of 247 runs in 31 overs. [[Paul Horton]] and Loye put on 94 for the first wicket. But all in all, taking 61 overs to score 195 was hardly declaration batting. Somerset did not go for the win (which would have meant scoring at well over 7 an over), and made 69 for 3 off 22.3 overs before play ended because of bad light. Lancashire's [[Mal Loye]], who fell just short of his century on 92 in the second innings to go with his 53 in the first said, "To get a couple of fifties against a pretty good attack is a good start. It was a pretty difficult pitch to bat on during the first day but it got easier as the match wore on and I was disappointed to miss out. Getting a century is a psychological thing for a batsman. I don't set myself goals or anything like that, but it's always nice to get a hundred." [http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/13-16APR2005/LANCS_SOMERSET_CC2_13-16APR2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
'''First Appearance:''' [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1979-ga790609 June 9, 1979] (though not by name until [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1979-ga791019 October 19, 1979])
[[Image:Ga070413.gif|480px|thumb|left|A strip featuring Irma]]
====Leicestershire v Durham (13-15 April)====
Waitress and owner of "Irma's Diner", a diner occasionally patronized by Jon and Garfield. Her first appearance was on [[October 19]], [[1979]]. The food, service, and mental stability of both Irma and her restaurant are all questionable. For instance, her idea of a "chicken surprise" is her coming up to the table wearing a rubber chicken mask and saying "SURPRISE!" She also referred to "your choice of [[potato]]es" as "cooked" and "raw." However, this may be attributed to her operating the diner 24 hours a day with no help (though in other comics, she is shown to speak to other diner employees). Although her main and most memorable appearances took place earlier in the strip, in 1999 she appeared (updated to match the most recent style of the strip), once again doing wacky things at the diner.
'''''Durham (22pts) beat Leicestershire (1pt) by an innings and 216 runs'''''
===Dr. Elizabeth Wilson===
[[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] won the toss against [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] and elected to bat first at [[Grace Road]], [[Leicester]]. The first day was dominated by Durham's Australian left-handed opener, [[Mike Hussey]]. Hussey may not be good enough to make the Australian Test squad, but he was good to make an undefeated 165 off 290 balls on a flat pitch on the first day. Former England Under-19 batsman [[Gordon Muchall]] helped Hussey add 166 for the third-wicket [[partnerhsip (cricket)|partnership]], before being [[run out]] for 82. Durham finished day one on 325 for 3.
[[Image:LizWilson.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Dr. Liz Wilson]]
'''First Appearance:''' [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1979-ga790626 June 26, 1979]
On the second day, Hussey powered on, and was seventh man out for 253, an innings that included 3 sixes and 33 fours. Durham finally declared on a mammoth 523 for 8 declared off 161 overs. It didn't get much better for Leicestershire when they finally did get to bat on a pitch was much less placid than on the first day. Liam Plunkett soon took their first four wickets, and also had one dropped as Leicestershire struggled to 49 for 4. Leicestershire went on to finish their first innings on 123 all out. Plunkett finished on 5 for 43. Leicestershire were then forced to follow-on exactly 400 behind. They made 10 without loss by the end of the day. [[Stephen Harmison]], England's out of form fast bowler, performed well, but could still not take a wicket and was upstaged by Plunkett.
Garfield's [[veterinarian]] and long-time crush of Jon Arbuckle. She occasionally dates him, but these outings always become disasters, and Liz herself has little regard for Jon. She vainly tries to make him understand that she is not interested, but Jon is persistent in his efforts. In one strip, she revealed she had a (possibly entirely fictional) boyfriend named Nick "The Mangler" Scarlotti; however, he has never been mentioned again. The two appeared to have fallen in love after Liz admitted that she liked Jon, which means Liz has become Jon's girlfriend. [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?2006-ga060726] She first appeared on [[June 26]], [[1979]]. In the [[live-action]] [[film]]s, she became Jon Arbuckle's "[[girlfriend]]/[[partner]]". In animation, she was voiced by [[Julie Payne]]. On [[Garfield and Friends]], she appeared occasionally in the first two seasons only. In the live-action movies, she is played by [[Jennifer Love Hewitt]]. Her first television appearance was on [[Garfield Goes Hawaiian]]. Her last was on [[Arrivederci, Odie!]].
Durham spent 70.3 third-day [[over (cricket)|overs]] on the process of finishing off Leicestershire. The good news for England fans will be the return to form of Harmison, who took 4 for 30 as Leicestershire were dismissed for 184. At one stage, Harmison had taken three [[wicket]]s in a 15-ball spell without conceding a run. Plunkett continued to unsettle the batsmen and finished on 3 for 55. Only one Leicestershire batsman, [[John Maunders]], was able to score a 50.[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/13-16APR2005/LEICS_DURHAM_CC2_13-16APR2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
Jon and Liz shared their first true kiss on December 19, 1981, though Jon had previously managed to steal a kiss on October 6, 1979. In the past, Liz showed great dislike and little respect for Jon; her attempts to show him that she was not interested in him were generally futile, although she did deliver some pithy comments. During the week of her second appearance, Jon asked her what she would suggest for an animal who is madly in love (referring to himself), and Liz countered with "[[spaying and neutering|neutering]]." They didn't have a lasting relationship until after another kiss during slight dating fiasco on July 28, 2006. A third kiss was shared on September 3 of the same year.
====Table at 16 April====
From this point on, Liz has been Jon's girlfriend (she called him "Sweetie").
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 16 April 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! BP
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 8 || 22
|-
|| 2 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 7 || 21
|-
|| 3 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 8 || 12
|-
|| 4 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 6 || 10
|-
|| 5 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 5 || 9
|-
|| 6 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0.5 || 2 || 5.5
|-
|| 7 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 1 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 3 || 3
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 1 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 1 || 1
|-
|| 9 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0
|}
===RoundHerman twoPost===
[[Image:HermanPost.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Herman Post]]
Jon Arbuckle's [[mail carrier|mailman]]. Garfield constantly torments him by ripping off his pants and leaving him shredded and scratched, and he perpetually tries to find a way to deliver the mail safely, but almost never succeeding (although the mail always makes it). In ''Garfield and Friends'', the mailman was voiced by [[Gregg Berger]]. He first appeared on [[January 28]], [[1984]]. His first appearance on television was on [[Fair Exchange (Garfield and Friends)|Fair Exchange]]. His last was on [[Fill-in FELINE]]. In some of the comics, his [[hair]] is [[white]] instead of [[brown]].
{{-}}
== Neighbors ==
====Durham v Worcestershire (20-21 April)====
* '''Hubert and Reba''' are Jon's stereotypical "grumpy old neighbors." Hubert is mostly outside on his porch yelling "REBA!" when Garfield, Jon, Odie, and other characters are doing something crazy. Reba is mostly inside doing something unseen. In an earlier comic, Reba is called "Thelma." Their only Television appearance was on "''Here Comes Garfield.''"
'''''Durham (19pts) beat Worcestershire (3pts) by 7 wickets'''''
* '''Mrs. Feeny''' is another neighbor, who has never appeared in the strip. Garfield routinely torments her, her little dog, and Mr. Feeny (who have never appeared as well) and as such Mrs. Feeny is always complaining to Jon about Garfield over the phone, or occasionally, vent her revenge on Jon. But, Garfield isn't always bitter to Mrs. Feeny. One year, he gave her a homemade hairball for Christmas. In one strip it is mentioned that Garfield once glued her dog to a cross town bus. When called on this, he raises his paw to swear, only to notice that his coffee cup has become attached to him. Another time Jon reported to Garfield, "Mrs. Feeney's little dog is missing again, and all those stamps I bought yesterday are gone, not to mention a box and some twine!" Garfield replied, "Take your time, it'll come to you."
*'''Ellen''' is a local woman whom Jon often tried to go out with. Of all of the women Jon calls for a date and ends up getting rejected, Ellen is the most common. She was introduced as a blind date for Jon [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1990-ga901109 November 9, 1990] After 16 years, Ellen finally dated Jon in the comic on [[July 17]], [[2006]] and appeared in person on [[July 20]], [[2006]] after Jon convinced her to go on a date because she had [[amnesia]] and couldn't remember how much she despised him.[http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?2006-ga060720] She was persuaded to go on a date with him, and on July 20th, 2006, the strip finally showed her as a blond woman with a striped dress. [http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?2006-ga060720] For years she never appeared in the strip, but many strips focused on Jon phoning Ellen asking for a date. She usually asked him sarcastically to do something very stupid first, before refusing. Once Jon received a restraining order from her on [[November 22]], [[1996]], but despite that has asked her out many times since then (to no success). Jon fell in love with Liz who admitted that she did like Jon - and Ellen, still having amnesia, went with the man that Liz initially dated that night.
== Family ==
[[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] won the toss at [[Riverside Ground|Chester-le-Street]] and chose to bat first. [[Stephen Peters]] and [[Stephen Moore]] started them off well as they moved to 75 without loss. Then [[Mark Davies (cricketer)|Mark Davies]], who is fighting for his first-team place, took six wickets to reduce them to 120, before [[Steve Harmison]] (3 wickets) and [[Paul Collingwood]] (1 wicket) finished off the tail to reduce Worcestershire to 171 all out. Collingwood then returned with the bat and got to 88 [[not out]], to leave [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] well-placed on 139 for 2 at close.
On the second day, Collingwood completed his century, finally falling for 129 when Durham were 229 for 4. The Durham tail did not back up the start given to them by the specialist batsmen, however, and they were all out for 286, a lead of 115. Liam Plunkett, who had a good first game but a quiet first innings in this second game, then returned to knock out three top-order wickets. The rest of the bowling unit performed well, and Steve Harmison took a hat-trick on his way to 5 for 61. Harmison later said, "The way I was feeling, my tail was up and I felt I could go through them. The position they were in I don’t think they were too keen to hang around. Before the last ball [of the hat-trick], I felt confident. It was a decent ball in a decent area and I was glad when he [David Wigley] chopped it on."
[[Image:GarfieldsMom.jpg|130px|thumb|right|Garfield's mother, Sonja]]
*'''Sonja: Garfield's mother,''' Garfield's most influential family member. His mother is a stray, and he hardly sees her. But when they do meet, such as in the television special ''Garfield on the Town'' and a loose adaptation that ran in the strip in December [[1984]], she showers him with the love that she can rarely give. She also appeared in the television special ''Garfield: His 9 Lives'', and in the [[November 5]], 1994 strip, in which she's the only one watching Garfield's representation on the fence. [[Sandy Huge]] provided her voice in the specials.
*Garfield's '''grandfathers''' have both appeared. His maternal grandfather, Wilfrid, is a strict, demanding stray, who insists (with extreme futility, of course) that Garfield must become a mouser. His paternal grandfather, Garfield I, is a cynical, bitter and sarcastic character with a habit of telling long (and often completely made up) stories. He holds his grandson in mild contempt and threatens Jon with physical harm when he claims to see a family resemblance.
* Other [[relative]]s have included '''Uncle Harry''', '''Aunt Bernice''', '''Uncle Hubert''', '''Aunt Reba''', '''Uncle Barney''', '''Aunt Evelyn''', '''Uncle Nick''', '''Aunt Edna''', '''Uncle Roy''', '''Uncle Bob''', '''Uncle Morty''', Garfield’s [[brother]] '''Raoul''', and '''[[Cousin]] Sly'''. Most have been [[unseen characters]].
== Pests ==
[[Chaminda Vaas]] top-scored with 42 not out, as Worcester were all out for 146. This left Durham a target of only 32 to win, which they got for the loss of 3 wickets to win with two days spare. [http://www.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/20-23APR2005/DURHAM_WORCS_CC2_20-23APR2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
[[Image:FloydMouse.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Floyd the Mouse from ''Garfield and Friends''.]]
* '''Mice''' - Jon's house is also inhabited by mice, Most of whom are unnamed, though one was named "Squeak" and anothe was named "Herman Vermin". The mice enjoy a quite full social life—to much annoyance of Jon. Garfield, however, cannot be bothered to chase them, and according to him they tend to either bribe or blackmail him to stay so. In the cartoon show, there was a significant mouse with a similar role named '''Floyd''', who could be told apart by the fact that he was drawn with oval eyes, like the other regulars, had a pink nose (an animation goof in "Good Mousekeeping" shows another mouse briefly with Floyd's nose), and was voiced by Gregg Berger. A running gag with Floyd was his annoyance with the fact that he didn't appear often (he often says he wishes he'd be on more than once a season; it's unclear whether Floyd really does only appear once a season).
* '''[[Spider]]s''' - also appear in the strip regularly. They sometimes walk around the house or dangle from the ceiling-or get squished by a newspaper wielded by Garfield. This, of course, leads to several attempts by the spiders to get back at Garfield, which are unsuccessful in most cases. Garfield does occasionally obtain help from the spiders, such as to get rid of an annoying fly. The spiders were initially drawn with six legs, although now they are generally drawn with eight.
* '''[[Flea]]s''' - have been important characters too. Once a flea [[nurse]] asked if Garfield would like to contribute for a [[blood drive]], but Garfield catches on. In a comic from 1989, the fleas are having a rowdy [[party]] on Garfield’s back. Garfield sprays [[bug spray]] on his back, but the fleas continue to party, making Garfield frustrated with the spray he used. The first week of fleas is in 1980, when Garfield gets them from Odie. When Garfield looked up fleas in the dictionary, it said, "flea (flē) n. a small [[wingless]],[[bloodsucking]] parasite… also see: [[brother-in-law]]."
== Household Appliances ==
====Northamptonshire v Leicestershire (20-23 April)====
* Three household appliances in the comic are the '''talking bathroom scale''', the '''alarm clock''' and the '''TV'''. The three objects have quite different personalities: The scale, sometimes known as '''RX-2''', usually allows itself to be quite cynical and crude about Garfield's overweight state. But sometimes when it does so, it gets smashed or thrown into a trash can. A cover on one of the Garfield paperbacks show Garfield putting a toe on the scale and it heaving with agony. The clock usually retracts from ringing loud and waking Garfield, since he tends to smash it into pieces, and was once flushed down a toilet because it woke Garfield. The TV also speaks to Garfield by itself on occasion, usually trying to persuade Garfield into continuing to watch it or turning it off. Once, when Garfield fell asleep in front of the TV, the TV yelled at him to turn it off. On an episode of ''Garfield'' TV show there was a [[The Twilight Zone|Twilight Zone]]-like episode with Garfield trapped in the TV set.
'''''Northamptonshire (12pts) drew with Leicestershire (9pts)'''''
== Television personalities==
The first day at [[Northampton]] saw only 26.2 overs, during which [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] progressed to 90 for no loss. On the second day [[Bilal Shafayat]] (59), [[Martin Love]] (50), [[David Sales]] (113), [[Damien Wright]] (95) and [[Gerard Brophy]] (52) all contributed with the bat, as the hosts moved to 433 for 6 [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]]. However, Northamptonshire bowled without luck, allowing [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] to score 69 for 0 at close.
[[Image:Binky.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Binky the Clown]]
* '''Binky the Clown''' is a television personality noted for his extremely loud and piercing greetings, most notably "HEEEEEEEY, KIDS!" He was first mentioned on March, 13, 1985 in the comic strips.[http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1985-ga850313]In ''[[Garfield's Halloween Adventure]]'', the character made his first animated appearance and was given a voice. Binky was first seen in the comics on September 15, 1986[http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1986-ga860915]. On ''Garfield and Friends'', Binky became more of a regular, and would modify his greeting to suit who it was he was greeting, such as "HEEEEEEEY, CAT!" He also had his own segment on the show during the second and third seasons, called ''Screaming With Binky'', in which he showed up in the midst of a certain activity and performed his trademark greeting, ruining said activity. Most of these segments were cut in syndication, but have been restored for the DVD releases. Like Jon, Binky was voiced by Thom Huge. His first television appearance was on [[Peace and Quiet]]. His last: [[The Feline Philosopher]].
*'''Uncle Roy''' is another television personality and the [[rival]] of Binky. He remains an [[unseen character]].
== Toys ==
On the third day, Leicestershire progressed to 339 all out, with [[Darren Robinson]] scoring 100. However, the innings was controversial, with three debatable decisions going against the visitors. First Robinson was given out [[caught]], when the ball probably hit his forearm. Then [[HD Ackerman]] was out leg before to a delivery that looked high. Then, at 220 for 5 [[Aftab Habib]] edged [[Jason Brown (cricketer)|Jason Brown]] low to [[Martin Love]] at first [[slip (cricket)|slip]]. Habib thought it had not carried, and Love and one umpire were not sure. The other umpire said he was out, so off Habib went. But he returned to confront Shafayat who taunted Habib on the dismissal. Northamptonshire progressed to 45 for 0 at close.
[[Image:Stretchthechicken.gif|480px|thumb|right|A Stretch strip]]
*'''Stretch'''
**First appearance: [http://garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1984-ga840619 June 19, 1984]; acquired his name the next day.
**Last appearance: [http://garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?2000-ga001231 December 31, 2000]
**''Stretch'' is Garfield's rubber chicken, who was given to Garfield on his 6th birthday. It only appeared for a week after, yet makes cameo appearances from time to time, mainly used as a weapon against Jon. Stretch was last seen on [[December 31]] [[2000]].
*A recurring plot in the strip is Garfield eating Jon's various '''pet fish''', which causes Jon to get mad. In an attempt to prevent Garfield from eating his second pet fish one week, he lets Garfield name it. Ironically, '''Second Helping''' (the fish Garfield named) lasted to the end of the strip, an event very rare in a Garfield comic. Another time, he named a fish '''Sushi'''. It is mentioned that Jon owned 323 fish. Garfield thought it was 321, but then remembered that "two died of natural causes".
== Objects thrown at Garfield ==
The fourth day saw the game peter out to a draw, as a late declaration, with the score on 238 for 3, left Northamptonshire just less than two session to dismiss Leicestershire, who were set an unrealistic target of 333 to win in 58 overs. Leicestershire were 115 for 4 when the draw was agreed with 11 overs still available. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2005/4/11524/html/scorecard.stm (BBC scorecard)]
[[Image:SPLUT!.jpg|thumb|right|An example of a SPLUT! hitting Garfield in the face]]
====Yorkshire v Somerset (20-23 April)====
*'''The SPLUT!s''' are slapstick-comedy flying pies which strike Garfield on random occasions, making the sound "SPLUT!" when they hit. Typically the Spluts are used for shock humor or as a running gag ('''Garfield'': ''(checks the calendar)'' "Yep... it's 'Splut week.'"). The SPLUT!s have not appeared in the strip for several years, however.
*'''Garfield's Fence Hecklers''' are usually known to be [[unseen characters]]. The very first strip to show Garfield on a fence had an irate old man in a nightshirt toss an alarm clock. However, in later strips, many of the (normally unseen) throwers are implied to be dogs. Sometimes, Garfield is hit with a SPLUT! while on the fence.
== Food ==
'''''Yorkshire (22pts) beat Somerset (3pts) by an innings and 44 runs'''''
*The '''contents of Jon's fridge''' have been left alone for so long that many of them have evolved into sinister intelligent lifeforms. The most sinister of all was the '''Mystery Meat''', which attempted to embark on a plan for world domination. Some were not sinister or intelligent, and simply became life forms (Bacon grazing on lettuce, etc.)
Rain meant no play was possible on the first day at [[Headingley Stadium|Headingley]]. The second day was dominated by [[Ian Harvey]], who, at close, was on a career-best 161 not out after being dropped by [[Andrew Caddick]] on 96. [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] were on 401 for 7. [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]] had added 95 in 174 balls earlier in the day.
* When dieting, Garfield often has [[hallucination]]s. One common [[hallucination]] features '''walking food''' which encourages Garfield to eat it.
== Friends ==
The third day [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] acting captain, [[Marcus Trescothick]], was away, as his first child was born in the night. On the field Yorkshire declared on 501 for 9, after Harvey got 209 not out, and [[Tim Bresnan]] 74. Their eighth-wicket partnership of 238 is the second-highest for Yorkshire after the 292 put on by [[Lord Hawke]] and [[Bobby Peel (cricketer)|Bobby Peel]] in [[1896]]. Somerset, batting with 10 men, lost opener [[Sanath Jayasuriya]] for 0 after 3 balls, and were all out for 182. [[Follow on|Following on]] Somerset plummeted to 10 for 3, and then 37 for 4 (which, given Trescothick's absence, meant that they only had five batsmen left). However, they avoided losing further wickets on the third day, finishing on 109 for 4 at close, still 310 runs behind.
*'''Wheezer''' is Jon's old school friend. He calls Jon "Carp Face". Wheezer visited Jon at his house [[April 23]], [[1990]] through [[April 29]], [[1990]]. He asked Jon if he remembers the "Reptile", which is a dance they did together on the floor. Wheezer and Jon did silly noises like Booga, Honk, Whoop, Yadda, Wheedie, Ooga, Nyahh, and Hoogie. Later in the comic, Jon saw Wheezer at his high-school reunion. Wheezer often brings up embarrising moments in Jon's high school career at the wrong time. While Jon was talking to the girl of his dreams, Wheezer yells "HEY CARPFACE!" and brings up the memory of Jon blowing his nose on the American flag. He also stole Jon's pants at the reunion and threw them into the girls' locker room.
Somerset clung on for 66 overs on the fourth and final day, with [[John Francis]] carrying his bat for 125 as they recovered to 275. This left Yorkshire with their first win of the campaign, and a comprehensive victory. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2005/4/11525/html/scorecard.stm (BBC scorecard)]
* '''Aunt Gussie''' is Jon's aunt. She first appeared [[August 14]] through [[August 15]], [[1981]], [[baby-sitting]] Garfield while Jon took a vacation. She didn't know Garfield left. She later appeared on [[November 8]] through [[November 12]] [[1983]], when she became mean and had glasses. She was supposed to baby-sit Garfield on the week of [[April 25]], [[1988]] while Jon was having his [[tonsils]] removed, but she did not show up. She has a crush on [[John Travolta]].
* '''Mrs. Lillian''' is an extremely near-sighted old lady, who Jon has hired as a pet sitter to go out on a date with Liz. First Appearance: [http://garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?2007-ga070327 March 27, 2007] In one of her comic strips, she mistakes an orange, and a pineapple for Garfield and Odie.
====Table at 23 April=Animals===
*A recurring plot in the strip is Garfield eating Jon's various '''pet fish''', which causes Jon to get mad. In an attempt to prevent Garfield from eating his second pet fish one week, he lets Garfield name it. Ironically,''' Second Helping''' (the fish Garfield named) lasted to the end of the strip, an event very rare in a Garfield comic. Another time, he named a fish '''Sushi'''. It is mentioned that Jon owned 323 fish. Garfield thought it was 321, but then remembered that "two died of natural causes".
*A '''big, vicious dog''' often enjoys barking at Garfield. His rear end is rarely seen. He is almost always seen next to a "Beware of Dog" sign. Garfield isn't usually afraid of this dog, and makes fun of him and even chats with him. Once in a while, he'll be afraid of him. There are several regular "Beware of Dog" dogs; the main one has either brown or blue fur.
* '''Biff''' was Garfield's colleague intern that he taught how to be a good cat -according to Garfield's standards.
* A '''little chick''' that looks up to Garfield and calls him "Daddy" (it was originally "Mommy" until Garfield explained to the little guy what gender was). He is a nuisance to Garfield who, oddly enough, is reluctant to eat the little guy (for some strange reason, the thought just never crossed his mind). The chick doesn't like lasagna. At the end of the week long strips, Garfield has a tear rolling down his eye.
* '''Snails''' have been in the strip more recently (in the 2000’s). The strips feature Garfield asking questions about snails.
* '''Guido and Fluffy''' were a cat and dog who help Garfield escape from the city [[animal shelter|pound]] in a comic strip of January 1981.
* '''Lyle''' is Garfield's pet ant. Garfield later squashed him for eyeballing his lasagna.
* '''Loretta''' is one of the Mouse's sisters. Garfield was going to fight her. When the Mouse called her name, Garfield didn't want to fight her. She was a Giant Mouse.
* Garfield loves to eat '''sparrows''', and has many attempts to catch them (most of the time failing), most notably his "barbecue bird bath" and his various bird disguises.
* There's occasionally a dog who usually pops up at the final panel of a strip and harming Garfield in the process, always exclaiming, '''"____ DOOOGGGG!"''' with the blank word being his way of entrance. He is dressed in a pilot's cap, a cape, and a shirt that reads the initials of his name, which varies between his appearances. Examples include, "Trapdoor Dog", "Slingshot Dog", and "Bungee Dog".
* '''Herbie''' was Jon's pet frog, but was later inevitably eaten by Garfield. He appeared in 1980. In a October 30, 1994 strip, all of the pets Garfield ate were in one of Garfield's nightmares. Herbie is there underneath a white blanket that represents a ghost. He has never been heard from again.
===Miscellaneous===
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
*'''The Caped Avenger''' is Garfield's alter ego, a [[superhero]] who fights with only a cape (his blanket). He once had a sidekick named Slurp, (Odie) and also once lost his blanket and became the "Paisley Avenger." Some early strips show his superhero name as "Freedom Fighter". In one episode he refers to Jon as his archnemesis "The Infamous Doctor Dweeb".
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
* A '''tree''' is always trying to encourage Garfield to climb him, always ending in Garfield falling for its "same old lies". In the beginning, he sits on a tree branch, but more recently finds himself gripping the branch by his front paws and dangling. Once while stuck up a tree, he meets a cat named Ed who was raised by squirrels and had never walked on the ground before.
! colspan=9 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 23 April 2005
* '''Mondays''' are another nemesis of Garfield's. Often, they are shown off-panel but causing things to happen in-panel (such as throwing a pie at Garfield). When they are shown, they are drawn as ugly monsters. The most prominent theme was "The Monday That Wouldn't Die", in which every day in the month after a certain Monday was also Monday.
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
* '''[[Santa Claus]]''' is portrayed as a real, rather than fictional, character in the Garfield strip. This is a rarity as most newspaper comics do not show Santa as someone who actually exists. Belief in Santa is unquestioned, both Garfield and Jon believe in him and Garfield has witnessed him flying in his sleigh, coming down the chimney, and distributing presents. Somehow despite all of the trouble that Garfield gets into he remains on Santa's nice list. On Garfield's first Christmas Eve (December 24, 1978), he received 20 pounds of lasagna, a request which Santa notes nobody else in the world asked for.
! Pos
* '''The Stump''' is where Garfield once went in August 8 to August 14, 1982.He heard strange noises in the stump. Garfield threw a stone in the stump and a bone came out. Garfield saw that a mouse live in the Stump. Garfield was about to attack the mouse for scaring him, But was attacked by the mouse's pet human,Guido. When Garfield left he heard the noises Guido made in his bed and food dish.
! Team
* '''The Sludge Monster''' is a monster made of mudlike goo. He is never seen in the comics, but Jon and Liz often go out to see "Sludge Monster" movies at theatres. The Garfield cartoon "[[Sludge Monster]]" is all about him. The creepy motel owner calls him "Maurice." There is a song about him that Jon sings to Garfield and Odie. He is only seen at the end of that episode and suggests the motel needs cable TV. There is a huge amount of Sludge Monster movies in the comics.
! Pld
* '''Vermin Man''' is a character that was mentioned in Garfield comic strip in April 25,1980.He Starred in a Movie called "The Sluge Monster meets Vermin Man" when Jon took Liz on a date to a Drive in Theater.
! W
* '''Garfield's conscience''' is an entity whose job is to "make you feel bad about the things that make you feel good." He is described as resembling "everyone's mother." When not working, he shares Garfield's sense of humour. He told Garfield to back up a little, and Garfield fell of the table. He is quite annoying, to the point that Garfield bottled him. Jon unfortunately took the cork out, wherupon he was told to "get a haircut". He has been shown as Garfield's bed, food dish, clock and a bottle. The cricket from television may be one of his forms, or a different conscience.
! D
* '''[Yarn]''' is also a character Garfield can “think” too. The yarn talks back to Garfield, although it is not a hallucination. The first one talked January 19, 2001. The yarn humor has included the yarn shampooing itself, going in a hot tub and shrinking, and Garfield taking it for a walk (which let itself loose).
! L
* '''The sock''' is another superhero alter-ego of Garfield. His sidekick Stinky (Odie with smelly socks) is shown to be worst as Garfield can realise.
! Pen
* '''Clive''' is Garfield's invisible friend. He is another way through which Garfield plays pranks on and irritates Jon and Odie.
! BP
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 2 || 2 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 13 || 41
|-
|| 2 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 2 || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0.5 || 10 || 27.5
|-
|| 3 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 2 || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 10 || 24
|-
|| 4 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 8 || 12
|-
|| 4 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 8 || 12
|-
|| 4 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 2 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 0 || 8 || 12
|-
|| 7 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 6 || 10
==Television series only==
|-
{{main|Garfield and Friends}}
|| 7 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 2 || 0 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 6 || 10
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 1 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 3 || 3
|}
===RoundCactus threeJake===
[[Image:CactusJake.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Cactus Jake]]
'''Cactus Jake''' is the foreman of the Polecat Flats ranch, and a friend of Jon. He was seen only in the TV series and had a habit of saying Garfield's name wrong. Whenever Garfield wore a cowboy outfit, Jake always believed that he really was a cowboy named "Shorty" (Jon would always recognize "Shorty" as Garfield, however). Jake's voice was provided by [[Pat Buttram]]. First appeardd: [[Polecat Flats]]. Last appeared: [[The Multiple Choice Cartoon]]. Last appearance (mentioned): [[Stairway to Stardom]].
===Dr. Garbanzo Bean===
====Derbyshire v Northamptonshire (27-30 April)====
[[Image:Garbanzobean.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Dr. Garbanzo Bean]]
'''Dr. Garbanzo Bean''' is a [[mad scientist]] who invented a mechanical Odie dubbed the "Robodie." This proved popular enough for him to return in a sequel, appropriately enough called "Robodie 2." He was voiced by [[Frank Welker]].
===Al G. Swindler===
'''''Northamptonshire (12pts) drew with Derbyshire (6pts)'''''
[[Image:AlGSwindler.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Al G. Swindler]]
'''Al G. Swindler''' is, as his name suggests, a [[swindler|Confidence trick]], often conning Jon whenever he can, not to mention mispronouncing his last name. He only appeared in the TV series, usually getting outsmarted by Garfield shortly after tricking Jon enough times, and at the end of the episodes he was in, he would usually say, "It's getting tougher and tougher to make an honest buck these days." He was voiced by [[Carl Ballantine]]. He first appered on the episode Lemon Aid.
===The Buddy Bears===
[[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] batted first at [[The County Ground, Derby|Derby]], and openers [[Bilal Shafayat]] and [[Martin Love]] took them to the sword, though [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] dropped them both. Shafayat finished the first day unbeaten on a career-best 156 from 267 balls; Love was on 129 off 233 balls; Northants were on 292.
[[Image:BuddyBears.jpg|180px|thumb|right|The Buddy Bears]]
'''The Buddy Bears''' are a trio of annoying singing bear cubs who encourage viewers to "always agree with the group" (similar to ''[[The Get-Along Gang]]''). Their names are '''Bobby''', '''Billy''', and '''Bertie'''. In the episode "5 Minute Warning" the DVD subtitles mistakenly gave Bertie's name as Brady. The only disagreement they've ever had was over pizza toppings, which supposedly no one can agree on. Their show once replaced Binky's, and Roy Rooster from ''[[U.S. Acres]]'' has twice been stuck as their fall guy. Garfield has remarked that he "hates Buddy Bear episodes". In the episode "The Garfield Opera", the bears' full names are revealed to be '''Robert,''' '''William,''' and '''Bertram''' respectively. In one episode, they are accompanied by their sister, '''Betty Buddy Bear.''' In another episode, the Buddy Bears are hired to provide factual explanations for everything Garfield does, i.e., appearing spontaneously to say "Bananas are a very good source of potassium" when Garfield mentions bananas. Eventually Garfield tricks them into leaving by asking them about "gazorninplats," which they know nothing about (since Garfield made it up), and, admitting defeat, they leave. The trick backfires, however, when a TV producer notifies Garfield that he is so taken with the name "Gazorninplat" that he is going to replace Garfield's show with new Gazorninplat show. They first appeared on [[Binky Gets Cancelled, Again!]].
===Madman Murray===
Shafayat added only 5 to his overnight score before being [[lbw]], but Love went on to 168. Northamptonshire finally [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] on 451 for 7. In reply, Derbyshire regularly lost wickets, finishing the second day on 135 for 4. On the third day, [[Johann Louw]] took 6 for 71 to force Derbyshire to [[follow on]] 210 in arrears. However, Derbyshire fared much better in their second innings - with both openers undefeated and their score on 119, 91 behind with one day to play. Rain then wiped out the final day's play. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2005/4/11541/html/scorecard.stm (BBC scorecard)]
[[Image:MadManMurray.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Madman Murray]]
'''Madman Murray''' is a caricature of the type of ecstatic salesmen seen advertising used cars on television. Somewhat like Swindler, Madman is continually conning Jon out of his money. However, Madman's appearances on the show do not typically end with Garfield outsmarting him. He is voiced by [[Gregg Berger]]. His cartoons were [[Guarenteed Trouble]], [[Rolling Romance]], [[Jumping Jon]] ([[cameo]]) and [[Madman Meets His Match]].
===Mr. Burnside===
====Somerset v Essex (27-30 April)====
[[Image:Mr. Burnside.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Mr. Burnside]]
'''Mr. Burnside''' is Jon's next-door neighbor, who is constantly annoyed by Garfield stealing his food. Early on in the sixth season, he was pushed so far as to rent his house out. Shortly after moving, Burnside found out that without Garfield stealing his food, he and his wife were getting overweight, so they agreed to move back. He is voiced by [[Gregg Berger]].
===Penelope Pussycat===
'''''Essex (22pts) beat Somerset (2pts) by nine wickets'''''
[[Image:PenelopeCat.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Penelope]]
'''Penelope Pussycat''' served as another love interest for Garfield, appearing only in the show's last three seasons, quickly becoming a regular even with only three episodes being labeled by their titles as "Penelope episodes". She lives in an Italian restaurant, which is no doubt the main reason that Garfield goes out with her. The fact that Garfield enjoys eating more than being with her annoys Penelope, but she willingly goes out with him anyway, because as she says, "It doesn't matter what we do so long as we do it together." She is voiced by [[Victoria Jackson]]. Penelope was not a character creation by Jim Davis or 'Garfield & Friends' writer, Mark Evanier. Penelope was a conception of Dallas, TX resident and Garfield fanatic by the name of Chris Miller. Penelope was included as part of a spoof newspaper submission to Paws Inc in 1989. Because Miller did not have his creation copyrighted or trademarked, Penelope was fair use for the Garfield shows. Another character of Miller's named "Gwendolyn" appeared in an episode of the series.
===Ludlow===
On 35 overs were possible on the first day. On a green [[Taunton]] pitch, [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] fared poorly against [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex's]] seam attack. [[Alex Tudor]], who had moved from [[Surrey County Cricket Club|Surrey]], took the first two wickets, including [[Marcus Trescothick]] for 4. Somerset were on 119 for 5 at stumps.
[[Image:LudlowSparrow.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Ludlow]]
'''Ludlow''' is a young [[sparrow]] who appeared during the last two seasons, and who sounded somewhat like [[Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy|Augie Doggy]]. Being young and impressionable, he believes that Garfield is his friend, and as a result, Garfield cannot bring himself to eat him. Ludlow's dad distrusts cats, and therefore is aggressive to Garfield. He was voiced by [[Don Messick]]. His cartoons were [[Sweet Tweet Treat]] and [[Catch as Cats Can't]].
===The Singing Ants===
Somerset were soon dismissed on the Thursday for 190. Essex's youngsters, [[Alastair Cook]], who looked to be headed for an England call-up before long, and [[Ravinder Bopara]], aged 20 and 19 respectively, made merry with the bat. Although the pitch did not seam as much as the first day, they put on 181 together. Cook was finally out [[bowled]] for 111, and Bopara not out for 71 at close, with Essex on 224 for 3, 34 runs ahead.
[[Image:SingingAnts.jpg|180px|thumb|right|The Singing Ants]]
'''The Singing Ants''' are a group of [[black ants]] who showed up to ruin Jon's picnic in the season five episode "The Picnic Panic". They are referred to as the Singing Ants because they make their appearance announcing what they do, which is to steal food from picnics, by way of song ("we're the ants who ruin your dinner"). The ants proved to be so popular with viewers that two seasons later, the ants reappeared in the aptly-titled "Another Ant Episode". This time, though, they were red ants, and they had come to steal all the food in Jon's house. At the end of their second episode, Jon's house was destroyed by the exterminator, Mr. Leo Crater's robot. The ants sang "We'll be back after you rebuild here, cause by then it'll be time for a Third Ant Episode". But because of the show's cancellation, there never was a third one. They also made a cameo in "A Vacation From His Senses". The Ants are perhaps the only antagonistic characters whom Garfield cannot succeed in outsmarting.
===Ichabod Cricket===
Bopara could not add to his overnight total on the third day, as he was [[caught]] off [[Richard Johnson (cricketer)|Richard Johnson's]] bowling. But Essex were able to take control, finally [[declaration and forfeiture|declaring]] on 427 for 8 when Tudor was run out for 57. Somerset's fast bowlers, Johnson and [[Andrew Caddick]] had picked up three wickets each, but had not been able to stop the flow of runs. Foster was not out on 78 when the declaration came. In reply, Somerset fared okay till Trescothick went with the score on 57, and then, at 65 for 1, [[Andre Adams]], Essex's [[New Zealand cricket team|New Zealand]] import took a hat-trick. [[Michael Burns (cricketer)|Michael Burns]] edged an [[outswinger]], and [[Sanath Jayasuriya]] and [[James Hildreth]] were both [[lbw|leg before]]. With Adams picking up one more wicket before the close of play, Somerset finished on 128 for 5, still 109 runs off making Essex bat again.
[[Image:Ichabodcricket.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Ichabod]]|
'''Ichabod Cricket''' served as Garfield's conscience in the ''Garfield and Friends'' episode, "A Matter of Conscience", based on [[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]. Throughout the episode Garfield was annoyed by the cricket, and at the end of the episode Garfield squahed him. Garfield said the cricket was in the original book, but not in the Disney film (referencing the fact that Jiminy Cricket was not in the book, but was in the Disney film). Later after Ichabod left Garfield, he went on to make sound effects (he did cricket chirps). He showed up in the next episode, "Half-Baked Alaska", as [[Jon Arbuckle|Jon's]] conscience. He told Jon to dump [[salad]] on his head, spill [[lasagna]] on the fat guy's (Jon's boss) lap, and hit the cartoonist in the face with a cake. The end of the episode features Garfield, Jon, and Odie chasing the cricket, because he told Jon to give him all his money.
===Esmeralda===
On the Saturday, Somerset's tail was quickly reduced to 180 for 8. There was then something of a rearguard action with 63 put on by Caddick and [[Robert Turner]] for the ninth wicket, and Turner and [[Nixon McLean]] putting on 70 for the tenth. This left Essex with a target of 77 to win, which they did easily with the loss of just one wicket. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2005/4/11540/html/scorecard.stm (BBC scorecard)]
'''Esmeralda''' is a clumsy [[fairy godmother]] that grants wishes to [[cats]] and dogs. Appering in the episode, “[[The Fairy Dogmother]]”, she granted Odie’s wish to go to the Hound Dog Harvest. Later she appered on the episode, “Dogmother II”, when Garfield wished he could get revenge on Rootie the Dog. She forgot what Garfield wished for, so she granted whatever anyone in the Arbuckle house wanted. For example, Jon sings “I wish I were in Dixieland, hooray, hooray”, and he was, only to find himself without anything but a shower cap on. He is arrested and he wished he was back home, and he was, in his bed. Later, Esmeralda’s boss told her she did a good job on the wish Garfield wanted, so right before Garfield is going to drop a 1956 [[Studebaker]] on Rootie, nothing happens, making Rootie chase him. These two episodes were called A Garfield [[Fairy Tale]].
===A Large Bully Cat===
====Worcestershire v Lancashire (27-30 April)====
'''A Large Bully Cat''' is shown on several episodes of Garfield and Friends. This cat is often with a female cat that Garfield falls in love with, and the cat often beats Garfield up. Some examples are Bonzo from Beach Blanket Bonzo and Brick from The Idol of Id and The Perils of Penelope.
{{Garfield}}
'''''Lancashire (17pts) beat Worcestershire (6pts) by 76 runs'''''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garfield}}
[[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] batted first after losing the toss at [[Worcester]], and were soon in trouble. At 81 for 3, [[Andrew Flintoff]], playing his first [[first-class cricket|first-class]] match after returning from injury, came to the crease. However, after facing 5 balls he was back in the Pavilion without scoring. It got worse for Lancashire as they fell to 97 for 6 and 196 all out, mostly thanks to an unbeaten 69 from [[wicket-keeper]] [[Warren Hegg]]. In reply, [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] lost [[Stephen Moore (cricketer)|Stephen Moore]] early, but [[Graeme Hick]] and [[Stephen Peters]] were there at close, with Worcestershire on 59 for 1.
[[Category:Comics characters]]
[[Category:Animated characters]]
Hick dominated the second day's play as he moved from 32 not out to 176 in 231 balls, his 127th first-class century and his 97th for Worcestershire. This now puts him tenth in the list of all-time century makers, just ahead of [[WG Grace]]. However, no other Worcester player scored more than 27 as [[Muttiah Muralitharan]] picked up 5 wickets, and they finished on 306, 110 ahead. Lancashire were 47 for 1 in reply at stumps.
[[Category:Garfield characters]]
[[Category:Lists of fictional characters by work]]
There was cheer for [[English cricket team|England]] fans on the third day, as the England regular Flintoff was back to his belligerent best, scoring 83 from 101 balls. [[Stuart Law]] also made 83, but was slower, taking 152 balls. With support from [[Dominic Cork]] (57), Lancashire were able to set a fair target. Their 377 left Worcestershire 268 to win. They lost Peters first ball, and Moore also fell, but with Lancashire pitching short to Hick, it was 58 for 2 at close.
On the final day, 3 wickets from each of [[Dominic Cork]] and [[Muttiah Muralitharan]] helped dismiss Worcestershire for 191 runs, with [[David Wigley]] unable to bat because of a broken hand sustained when [[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] bowled a [[beamer (cricket)|beamer]] at him in the first innings. After the match Cork talking about his match performance of 7 for 115 said, "The ball is coming out well at the moment. I've worked hard with [[Mike Watkinson]] over the winter with it. It's early season and these sort of conditions suit a bowler like myself." Watkinson, in response, spoke of Lancashire's determination to get straight back into the first Division after the disappointment of relegation last season, ""We talked about the start of the season and the need to start well and to get a positive number in the wins column is a good feeling. We have two home games now coming up against Derbyshire and Durham and maybe we can kick on from here." [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2005/4/11539/html/scorecard.stm (BBC scorecard)]
====Table at 30 April====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=9 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 30 April 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! BP
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 2 || 2 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 13 || 41
|-
|| 2 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 2 || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 16 || 34
|-
|| 3 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 3 || 1 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 16 || 30
|-
|| 4 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 2 || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0.5 || 10 || 27.5
|-
|| 5 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 2 || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 11 || 27
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 2 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 0 || 16 || 24
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 3 || 0 || 1 || 2 || 0 || 8 || 14
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 2 || 0 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 6 || 10
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 2 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 0 || 5 || 9
|}
===Round four===
====Durham v Somerset (6-9 May)====
'''''Durham (19pts) beat Somerset (5pts) by four wickets'''''
[[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] saw off the [[Andrew Caddick]] scare against [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] to win a close match by four wickets. Somerset chose to bat after winning the toss at [[Stockton-on-Tees]], in the first match at this ground in six years. England fast bowler [[Steve Harmison]] continued his return to form, removing both Somerset openers, but conceded many runs in the process, and it was England ODI all-rounder [[Paul Collingwood]] who was the star, taking the wickets of the Somerset top-scorers [[James Hildreth]] ([[caught]] by [[Gareth Breese]] for 70) and [[Ian Blackwell]] ([[bowled]] for 48) in addition to the three last lower-order wickets. Somerset were all out for 252 in just 63.3 overs.
In reply, Durham struggled with playing [[Andrew Caddick]], as he removed four Durham batsmen for single-figure scores. Only [[Liam Plunkett]] (74 [[not out]]) and [[Mark Davies]] (62) managed to play Caddick with some success, and that was on the second day - at stumps on day one, Caddick had taken five wickets and reduced Durham to 141/7. Plunkett and Davies, batting at 8 and 10 respectively, saved the innings to 298 all out and a lead of 46 runs - while Caddick was taken around to end with six for 106.
Harmison and Collingwood continued in the style of the first innings, although this time it was the real pace bowler who took the most wicket. On the afternoon of the second day, he again took both openers - including England opener [[Marcus Trescothick]], and when [[Ian Blackwell]] (87) and [[Andrew Caddick]] threatened to run away with it with their partnership of 78 for the last wicket, it was Harmison who got Blackwell out, caught by Liam Plunkett. Durham were set a tricky target of 243, but the Jamaican-born all-rounder [[Gareth Breese]] saw off the challenge of Caddick, who took yet another six-for - this time for 98 - to end with match figures of 12 for 104. Unfortunately, he was the only bowler to dig in, and [[Michael Hussey]] (51), [[Dale Benkenstein]] (51) and the aforementioned Breese with 79 not out saw Durham reach the target to preserve their unbeaten run in the Championship.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/06-09MAY2005/DURHAM_SOMERSET_CC2_06-09MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Essex v Leicestershire (6-9 May)====
'''''Essex (21pts) beat Leicestershire (3.5pts) by six wickets'''''
In a relatively closely fought game at [[Chelmsford]], the [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] team showed more resilience than the visitors, with nearly everyone chipping in to give the hosts a relatively comfortable victory. It started with a good bowling effort on the first day, after [[Ronnie Irani]] had chosen to put [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] in. It nearly backfired, [[Darren Robinson (cricketer)|Darren Robinson]] and [[Darren Maddy]] easing their way to 98 for no loss, but the part-time medium pace of Essex number three [[Ravinder Bopara]] got Maddy out, resulting in a mini-collapse to 167 for 8. [[David Masters]] (27) and [[Phil DeFreitas]] (20) saved the innings somewhat, but Leicestershire's final total of 220 off 81 overs meant that Essex looked like being in the drivers' seat. [[Dale Steyn]], the young South African pace bowler with three Test caps, took three for 69 on Essex debut, but [[Darren Gough]] was the pick of the bowlers with three for 46 - including Robinson, [[Paul Nixon]] for a [[golden duck]] and DeFreitas.
With every Essex batsman except number 11 Steyn ([[run out]] for 0) scoring in double figures, Essex showed a real team effort, with in-form opener [[William Jefferson (cricketer)|William Jefferson]] top-scoring with 93 as Essex got into a relatively comfortable lead of 142. Leicestershire fought back well on the third day, though, having lost Maddy before stumps on the second day to be 57 for 1. Robinson, [[Dinesh Mongia]], [[Aftab Habib]] and [[HD Ackerman]] all passed 30, and [[Claude Henderson]] chipped in with a fine 55 from number 9, as Leicestershire made their way to a lead of 190. Only Gough showed consistent threat, taking four wickets for 60, while Steyn again became too inconsistent - he conceded 102 runs in his 21-over effort, although he did get the wickets of Robinson and [[Otis Gibson]].
Essex had the entire fourth day to secure their victory, but didn't slouch - their 191 runs were up inside 44.2 overs, [[England A cricket team|England A]] left-hander [[Alastair Cook]] the fastest scorer with 59 off 69 balls while Zimbabwean keeper [[Andy Flower]] finished with 74 not out to lead Essex to their target. To compound Leicestershire's misery, they were deducted half a point for a slow over rate.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/06-09MAY2005/ESSEX_LEICS_CC2_06-09MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Lancashire v Derbyshire (6-9 May)====
'''''Lancashire (22pts) beat Derbyshire (3pts) by an innings and 72 runs'''''
[[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] batted first at [[Old Trafford (cricket)|Old Trafford]], but fared poorly, being dismissed for 215, with [[Luke Sutton]] top-scoring with 95. No one else passed 40, however. [[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] took 4 for 62, and was the pick of the [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] bowlers. In reply, Lancashire made 65 for no loss at stumps on the first day.
Lancashire continued their dominance on the second day, although only 40 overs were possible as they progressed to 175 for 1. The third day saw them finally dismissed for 469, with [[Mal Loye]] (101) and [[Stuart Law]] (112) making [[century (cricket)|centuries]]. By close Derbyshire had progressed to 81 for 1, leaving them at least the possibility of a draw. However, that wasn't to be as they plummeted to 182 all out. [[Spin bowling|Spin bowler]] [[Gary Keedy]] was the hero for the home side, taking 6 for 60. [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/06-09MAY2005/LANCS_DERBY_CC2_06-09MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Yorkshire v Northamptonshire (6-9 May)====
'''''Yorkshire (20pts) beat Northamptonshire (5pts) by 10 wickets'''''
[[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] were dismissed for 281 on the first day at [[Headingley Stadium|Headingley]], with [[Deon Kruis]] taking 5 for 59. It was a recovery of sorts, as [[Ben Phillips]] and [[Johann Louw]] put on 95 for the eighth wicket, but [[Anthony McGrath]] ended the visitors' resistance with three wickets. [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] were 30 for 0 in reply at the end of the first day. [[Phil Jaques]] dominated the second day, with his 176, which helped Yorkshire to an all out total of 328, a small lead of 47. His fellow [[Australian cricket team|Australian]] [[Damien Wright]] recorded what turned out to be Northamptonshire's best [[bowling analysis|bowling figures]], ending with eight for 60. Northants were 9 for 0 at stumps on the second day.
On the third day, ten-man Northamptonshire capitulated. They lost their first wicket without a run being added, and never really got going, being 115 for 7 at close on the third day, and being dismissed for 175 and setting a target of 129 on the fourth. It was clear they were not going to win, and Yorkshire gave them no chances, winning by 10 wickets. [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/06-09MAY2005/YORKS_NORTHANTS_CC2_06-09MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 9 May====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=9 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 9 May 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! BP
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 3 || 3 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 18 || 60
|-
|| 2 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 3 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 23 || 51
|-
|| 3 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 3 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 19 || 49
|-
|| 4 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 3 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 0.5 || 16 || 47.5
|-
|| 5 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 3 || 1 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 16 || 30
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 3 || 0 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 21 || 29
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 4 || 0 || 1 || 3 || 0 || 13 || 19
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 3 || 0 || 0 || 3 || 0.5 || 10 || 13.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 3 || 0 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 8 || 12
|}
===Round five===
====Lancashire v Durham (11-13 May)====
'''''Durham (20pts) beat Lancashire (3pts) by 9 wickets'''''
[[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] recorded another comprehensive win, this time at [[Old Trafford (cricket)|Old Trafford]]. After winning the toss, [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] were skittled out for 199, and with Durham making 92 for 2 by close on the first day, they were well on top. This continued on the second day, with [[Michael Hussey]] making 144 and [[wicket-keeper]] [[Philip Mustard]] 77 before they were all out for 338. [[Muttiah Muralitharan]] took 5 for 107, bowling 39 of Lancashire's 107 [[over (cricket)|overs]]. Lancashire were struggling again at 135 for 5 at close, and only managed to make it to 173 on the third day, as [[Andrew Flintoff]] was the only Lancashire batsman to pass 20. Durham knocked off the 35 runs required for the loss of one wicket. [http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/11-14MAY2005/LANCS_DURHAM_CC2_11-14MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Leicestershire v Yorkshire (11-14 May)====
'''''Yorkshire (17pts) beat Leicestershire (5pts) by six wickets'''''
[[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] made an epic comeback against [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] at [[Grace Road]]. Leicestershire won the toss and batted, scoring 278 with [[HD Ackerman]] top-scoring with a quick 85 [[not out]] - forging partnerships with everyone from 6 to 11, who were asked to block at the other end and thus were all out in single figures. After the [[Barbados|Barbadian]] pace bowler [[Ottis Gibson]] had reduced Yorkshire to 151, getting [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]], [[Phil Jaques]] and [[Ian Harvey]] out in his 6-56, Leicestershire began the task of assembling a big lead. Everyone made some sort of contribution, but the most intriguing decision of the day was captain Ackerman's - with the lead of 403 and well over a day and a half left to play, he decided not to send fellow countryman [[Charl Willoughby]] in to bat and [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] instead, thinking he would be more use with the new ball.
It backfired spectacularly. Wood (48), Jaques (37), [[Michael Vaughan]] (53) and Harvey (47) all made entertaining knocks, but it was [[Anthony McGrath]] who stole the show with a five-and-a-half-hour 165 [[not out]] - the grindstone of Yorkshire's amazing runchase, the highest in the Championship this season - indeed, the highest fourth-innings run chase in the club's history. Leicestershire's bowlers were smashed to all corners, [[Phil DeFreitas]] the only one who escaped with some respectability as he took two for 50 in eleven overs. Gibson, Leicestershire's best performer of the first innings, conceded 124 for no wicket the second time around.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/11-14MAY2005/LEICS_YORKS_CC2_11-14MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Northamptonshire v Essex (11-14 May)====
'''''Northamptonshire (12pts) drew with Essex (6pts)'''''
At [[Northampton]] the home side batted first. [[Bilal Shafayat]] (153) and [[Usman Afzaal]] (168) scored two huge centuries to help [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] to 552 for 7 [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]]. When [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] finally got to bat, it was a different story, with the batsmen, particularly the tail, struggling. [[Johann Louw]] took 6 for 51, as Essex subsided to 178. The [[follow on|follow-on]] was enforced, and from then on the bat dominated again. [[Alastair Cook]] made a career-best 195 in 513 minutes, supported by [[Zimbabwean cricket team|Zimbabwean]] [[Andy Flower]], who made 142 [[not out]], as Essex eased to the draw at 495 for 6 declared. [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/11-14MAY2005/NORTHANTS_ESSEX_CC2_11-14MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Worcestershire v Derbyshire (11-14 May)====
'''''Worcestershire (22pts) beat Derbyshire (5pts) by 9 wickets'''''
[[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire's]] [[Stephen Moore (cricketer)|Stephen Moore]] dominated the first innings, making 246 as they climbed to 478. The score would have been a lot less if it weren't for [[Jamie Pipe]], who came in with the score on 300 for 8 and put on 80, sharing a 173-run stand with Moore - eight short of the county ninth-wicket record from [[1907 English cricket season|1907]]. In reply [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] were bowled out for 263, with no player making a half-century. The [[follow-on]] was enforced and Derbyshire did do better, but their 314 set Worcester a target of 100, which they easily knocked off for the loss of one wicket. Derbyshire's second innings included 7 [[lbw]]s. [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/11-14MAY2005/WORCS_DERBY_CC2_11-14MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 14 May====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=9 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 14 May 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! BP
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 4 || 4 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 24 || 80
|-
|| 2 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 4 || 3 || 1 || 0 || 0.5 || 19 || 64.5
|-
|| 3 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 4 || 2 || 2 || 0 || 0 || 25 || 61
|-
|| 4 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 4 || 2 || 1 || 1 || 0 || 20 || 52
|-
|| 4 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 4 || 2 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 24 || 52
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 4 || 0 || 3 || 1 || 0 || 29 || 41
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 4 || 0 || 1 || 3 || 0 || 15 || 19
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 4 || 0 || 1 || 3 || 0.5 || 15 || 18.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 4 || 0 || 1 || 3 || 0 || 13 || 17
|}
===Round six===
====Durham v Yorkshire (20-23 May)====
'''''Durham (10pts) drew with Yorkshire (9pts)'''''
In the clash of the two top teams of Division Two of the Championship, [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] came the closest to losing a game so far in the season - though they threw it away themselves. With England requiring [[Steve Harmison]] to be rested, the team at last looked beatable, though they had [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] on the rack at 124 for 7 and 179 for 9. However, [[Richard Dawson (cricketer)|Richard Dawson]] and [[Deon Kruis]] let loose for Yorkshire, scoring 75 for the last wicket in a late blitz to guide Yorkshire to a total of 254.
In reply, Durham were in a spot of bother at 146 for 6, but a partnership worth 126 between [[Gareth Breese]] and [[Philip Mustard]] lifted Durham to 316. With a 62-run deficit on first innings, Yorkshire lost their first seven wickets for only 128 runs, but [[Anthony McGrath]] hit a potentially match-saving 133 [[not out]] - his second important [[century (cricket)|century]] of the season, following his 165 not out against Leicestershire a week earlier. He was supported by [[Chris Silverwood]], who smashed 80 off 66 balls before eventually being [[bowled]] by [[Michael Lewis (cricketer)|Michael Lewis]], who removed the five last batsmen in his five for 80.
Despite McGrath's big score, Durham were only set 245 to win in well over a day. They started sedately, as [[Michael Hussey]] (23 [[not out]]) and [[Jon Lewis]] (18 [[not out]]) took them to [[stump (cricket)|stumps]] on day three without losing a wicket, and cut 53 off the winning target. What looked like a reasonably simple chase, however, was intervened by rain, bad light and clever bowling from the South African Kruis. [[Gordon Muchall]] and Hussey looked to be securing it at 132 for 2, however, but a mini-collapse in the last overs saw the Durham fans biting their nails. Eventually, the chase was stopped nineteen runs short of victory for Durham, but they lost eight wickets in the process and were probably glad to escape with a draw - though they would be ruing the slow scoring at the end. [[Dale Benkenstein]], their No. 4, hit 28 not out off 78 balls.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/20-23MAY2005/DURHAM_YORKS_CC2_20-23MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Essex v Worcestershire (20-23 May)====
'''''Worcestershire (21pts) beat Essex (4pts) by eight wickets'''''
[[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] and [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] took notice of the bad weather forecasts, racking up runs swiftly at [[The County Ground, Chelmsford|Chelmsford]]. The Essex batting effort was not very spectacular, and only [[Ronnie Irani|Ronnie Irani's]] 85 saved some grace for Essex as wickets tumbled amid showers on the first day. They finished 220 all out as Worcestershire's bowlers teamed up, [[Matthew Mason]] the best with four for 48. In reply, [[Ben Smith]] made a century including fourteen fours, and with help of [[Gareth Batty]] (54) and [[Kabir Ali]] (53), both former England players, Worcestershire got to 383 all out - a lead of 163. [[Alastair Cook]], Essex' 20-year-old prodigy, made a quick 46, but it was their 37-year-old Zimbabwean [[Andy Flower]] who, as so many times before, was the top scorer and the rock of the Essex innings with 85 - which led them to 329.
Setting Worcestershire a paltry 167 to win, Essex got off to a good start bowling, removing opener [[Stephen Peters]] for 0 and [[nightwatchman]] and wicketkeeper [[Jamie Pipe]] for 11 just before stumps, as [[Darren Gough]] and [[Dale Steyn]] took a wicket each for Essex. On the fourth day, however, [[Stephen Moore (cricketer)|Stephen Moore]] built on his good batting form after 246 against Derbyshire a week before, however, making 63 not out and pairing up with [[Graeme Hick]] (76 not out) for 146 runs to win the match with relative ease.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/20-23MAY2005/ESSEX_WORCS_CC2_20-23MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Somerset v Lancashire (20-23 May)====
'''''Lancashire (11pts) drew with Somerset (7pts)'''''
Rain ravaged the match between [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] and [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] allowing little play on the first three days. Between the showers, Lancashire had Somerset at 48 for 2 on the first day, but the little play that was possible after that gave [[Michael Burns]] (87) and [[Sanath Jayasuriya]] (72 [[not out]] after three days) opportunity to increase the score to 195 for 3 on day 3. A draw looked more than likely, even if the sides would agree to forfeiting an innings. The fourth day was a full day of cricket, and [[Muttiah Muralitharan]] took five for 56 for Lancashire as they bowled Somerset out for 294. [[Ian Sutcliffe]] then lifted Lancashire to four batting points and 351 for 3 declared with his 150, well helped by an unbeaten [[century (cricket)|century]] from Australian [[Brad Hodge]].
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/20-23MAY2005/SOMERSET_LANCS_CC2_20-23MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 23 May====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=9 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 23 May 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! BP
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 5 || 4 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 30 || 90
|-
|| 2 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 5 || 3 || 2 || 0 || 0.5 || 24 || 73.5
|-
|| 3 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 5 || 3 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 31 || 73
|-
|| 4 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 5 || 2 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 29 || 65
|-
|| 5 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 5 || 2 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 27 || 63
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 4 || 0 || 3 || 1 || 0 || 29 || 41
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 5 || 0 || 2 || 3 || 0 || 18 || 26
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 4 || 0 || 1 || 3 || 0.5 || 15 || 18.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 4 || 0 || 1 || 3 || 0 || 13 || 17
|}
===Round seven===
====Northamptonshire v Somerset (25-27 May)====
'''''Somerset (21pts) beat Northamptonshire (8pts) by six wickets'''''
[[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] won the [[toss (cricket)|toss]] at [[The County Ground, Northampton|Northampton]] and chose to bowl - and although they got the hosts [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] out in a day, [[Martin Love]] (166) and wicketkeeper [[Riki Wessels]] (son of [[Kepler Wessels|Kepler]]) (102) made quick centuries to lift the hosts to 408. Conversely, however, two Northamptonshire batsmen batting at 4 and 5 perished for [[duck (disambiguation)|ducks]] to [[Richard Johnson (cricketer)|Richard Johnson]]. Somerset replied well, though, with 53 from opener [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]], but rash strokes gave wickets around everywhere as Somerset made 356 - admittedly only 52 behind. [[Off break|Off-spinner]] [[Jason Brown (cricketer)|Jason Brown]] got six wickets for 112, just as many than he had taken before this game, while [[Ian Blackwell]] played a typical 59 off 77 balls.
Northamptonshire lost the wicket of [[Bilal Shafayat]] in their eight overs before stumps on day two but could still be reasonably pleased with the first two days' play. However, on the third day, their side collapsed with [[Gareth Andrew]] taking three for 31 as they crashed to 100 all out - [[Ian Blackwell]] removing two in his only over, which was also a maiden. In chasing 155, Somerset had some problems in tackling the bowling of [[Johann Louw]], who took two wickets, but still managed a relatively comfortable six-wicket win.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/25-29MAY2005/NORTHANTS_SOMERSET_CC2_25-28MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Yorkshire v Essex (25-28 May)====
'''''Essex (12pts) drew with Yorkshire (9pts)'''''
Centuries from [[Andy Flower]] (188) and [[Ronnie Irani]] (103) along with 93 from the former [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] player [[Darren Gough]] helped [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] to a massive score of 622 for 8 [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] at [[Headingley Stadium|Headingley]], as Yorkshire's bowling were taken for runs. Essex were 76 for 4 after two wickets from [[Deon Kruis]], but Yorkshire failed to turn the screw, and the partnerships for the fifth to eighth wicket were all worth more than 100 runs for Essex. Andy Flower and Irani added 213 for the fifth wicket.
New Zealand all-rounder [[Andre Adams]] then took two early wickets to dig into Yorkshire, who finished the second day on 53 for 2. The third day was calmly played by Yorkshire, as only Gough could take wickets - ending with four for 49. Yorkshire saw out the day well to end on 336 for 8, meaning that Essex would have to take twelve wickets on the final day to win the game. They only dug out seven - [[Tim Bresnan]], [[Chris Silverwood]] and [[Deon Kruis]] frustrating them to build a further 72 runs overnight in the first innings, and [[follow on|following on]] Yorkshire easily withstood the spin of [[James Middlebrook]] who had to bowl 29 of 68 Essex overs, as Yorkshire made their way to 238 for 5 with [[Phil Jaques]] and [[Anthony McGrath]] making half-centuries
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2005/5/11613/html/scorecard.stm (BBC scorecard)]
====Derbyshire v Leicestershire (26-29 May)====
'''''Leicestershire (19pts) beat Derbyshire (5pts) by 4 wickets'''''
[[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] lost wickets slowly but surely at [[The County Ground, Derby|Derby]] as only Australian [[Michael di Venuto]] stood tall against the [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] onslaught, scoring 76. Eventually, Derbyshire [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] on 251 for 9, as wickets were spread about evenly. Leicestershire replied well, with an opening partnership of 85, and a half-century from [[Dinesh Mongia]] took them to 188 for 2. But [[Graeme Welch]] took four for 48 as the last eight wickets fell for 91 runs, with only [[Darren Robinson (cricketer)|Darren Robinson's]] gritty four-hour century saving Leicestershire blushes. The Derbyshire reply was equally gritty, as 112 overs of cricket yielded only 259 runs, with di Venuto scoring 73 runs in a little less than five hours - although no bowler consistently threatened the Derbyshire batsmen. Derbyshire finished their second innings on 285, setting a target of 258, and Derbyshire dug out three early wickets for 48 runs. But 47 from Mongia along with half-centuries from [[HD Ackerman]] and [[John Sadler]] turned the match around, and Leicestershire made it to their target of 258 for the loss of six wickets. [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/25-29MAY2005/DERBY_LEICS_CC2_26-29MAY2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 29 May====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=9 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 29 May 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! BP
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 5 || 4 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 30 || 90
|-
|| 2 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 6 || 3 || 3 || 0 || 0.5 || 29 || 82.5
|-
|| 3 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 6 || 2 || 3 || 1 || 0 || 37 || 77
|-
|| 4 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 5 || 3 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 31 || 73
|-
|| 5 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 5 || 2 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 27 || 63
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 5 || 0 || 3 || 2 || 0 || 37 || 49
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 6 || 1 || 2 || 3 || 0 || 25 || 47
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 5 || 1 || 1 || 3 || 0.5 || 20 || 37.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 5 || 0 || 1 || 4 || 0 || 18 || 22
|}
===Round eight===
====Essex v Derbyshire (1-4 June)====
'''''Derbyshire (11pts) drew with Essex (9pts)'''''
[[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] batted first at [[Chelmsford]], and they put on a commanding 462 with [[Stephen Stubbings]] making 92 and [[Graeme Welch]] 112. [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] lost quick wickets in reply, going to 34 for 4, but the tail wagged greatly with [[Ronnie Irani]], [[James Foster (cricketer)|James Foster]] and [[James Middlebrook]] all getting half-centuries as the hosts made 320. Derbyshire, who were without a win all season, probably erred in delaying their declaration to lunchtime on the fourth day, at 236 for 3, with [[Michael Di Venuto]] making 110. A half-century from [[Alastair Cook]] and a maiden [[first class cricket|first-class]] century from [[Ravinder Bopara]] saw Essex through to the draw on 245 for 5, well short of their theoretical target of 379. [http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/01-04JUN2005/ESSEX_DERBY_CC2_01-04JUN2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Lancashire v Northamptonshire (1-4 June)====
'''''Lancashire (7pts) drew with Northamptonshire (7pts)'''''
There was no play on the first day at [[Old Trafford (cricket)|Old Trafford]] because of rain. The weather on the second day allowed only 54 overs, and in that time [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] made 148 for 5. They were all out for 175 on the third day, after [[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] took 3 and [[Muttiah Muralitharan]] 4 wickets. [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] fared worse in reply, slumping to 27 for 5 and 35 for 6, before recovering slightly to 149 all out thanks to 48 from veteran [[wicket-keeper]] [[Warren Hegg]]. Northants lost 2 quick wickets in their second innings, before ending the third day on 94 for 3. This left a small chance of victory on the final day, but it wasn't to happen. Muralitharan took 4 quick wickets, but the visitors still made 225, a target of 252 runs. Lancashire were saved by captain [[Mark Chilton]] who kept his wicket as all about were losing theirs. The opener finished on 113 not out, as Lancashire saved the match ending on 188 for 8. [http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/01-04JUN2005/LANCS_NORTHANTS_CC2_01-04JUN2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Leicestershire v Somerset (1-4 June)====
'''''Leicestershire (10pts) drew with Somerset (7pts)'''''
Rain prevented any play on the first day at [[Oakham]]. The second day saw [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] score 294 for 7, with [[HD Ackerman]] striking a century. They finished their innings on 338 a few overs into the third morning. [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] did not apply themselves well in their reply, as they were dismissed cheaply for 105, and Leicestershire enforced the [[follow-on]] with a lead of 233 and just over a day still to play. [[John Francis]] scored a battling century as Somerset worked hard for the draw on the last day. They lost only 3 wickets as they effectively put up shop, scoring 225 in 100 overs to get the 4 points. [http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/01-04JUN2005/LEICS_SOMERSET_CC2_01-04JUN2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Worcestershire v Durham (1-4 June)====
'''''Worcestershire (9pts) drew with Durham (9pts)'''''
The first day at [[New Road, Worcester|Worcester]] was washed out by rain. [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] batted to 256 when they finally got a chance to bat on the second day, but more rain meant [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] could only get to 226 for 7 at close on the third day, and a draw was a formality. This was confirmed with the innings closing at 267 all out, and Durham chose not to chase a victory, [[declaration and forfeiture|declaring]] on 180 for 2 with [[Paul Collingwood]] on 103 not out when [[stump (cricket)|stumps]] were drawn on the final day. [http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/01-04JUN2005/WORCS_DURHAM_CC2_01-04JUN2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 4 June====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=9 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 4 June 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! BP
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 6 || 4 || 2 || 0 || 0 || 35 || 99
|-
|| 2 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 7 || 2 || 4 || 1 || 0 || 42 || 86
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 6 || 3 || 3 || 0 || 0.5 || 29 || 82.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 6 || 3 || 1 || 2 || 0 || 36 || 82
|-
|| 5 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 6 || 2 || 3 || 1 || 0 || 30 || 70
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 6 || 0 || 4 || 2 || 0 || 40 || 56
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 7 || 1 || 3 || 3 || 0 || 28 || 54
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 6 || 1 || 2 || 3 || 0.5 || 26 || 47.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 6 || 0 || 2 || 4 || 0 || 26 || 34
|}
===Round nine===
====Yorkshire v Lancashire (8-11 June)====
'''''Yorkshire (10pts) drew with Lancashire (11pts)'''''
[[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] batted first in the Roses match at [[Headingley Stadium|Headingley]] and though opening batsman [[Mark Chilton]] was out first ball to [[Matthew Hoggard]] his partner [[Iain Sutcliffe]] made a free-scoring 153 including 26 boundaries. Former [[England Under-19 cricket team|England U-19]] [[fast bowling|pacer]] [[Tim Bresnan]] then struck back with three wickets in four balls to leave Lancashire all out for 379 at stumps on the first day. Yorkshire's 335 in reply included solid innings from [[Phil Jaques]], [[Craig White]] and [[Michael Lumb]], while Lancashire's [[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] took four wickets. Lancashire [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] their second innings at 337 for 5, built around a patient 112 from Chilton, and that set Yorkshire 382 for victory. Yorkshire fell to 182 for 8 before a resistant 64 not out from Matthew Hoggard (only his second half-century of his career) saved the draw, as he shared partnerships of 45 for the ninth wicket with [[Richard Dawson]] and 46 for the tenth with [[Deon Kruis]]. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2005/6/11648/html/scorecard.stm (BBC scorecard)]
====Somerset v Worcestershire (8-11 June)====
'''''Worcestershire (22pts) beat Somerset (8pts) by eight wickets'''''
Having won the toss and chosen to bat first at Bath, [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] made 408 in the first innings including 127 by [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]] and 55 by [[South African cricket team|South Africa]]'s [[Graeme Smith]], captaining the side. [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] put on 423 in reply, [[Ben Smith]] going on to make 140 and [[Stephen Moore (cricketer)|Stephen Moore]] 86 after both were dropped at slip in double figures by [[Ian Blackwell]]. [[Andrew Caddick]] took five for 132 in a 31-over effort for Somerset. Worcestershire then cemented their control over the game by dismissing Somerset for 152 in the second innings, with [[Matt Mason]] taking 5 for 34. The Worcestershire batsmen achieved the target of 138 for the loss of just 2 wickets, Moore making his second fifty of the match with an unbeaten 66. [http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/08-13JUN2005/SOMERSET_WORCS_CC2_08-11JUN2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Durham v Essex (9-11 June)====
'''''Durham (22pts) beat Essex (3pts) by an innings and 19 runs'''''
[[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] continued their impressive form in the 2005 season by defeating [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] in just three days at Chester-le-Street. A hefty 506 in the first innings, with [[Gordon Muchall]] and stand-in captain [[Dale Benkenstein]] both making [[century (cricket)|centuries]], provided the basis for Durham's attack to see off the Essex batsmen in just 55 overs to leave them 106 all out and [[follow on|following on]], [[Ashley Noffke]] and [[Mark Davies (cricketer)|Mark Davies]] taking four wickets each. Essex fought back in their second innnings but their 380, including 82 from [[Dale Steyn]] (initially sent in as a [[Nightwatchman (cricket)|nightwatchman]]) and 103 from tail-end all-rounder [[Andre Adams]], was not enough to catch up with Durham's 399-run first innings lead, and Durham recorded an innings victory. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/fds/hi/statistics/cricket/scorecards/2005/6/11650/html/scorecard.stm (BBC scorecard)]
====Table at 12 June====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 12 June 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 7 || 5 || 2 || 0 || 0 || 22 || 21 || 121
|-
|| 2 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 7 || 4 || 1 || 2 || 0 || 22 || 21 || 104
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 7 || 3 || 4 || 0 || 0.5 || 18 || 17 || 92.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 7 || 2 || 4 || 2 || 0 || 23 || 22 || 89
|-
|| 5 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 7 || 2 || 4 || 1 || 0 || 16 || 21 || 81
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 6 || 0 || 4 || 2 || 0 || 22 || 18 || 56
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 8 || 1 || 3 || 4 || 0 || 15 || 21 || 62
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 6 || 1 || 2 || 3 || 0.5 || 11 || 15 || 47.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 6 || 0 || 2 || 4 || 0 || 10 || 16 || 34
|}
===Round ten===
====Derbyshire v Lancashire (15-17 June)====
'''''Lancashire (18pts) beat Derbyshire (3pts) by one wicket'''''
In a low-scoring thriller at [[The County Ground, Derby]], [[Dominic Cork]] had the pleasure of beating his old county, though it became a tougher task than expected, considering that Derbyshire had not won a Championship match since [[2004 English cricket season|2004]]. Winning the toss and batting, [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] had a good opening partnership between Australian [[Michael di Venuto]] and [[Ben France]], but [[Greg Chapple]] put the pressure on with some patient, economical bowling and reaped the rewards with three wickets for 29. However, it was Cork who got the most wickets, after taking the last three of the innings to finish with four for 40 and send Derbyshire off for 191. [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] lost two quick wickets in reply, and were in trouble when [[Warren Hegg]] departed at 128 for 6, but a fine innings worth 64 from Cork down the order - along with 24 from [[Muttiah Muralitharan]] - sent Lancashire into a 50-run lead. Muralitharan was, indeed, in contention for Man of the Match, bowling 27 overs in succession and taking six for 50 as Derbyshire collapsed to 185, setting a target of 136 to win. Lancashire thought that would be a walk in the park, especially as [[Ian Sutcliffe]] and [[Mal Loye]] paired up for 53 for the second wicket, but they then lost seven men for sub-12 scores and were in trouble at 131 for 9. Only Sutcliffe kept his head calm, carrying his bat to 62 not out, and he and Muralitharan managed to add the required five runs.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/15-18JUN2005/DERBY_LANCS_CC2_15-18JUN2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Leicestershire v Worcestershire (15-18 June)====
'''''Leicestershire (18pts) beat Worcestershire (6pts) by 12 runs'''''
[[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] were on top of [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] for three and a half days at [[Grace Road]], yet lost the match. Despite [[Dinesh Mongia]] scoring a quickfire 66, Leicestershire could only scamper 225 in their first innings, [[Ray Price (cricketer)|Ray Price]] taking three for 29 with economical off-spin and [[Nadeem Malik]] taking his fourth career five-wicket-haul. In reply, Worcestershire made 323, young batsman [[Daryl Mitchell (cricketer)|Daryl Mitchell]] making a gruelling 63 not out in five hours while [[Zander de Bruyn]] top-scored with 67. Leicestershire then collapsed to 149 for 8, thanks to tight bowling from Price who got four wickets, but experienced wicketkeeper [[Paul Nixon]] lifted them with a fine 85 before being run out. The last two partnerships added 89 runs, lifting Worcestershire's target to 141 in about 50 overs - very gettable in most cases. And when Worcestershire were 95 for 4 with the two young batsmen [[Steven Davies]] and Mitchell at the crease, it still looked possible. But Davies trod on his wicket attempting to pull a short ball, Mitchell was lbw to Mongia, Ray Price was run out for a five-ball duck, and despite double-figure scores from [[Chaminda Vaas]] and [[Matt Mason]] Worcestershire fell thirteen short of their target.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/15-18JUN2005/LEICS_WORCS_CC2_15-18JUN2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Northamptonshire v Durham (15-18 June)====
'''''Durham (10pts) drew with Northamptonshire (8pts)'''''
Neither team really attempted to win this game at [[The County Ground, Northampton]], which wasn't as badly hit by rain as many other games in that week. Batting first, [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] made 334 from a tricky position at 73 for 4, Northamptonshire bowler [[Damien Wright]] trailing off after three early wickets, and a seventh-wicket partnership between [[Ashley Noffke]] and [[Phil Mustard]] for 135 lifted Durham out of a tricky position. [[Dale Benkenstein]] got four cheap wickets for 29 in the [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] effort, while [[David Sales]] top-scored with 50 not out, but Durham looked on top. However, going at only three an over, Durham didn't ram home the advantage, captain Benkenstein choosing to boost his own average with 83 not out. Thus, Northamptonshire were set 414 in 70 overs - a ridiculous task - and despite two wickets from [[Gareth Breese]], both teams were content with the draw.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/15-18JUN2005/NORTHANTS_DURHAM_CC2_15-18JUN2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 18 June====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 18 June 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 8 || 5 || 3 || 0 || 0 || 25 || 24 || 131
|-
|| 2 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 8 || 4 || 1 || 3 || 0 || 26 || 24 || 110
|-
|| 3 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 8 || 3 || 4 || 1 || 0 || 17 || 24 || 99
|-
|| 4 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 7 || 3 || 4 || 0 || 0.5 || 18 || 17 || 92.5
|-
|| 5 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 8 || 2 || 4 || 2 || 0 || 23 || 22 || 89
|-
|| 6 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 7 || 2 || 2 || 3 || 0.5 || 12 || 18 || 65.5
|-
|| 7 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 7 || 0 || 5 || 2 || 0 || 23 || 21 || 64
|-
|| 8 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 8 || 1 || 3 || 4 || 0 || 15 || 21 || 62
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 7 || 0 || 2 || 5 || 0 || 10 || 19 || 37
|}
===Round eleven===
{{cleanup-date|October 2005}}
====Durham v Lancashire (8-11 July)====
'''''Lancashire (22pts) beat Durham (1pt) by an innings and 228 runs'''''
[[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] were a prime example of how the lack of three men can change a team. Three months earlier, [[Michael Hussey]], [[Paul Collingwood]] and [[Steve Harmison]] had been firing for the Durham lads as they beat [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] by an innings and 216 runs, the highest margin of victory in the County Championship so far this season - before this match. Without these three, and only with [[Nathan Astle]] and [[Ashley Noffke]] by way of replacement, they collapsed to 167 against the bowling of [[Glen Chapple]] and [[Gary Keedy]], before [[Mal Loye]] made a double ton and [[Dominic Cork]] an unbeaten ton to give Lancashire a 363-run lead on first innings. Then, Chapple took four for 18, as Durham rolled over yet again for 135 - and all of the sudden the league leaders were transformed into laughing stocks.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/08-13JUL2005/DURHAM_LANCS_CC2_08-11JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Somerset v Leicestershire (8-11 July)====
'''''Somerset (22pts) beat Leicestershire (6pts) by ten wickets'''''
[[Graeme Smith]] was the difference between the two teams at [[The County Ground, Taunton|Taunton]]. After [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] had made 330 in the first innings, with wicket-keeper [[Paul Nixon]] top scoring with 62 [[not out]], it was time for the South African [[captain (cricket)|captain]]. Farming the strike exquisitely, he smashed 27 fours and eleven sixes in a career highest score of 311 - while his partners were sensible enough to not leave him stranded. Thus, [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] made 566, and [[Andy Caddick]] and [[Charl Langeveldt]] paired up with good fast bowling to send Leicestershire down to 189 for 6. [[All-rounder]] [[Ian Blackwell]] then took three tail-end wickets to leave a target of 18 runs with more than a day to spare, and Somerset knocked off the runs inside six overs to win by ten wickets.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/08-13JUL2005/SOMERSET_LEICS_CC2_08-11JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Worcestershire v Yorkshire (8-11 July)====
'''''Yorkshire (20pts) beat Worcestershire (4pts) by three wickets'''''
[[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] closed the gap to the promotion spots from 6.5 to 1.5 points after a three-wicket win at [[New Road, Worcester|New Road]] over [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]]. [[Matthew Hoggard]] got a good return to form after being smashed out of the Twenty20 format with an [[economy rate]] of 11, taking three for 68 in Worcestershire's first innings, yet the hosts made 345 before being bowled out shortly before [[stump (cricket)|stumps]] on day 1. [[Richard Pyrah]], playing his first first-class game of the season, and [[Craig White]] then rescued Yorkshire from 113 for 4 with fifties, but [[Nadeem Malik]] and [[Kabir Ali]] finished with three wickets each to get them all out for 300, trailing by 45. Then, [[Tim Bresnan]] took two early wickets before stumps, and continued on day three to end with career-best figures of five for 42. However, another England prospect, Kabir Ali, took four more wickets, as Yorkshire were 222 for 6 overnight - needing 46 runs to win. They lost [[wicket-keeper]] [[Ismail Dawood]] early, but were not pegged back further, and [[Richard Dawson (cricketer)|Richard Dawson]] made 51 not out to lead them to the target. Worcestershire were also docked two points for a slow over rate.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/08-13JUL2005/WORCS_YORKS_CC2_08-11JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Essex v Northamptonshire (10-13 July)====
'''''Essex (22pts) beat Northamptonshire (3pts) by ten wickets'''''
[[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] won a [[spin bowling|spin]]-dominated match at [[Chelmsford]]. Batting first, Essex made 506 against [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] - whose normally astute spin attack was batted out of the game. [[Monty Panesar]] took a career best seven-wicket-haul in the innings, but conceded 181 runs in the process, bowling a mammoth 56.3 overs. The Northamptonshire reply was stifled by four wickets from [[James Middlebrook]], as they crumbled to 141 for 6, but [[Ben Phillips]] and [[Damien Wright]] added 95 for the seventh wicket before [[Tony Palladino]] grabbed three wickets in four balls, and they finished on 247. Following on, Northamptonshire had made 203 for 2 when Essex' captain [[Ronnie Irani]] brought [[Alastair Cook]] on as seventh-bowler. The off-spinner, normally an opening batsmen, claimed his three first first-class wickets as three wickets fell for five runs, and [[Danish Kaneria]] wrapped up the rest of Northamptonshire's batsmen as they bowed out for 261. Chasing a target of 3, [[William Jefferson (cricketer)|William Jefferson]] hit a four with the second ball of Essex' innings, thus ending the game.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/08-13JUL2005/ESSEX_NORTHANTS_CC2_10-13JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 13 July====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 13 July 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 9 || 5 || 3 || 1 || 0 || 25 || 25 || 132
|-
|| 2 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 9 || 4 || 4 || 1 || 0 || 22 || 27 || 121
|-
|| 3 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 9 || 4 || 1 || 4 || 2.0 || 29 || 27 || 114
|-
|| 4 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 8 || 4 || 4 || 0 || 0.5 || 21 || 20 || 112.5
|-
|| 5 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 9 || 3 || 4 || 2 || 0 || 28 || 25 || 111
|-
|| 6 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 9 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 0 || 20 || 22 || 84
|-
|| 7 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 8 || 2 || 2 || 4 || 0.5 || 15 || 21 || 71.5
|-
|| 8 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 8 || 0 || 5 || 3 || 0 || 24 || 23 || 67
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 7 || 0 || 2 || 5 || 0 || 10 || 19 || 37
|}
===Round twelve===
====Northamptonshire v Worcestershire (20-23 July)====
'''''Northamptonshire (19pts) beat Worcestershire (6.5pts) by 82 runs'''''
[[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire's]] fast bowler [[Shoaib Akhtar]] had a field day despite serving up [[no-ball|no balls]] on the first day at [[The County Ground, Northampton|Northampton]], but that was only the first day, and Northamptonshire came back to win the game. The match had started well enough for the hosts [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]], but a menacing spell from the Pakistani fast bowler reduced them from 150 for 2 to 173 for 8 - [[Matt Mason]] helping out with two wickets as well. Shoaib finished with six for 47, including twenty runs conceded due to no-balls - while [[Monty Panesar]] and [[Jason Brown (cricketer)|Jason Brown]] rescued the hosts to 299 with a last-wicket stand of 62. Young wicket-keeper [[Steve Davies (cricketer)|Steve Davies]] then made a career-best 95 in his sixth first-class game, which helped lift [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] to 381, a lead of 82.
Northamptonshire lost six wickets to spinners in their second innings, [[Ray Price]] and [[Gareth Batty]] taking three each while Shoaib was expensive, conceding 67 in thirteen overs, as Northamptonshire were bowled out for 364 - [[Bilal Shafayat]] making 84 and [[Riki Wessels]] 102. Chasing 283 to win, Worcestershire got off to a good start with an opening partnership of 54, but Northamptonshire's spinner [[Monty Panesar]] took three for 47 to leave them 139 for 5 overnight, [[Ben Smith]] unbeaten on 50. Smith only added seven to that score, while Panesar took three more wickets, bowling 26.5 overs in one straight spell which yielded six for 77. [[Johann Louw]] and Brown also got one wicket each, as Worcestershire succumbed for 200 to suffer their third successive Championship loss, which sent them out of the promotion zone. Worcestershire were also deducted half a point for a slow over rate.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/20-24JUL2005/NORTHANTS_WORCS_CC2_20-23JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Yorkshire v Leicestershire (20-23 July)====
'''''Yorkshire (17pts) beat Leicestershire (7pts) by six wickets'''''
Australian [[Chris Rogers]] continued his fine run of form as his 93 gave [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] a good start, which [[Ottis Gibson]] and [[Claude Henderson]] exploited by scoring 127 for the eighth wicket to lift Leicestershire to 366 all out. South African [[Deon Kruis]] got the four lowest-batting batsmen to end with respectable figures of four for 90, but Yorkshire didn't use their innings well, as Gibson, [[Charl Willoughby]] and [[Stuart Broad]] took three wickets each and [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] crumbled to 187.
[[Tim Bresnan]] then removed both the openers for ducks, but [[John Maunders]] and [[Chris Rogers]] made healthy knocks to take Leicestershire to a somewhat respectable 217 for a sizeable target - while [[Richard Dawson]] took four for 54 and [[Tim Bresnan]] added another man to his tally and finished with three for 44. [[Michael Wood (cricketer)|Michael Wood]] and [[Joe Sayers]] set Yorkshire on track to chasing the target of 397, pairing up for 115 before Wood was caught out for 70, and Yorkshire were 132 for 1 overnight, setting up an intriguing chase. And, as in May when the teams met at [[Grace Road]] and Yorkshire chased a club record 406, Yorkshire recovered from a dismal first innings to take the victory. Sayers made 104, [[Anthony McGrath]] 55, and [[Ian Harvey]] an unbeaten 54 as Yorkshire reached the target, making their second highest fourth innings total to win in their 142-year history until this match - and both of those were against Leicestershire in 2005.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/20-24JUL2005/YORKS_LEICS_CC2_20-23JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Derbyshire v Durham (21-24 July)====
'''''Durham (11pts) drew with Derbyshire (7pts)'''''
[[Paul Collingwood]] made a first-innings 190 - 52 % of the [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] total - on his return to County Championship cricket at [[The County Ground, Derby|Derby]], but a spirited [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] batting effort and rain secured a draw. The hosts had troubled Durham initially, taking three early wickets for 59, but Collingwood and skipper [[Dale Benkenstein]] lifted Durham with a 250-run partnership - to 309 for 4. However, Derbyshire did get some kind of revenge - five wickets fell for nine runs by the end of the day, as Durham crumbled to 363 for 9 at stumps, and only eight were scampered before the last wicket fell on the second day. Durham did not want to be any worse, though, as [[Mark Davies]] plundered three wickets for four runs, including [[Michael di Venuto]] for 32, and [[Liam Plunkett]] also took three wickets as Derbyshire fell to 161 in 41.1 [[over (cricket)|overs]].
Asked to [[follow on (cricket)|follow on]], di Venuto only took 113 balls for his century, but batted more cautiously after that as Derbyshire slowly began the turnaround. A brief spurt of wickets, initiated by di Venuto departing for 203, gave Durham hope as they had Derbyshire on 360 for 6, but [[Travis Friend]] and [[Graeme Welch]] made 135 in a seventh-wicket partnership as Derbyshire set a target of 330. After Durham had batted out 36 of their 66 overs, scoring 93 runs and losing two wickets to [[Ant Botha]], play was stopped and the match declared a draw due to poor conditions.
[http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/20-24JUL2005/DERBY_DURHAM_CC2_21-24JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Lancashire v Essex (21-24 July)====
'''''Lancashire (10pts) drew with Essex (9pts)'''''
[[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] batted resolutely and calmly, without any rush until the fifth session, and quietly worked their way to 536 for 9 [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] at [[Old Trafford (cricket)|Old Trafford]]. [[Grant Flower]] made a healthy 115 before being caught behind off [[Gary Keedy]], while his brother [[Andy Flower|Andy]] made 138. Australian [[Andrew Crook]] got the best figures for Lancashire, three for 71 with his part-time off-spin, but he was also very expensive in only ten overs. [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] number three [[Mal Loye]] replied with 194 after [[Andre Adams]] had dug out the hosts' captain [[Mark Chilton]] for 4, as the match ground towards an inevitable draw, Loye spending 200 balls for his century and eventually spending nearly eight hours at the crease before being caught by [[Alastair Cook]] off [[Grant Flower]], six runs short of what could have been his second double century in July 2005. Lancashire eventually batted out a mammoth 220.3 overs - [[Danish Kaneria]] bowling 70.2 of those without a single wicket - to make 655 for 6 before the captains agreed to a draw. [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/20-24JUL2005/LANCS_ESSEX_CC2_21-24JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 24 July====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 24 July 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 10 || 5 || 4 || 1 || 0 || 29 || 28 || 143
|-
|| 2 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 10 || 4 || 5 || 1 || 0 || 26 || 29 || 131
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 9 || 5 || 4 || 0 || 0.5 || 21 || 23 || 129.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 10 || 4 || 1 || 5 || 2.5 || 33 || 30 || 120.5
|-
|| 5 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 10 || 3 || 5 || 2 || 0 || 33 || 25 || 120
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 9 || 1 || 5 || 3 || 0 || 26 || 26 || 86
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 9 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 0 || 20 || 24 || 84
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 9 || 2 || 2 || 5 || 0.5 || 19 || 24 || 78.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 8 || 0 || 3 || 5 || 0 || 10 || 22 || 44
|}
===Round thirteen===
====Leicestershire v Essex (26-29 July)====
'''''Leicestershire (11pts) drew with Essex (8pts)'''''
[[Ronnie Irani]] and [[Alastair Cook]], who both made fifties, lifted [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] to 297 after being put in to bat at [[Grace Road]]. [[David Masters]] was [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire's]] best bowler, with four for 65, and he bowled eleven maidens in 25 overs. However, Masters and the rest of the Leicestershire middle order showed precariously little resistance with the bat, as [[Darren Gough]] took two quick wickets before stumps on day 1 and [[Tony Palladino]] joined in with two more as Leicestershire imploded to 20 for 4. [[John Maunders]] and [[Aftab Habib]] lifted Leicestershire to a more respectable score, but they were still 132 for 6 at close on day 2, with half the second day's play lost due to rain. The third day was rained off, and on the fourth day Habib went on to make an unbeaten 153, Leicestershire [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] on 382 for 8, and the match ended in a draw as Essex easily survived 29 overs to make 80 for 2.
[http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/26-29JUL2005/LEICS_ESSEX_CC2_26-29JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Somerset v Durham (26-29 July)====
'''''Durham (22pts) beat Somerset (5pts) by 207 runs'''''
[[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] continued their march through Division Two of the County Championship, recording their sixth win of the season thanks mainly to [[Paul Collingwood]] and spineless batting from [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]]. Collingwood made 181, for his second successive match with a century, and along with half-centuries from [[Mike Hussey]], [[Gordon Muchall]] and [[Gareth Breese]] it lifted Durham to 476 for 9 [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] seven overs into day three after the second day had been broken up by the rain. Jamaican spinner [[Gareth Breese]] then snared five for 83 as Somerset made their way to 303 in 68 overs, while Durham got to 208 for 1 in reply before declaring for the second time in the match - only [[Graeme Smith]] getting a wicket for Somerset. Smith started positively with fellow opener [[James Francis (cricketer)|James Francis]], adding 56 for the first wicket, but Breese added another four to his tally as he finished with match figures of nine for 138. [[Ian Blackwell]] played an unusually cautious knock of 8 off 62 balls, but he was eventually [[lbw]] to [[Michael Lewis (cricketer)|Michael Lewis]], and Somerset subsided for 174 to lose by 207 runs.
[http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/26-29JUL2005/SOMERSET_DURHAM_CC2_26-29JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Yorkshire v Derbyshire (26-29 July)====
'''''Yorkshire (12pts) drew with Derbyshire (11pts)'''''
[[Phil Jaques]] and [[Anthony McGrath]] lifted [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] with a third-wicket partnership of 310, 13 off the county record set in [[1928 English cricket season|1928]], and although Jaques only added two to his overnight score of 217 before he was out caught, Yorkshire still amassed 570 thanks mainly to [[Ian Harvey]] and [[Craig White]]. [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] spinners [[Ant Botha]] and [[Andy Gray (cricketer)|Andy Gray]] got cheap wickets towards the end, as White was left stranded on 67 not out with the lower-order making insignificant contributions. However, [[Chris Silverwood]] and [[Richard Dawson]] chipped away at the Derbyshire batting line-up, taking two wickets each as [[Michael di Venuto]] was fairly alone with his 79 and Derbyshire made their way to 247 for 7 at stumps on day 2. That turned out to be the score at the end of day 3 as well, rain preventing any play as the match moved closer to a draw. Derbyshire's late-order battled for another thirty overs before they were bundled out for 350, and despite [[Deon Kruis]] snaring two early wickets in the [[follow on]], Derbyshire survived 60 overs to make 173 for 5 at the end of day four and save the draw
[http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/26-29JUL2005/YORKS_DERBY_CC2_26-29JUL2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 29 July====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 29 July 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 11 || 6 || 4 || 1 || 0 || 34 || 31 || 165
|-
|| 2 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 10 || 5 || 5 || 0 || 0.5 || 26 || 26 || 141.5
|-
|| 3 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 10 || 4 || 5 || 1 || 0 || 26 || 29 || 131
|-
|| 4 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 11 || 3 || 6 || 2 || 0 || 35 || 27 || 128
|-
|| 5 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 10 || 4 || 1 || 5 || 2.5 || 33 || 30 || 120.5
|-
|| 6 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 10 || 2 || 3 || 5 || 0.5 || 23 || 27 || 89.5
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 10 || 2 || 3 || 5 || 0 || 23 || 26 || 89
|-
|| 8 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 9 || 1 || 5 || 3 || 0 || 26 || 26 || 86
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 9 || 0 || 4 || 5 || 0 || 14 || 25 || 55
|}
=== Round fourteen ===
====Essex v Durham (3-6 August)====
'''''Essex (18pts) beat Durham (3pts) by two wickets'''''
[[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] won the toss at [[Southend-on-Sea]], yet only lasted two sessions for 196, New Zealander [[Andre Adams]] taking five for 60 while [[Danish Kaneria]] took three for 30 for [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]]. The hosts struggled in the chase, however, as Australian [[Michael Lewis (cricketer)|Michael Lewis]] taking four for 69 as Essex stumbled to 134 for 7, but opener [[Alastair Cook]] hung around for four and a half hours, crafting 107 as Essex scraped 245. [[Andre Adams|Adams]] dug out both openers when Durham returned to bat, but good partnerships from the rest of the order, led by [[Dale Benkenstein]]'s 124, saw Durham to a second-innings total of 347.
Essex needed 299 to win, and had four sessions to do it. They lost [[Ravinder Bopara]] after just 12 minutes, [[caught]] off [[Liam Plunkett]], but [[Andy Flower]] and [[Alastair Cook]] forged a 72-run partnership before Durham medium-pacer [[Mark Davies]] struck and had Cook caught behind. At stumps on day three, Essex were 129 for 2. [[Michael Lewis (cricketer)|Lewis]] and [[Gareth Breese]] did a lot of bowling for Durham on the fourth day, and after [[Ronnie Irani]] departed for 48, Durham got regular breakthroughs, as no Essex partnership following the third was worth more than 25. [[Andy Flower]] stood tall, however, spending six and a half hours at the crease to end with 132 not out. With the century, he passed 1000 runs in the Championship, and ensured a two-wicket win for Essex.
[http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/03-07AUG2005/ESSEX_DURHAM_CC2_03-06AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Leicestershire v Lancashire (3-6 August)====
'''''Lancashire (19pts) beat Leicestershire (5pts) by 234 runs'''''
[[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] were in the game at Grace Road for exactly two days, after having [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] effectively 68 for 3 in the second innings. However, they lost it from there, and Lancashire took the win to go into second place in the Championship table. Lancashire had won the toss and batted first, with [[Ian Sutcliffe]] top scoring with 93, as nine batsmen made it into double figures but only Sutcliffe managed a fifty. Medium [[fast bowling|pacer]] [[Ryan Cummins]] got three for 32 in his first game for Leicestershire, but only bowled ten overs, as the captain preferred an ineffective but economical [[Claude Henderson]]. After making their way to 16 for 0 on the first day, Leicestershire fell apart twice, first from 69 for 0 to 78 for 4 and then from 160 for 5 to 183 for 8. However, [[Aftab Habib]] made 84 to lift them to 261, only 30 behind Lancashire's first-innings score.
In Lancashire's second innings, [[Otis Gibson]] got two quick wickets as Lancashire fell to 22 for 3 shortly before stumps on the second day, but Australians [[Stuart Law]] and [[Andrew Symonds]] batted well together with a 111-run partnership before Law was out to Henderson. Symonds powered on from there, bludgeoning 17 fours in his 121, and [[Glen Chapple]] and [[Warren Hegg]] made season-best scores of 60 and 77 respectively as they added for 121 for the eighth wicket. Lancashire declared on 368 for 9, not bothering to send in [[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] to bat, thinking he might be better use with the ball. Indeed, he was - he took three for 39 before stumps on day three, as Leicestershire collapsed to 78 for 5 in chase of 399. There wasn't much respite on the fourth day either - after [[Dinesh Mongia]] and [[Aftab Habib|Habib]] had added 27, Anderson came back with two quick wickets, finishing with five for 79. [[Dominic Cork]] and debutant leg-spinner [[Simon Marshall]] wrapped up the Leicestershire chase as they were all out for 164.
[http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/03-07AUG2005/LEICS_LANCS_CC2_03-06AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Derbyshire v Somerset (4-7 August)====
'''''Somerset (21pts) beat Derbyshire (7pts) by five runs'''''
[[Arul Suppiah]], [[James Hildreth]] and [[Wesley Durston]] helped themselves to boundaries and [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] to a big first-innings total in a close match against [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]]. Suppiah passed fifty for the first time in his [[first class cricket|first-class]] career with a five-hour 123, while Durston was stranded on 146 not out - his only century of the season. [[Graeme Welch]] took four for 82 to be Derbyshire's most effective bowler, but that didn't say much, as they conceded 460 to Somerset's batsmen. However, Derbyshire's tactic of slow attrition worked well against Somerset's frontline bowlers, [[Andy Caddick]] and [[Ian Blackwell]]. They made 438, in a mammoth 149 overs, before declaring with eight men down - four Derbyshire batsmen making fifties, [[Ant Botha]] top-scoring with 91, while 40 overs from Caddick yielded four for 102. Somerset weren't too keen on a big target either, making 61 in 32 third-day overs, as the match looked to peter into one of the most drab draws of the Championship season.
However, on the fourth day, 426 runs were hit and enough wickets fell to get a result. [[Ian Blackwell|Blackwell]] smacked 88 not out in 85 balls as Somerset added 184 in the first fifty overs of the day before declaring, which set Derbyshire 268 to win in 50 overs - a good one-day total. Derbyshire attempted the chase, [[Jon Moss (cricketer)|Jon Moss]] slashing 106 and adding runs with [[Luke Sutton]], and at 247 for 4, Derbyshire looked to have a good chance at winning it. However, two run-outs and two wickets each for Blackwell and [[Andy Caddick|Caddick]] saw Derbyshire lose their last six men for 15 runs, and Somerset snatched a five-run win.
[http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/03-07AUG2005/frames/DERBY_SOMERSET_CC2_04-07AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Worcestershire v Northamptonshire (4-7 August)====
'''''Northamptonshire (17pts) beat Worcestershire (3pts) by 137 runs'''''
[[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] gave away the initiative in the second innings, losing by 137 runs thanks to a frantic second-innings 190 from [[David Sales]]. It was the visitors, [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]], who chose to bat first at [[New Road, Worcester|New Road]], and after seeing off [[Shoaib Akhtar]] and [[Kabir Ali]] in a frantic opening spell where [[Bilal Shafayat]] went for 1, Northamptonshire looked fairly confident at 177 for 4. Then Shoaib returned, taking four wickets (to end with [[bowling analysis|bowling figures]] of 9.2-1-55-5), and the wheels fell off as Northamptonshire lost their last six wickets for 12 runs. [[Stephen Moore (cricketer)|Stephen Moore]] continued his fine form, making 62, as Worcestershire looked to gain a slender lead - [[Ben Phillips]] taking a couple of wickets to give Northamptonshire some hope of tying the hosts down. Then, [[Damien Wright]] ripped through with some quick wickets, as Worcestershire went from 110 for 3 to 147 for 8 - only for [[Shoaib Akhtar|Shoaib]] and [[Matthew Mason]] to give Worcestershire the lead thanks to a boundary-filled 47-run partnership.
[[Kabir Ali|Ali]] and [[Matthew Mason|Mason]] then chipped away at the Northamptonshire batsmen, and would have fancied their chances when the visitors were 64 for 5. However, a quickfire partnership between [[David Sales|Sales]] and [[Damien Wright|Wright]] turned the match on its head again, as the pair added 188 runs in 112 minutes - one run less than Northamptonshire had managed in the entire first innings - to send Northamptonshire into a relatively big lead on this pitch. Sales was 152 not out overnight, and powered on to 190 before [[Nadeem Malik|Malik]] had him caught. However, the damage was done, and Worcestershire faced a steep target of 360 to win - or five sessions for a draw. Losing [[Stephen Moore (cricketer)|Moore]] and [[Graeme Hick]] early on, [[Ben Smith]] attacked for a fine 92, and a 45-minute flurry of runs from [[Zander de Bruyn]] gave Worcestershire some hope at 154 for 3. However, [[Monty Panesar]] got four for 40, Phillips dug out three for 56, Worcestershire lost the last seven wickets for 68 runs, and whimpered into a heap. Worcestershire were later deducted one point due to a slow over rate.
[http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/03-07AUG2005/WORCS_NORTHANTS_CC2_04-07AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
==== Table at 7 August ====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 7 August 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 12 || 6 || 4 || 2 || 0 || 34 || 34 || 168
|-
|| 2 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 11 || 5 || 5 || 1 || 0 || 28 || 32 || 150
|-
|| 3 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 12 || 4 || 6 || 2 || 0 || 36 || 30 || 146
|-
|| 4 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 10 || 5 || 5 || 0 || 0.5 || 26 || 26 || 141.5
|-
|| 5 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 11 || 4 || 1 || 6 || 3.5 || 34 || 33 || 123.5
|-
|| 6 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 11 || 3 || 3 || 5 || 0 || 28 || 28 || 110
|-
|| 7 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 10 || 2 || 5 || 3 || 0 || 26 || 29 || 103
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 11 || 2 || 3 || 6 || 0.5 || 25 || 30 || 94.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 10 || 0 || 4 || 6 || 0 || 18 || 28 || 62
|}
=== Round fifteen ===
====Northamptonshire v Derbyshire (10-13 August)====
'''''Northamptonshire (17pts) beat Derbyshire (4pts) by 182 runs'''''
[[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] won the match at [[The County Ground, Northampton]] despite only posting 140 all out in the first innings. [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]]'s medium-pacer [[Ian Hunter (cricketer)|Ian Hunter]] took four for 50 to get the best figures for Derbyshire, dismissing three Northamptonshire batsmen were dismissed in single figures. [[Graeme Welch]] chipped in with economical bowling, conceding only 21 runs in ten overs and claiming threee scalps. [[Steve Stubbings]] and [[Michael di Venuto]] then made batting look easy with an opening [[partnership (cricket)|partnership]] of 81, but two wickets from [[Johann Louw]] evened out the game somewhat, and [[Monty Panesar]] wrapped up Derbyshire's innings with three wickets on the second day, as Derbyshire were all out for 219.
After Welch's bowling had yielded two early catches to see Northamptonshire to 43 for 2, Australian [[Martin Love]] took centre stage. He slashed 34 fours to end the second day unbeaten on 159, an innings higher than the entire Northamptonshire first innings total, and the hosts closed the second day's play on 311 for 3, [[Usman Afzaal]] having added 59 from number four as well. Love added only 18 before he was [[lbw]] to [[Mohamed Sheikh]], but half-centuries from [[David Sales]] and [[Riki Wessels]], ensured that Northamptonshire could declare with a lead of 388, giving themselves five sessions to win the game. The weather forecast for the final day, however, had predicted rain, so Northamptonshire wanted to get in early. [[Spin bowling|Spinners]] [[Jason Brown (cricketer)|Jason Brown]] and [[Monty Panesar]] shared nine wickets, as Derbyshire battled out the third day to 204 for 9, but Australian [[Damien Wright]] wrapped up the innings by having Hunter [[bowled]] two balls into the fourth morning.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/10-15AUG2005/NORTHANTS_DERBY_CC2_10-13AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Somerset v Yorkshire (10-13 August)====
'''''Somerset (12pts) drew with Yorkshire (11pts)'''''
[[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] and [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] fought out a high-scoring draw at [[The County Ground, Taunton|Taunton]]. Having opted to bat first, the visitors lost [[Joe Sayers]] for a duck, but [[Phil Jaques]] and [[Michael Lumb]] made centuries to see Yorkshire to 368 for 4. Then, [[Charl Langeveldt]] took the wickets of [[Craig White]] and [[Michael Lumb|Lumb]], and [[Deon Kruis]] edged [[Andy Caddick]] behind for a duck to leave Yorkshire 377 for 7 overnight. Caddick wrapped up the innings on the second morning, finishing with six for 96, before Somerset opener [[Michael Wood (cricketer)|Michael Wood]] started notching up boundaries. He made 35 fours and one six in a nine-hour cameo which yielded a total of 297 - before he was [[caught]] by [[Tim Bresnan]] 14 short of Somerset's highest innings for the season. With help from [[Ian Blackwell]], who made 62, and [[Keith Parsons]]' 94, Somerset amassed 581 in a day and a half. [[Andy Caddick]] got an early breakthrough for Somerset, but Sayers and [[Anthony McGrath]] defied them, with a 119-run partnership for the second wicket. Only six overs of play was possible on day four before rain set in to ensure a drawn game.
[http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/10-15AUG2005/SOMERSET_YORKS_CC2_10-13AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Durham v Leicestershire (12-15 August)====
'''''Leicestershire (12pts) drew with Durham (10pts)'''''
Rain intervened on both the first two days at [[Riverside Ground|Riverside]], limiting play to 56.1 [[over (cricket)|overs]], compared to the expected 200 on fine days, and that was probably a major cause of the drawn game. [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] ground their way to 260 for 3 amid the rain, however, [[Michael Hussey]] smashing five sixes in his third Championship [[century (cricket)|century]] of the season, for 146 runs. [[David Masters]] was the star of the third day, though, completing a six-wicket-haul as Durham lost their last seven wickets for 55 runs to end with a first-innings total of 315. In reply, [[Liam Plunkett]] took two early wickets, but [[Dinesh Mongia]]'s unbeaten 77 saw Leicestershire to stumps on day three - still trailing by 98 runs with seven wickets in hand. Leicestershire batted on for 50 overs on day four, [[Gareth Breese]] taking five for 91 as Leicestershire were bowled out for 443, while Mongia notched up 29 boundaries in his only first-class century of the season, finishing with 164 before he was [[stumped]] off Breese. With 50 overs remaining and one innings to go for both sides, Durham just took their time at the crease as batting practice, Hussey boosting his [[batting average]] with 61 not out.
[http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/10-15AUG2005/DURHAM_LEICS_CC2_12-15AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
==== Table at 15 August ====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 15 August 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 13 || 6 || 5 || 2 || 0 || 37 || 37 || 178
|-
|| 2 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 11 || 5 || 6 || 0 || 0.5 || 31 || 28 || 152.5
|-
|| 3 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 11 || 5 || 5 || 1 || 0 || 28 || 32 || 150
|-
|| 4 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 12 || 4 || 6 || 2 || 0 || 36 || 30 || 146
|-
|| 5 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 11 || 4 || 1 || 6 || 3.5 || 34 || 33 || 123.5
|-
|| 6 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 12 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 0 || 33 || 31 || 122
|-
|| 7 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 11 || 3 || 5 || 3 || 0 || 26 || 32 || 120
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 12 || 2 || 4 || 6 || 0.5 || 30 || 33 || 106.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 11 || 0 || 4 || 7 || 0 || 19 || 31 || 66
|}
=== Round sixteen ===
====Derbyshire v Essex (16-19 August)====
'''''Essex (19pts) beat Derbyshire (6pts) by five wickets'''''
[[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] came back from a 120-run first innings deficit, after [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] had used a day and a half for their first [[innings#cricket|innings]] at [[The County Ground, Derby]]. Derbyshire weren't overly keen on hitting runs, though four batsmen made fifties, and especially [[Luke Sutton]] took his time at the crease. His 88 took five hours, and he faced 241 deliveries. However, Derbyshire's tactic of attrition seemed to work - after amassing 426, all while [[Danish Kaneria]] was bowling (the Pakistani [[leg break|leg spinner]] bowled 60.1 [[over (cricket)|overs]], taking six for 111), Derbyshire immediately got breakthroughs with the ball. Essex crashed to 18 for 3 before the Flower brothers - [[Grant Flower|Grant]] and [[Andy Flower|Andy]] - put on 60 for the fourth wicket to help close the gap. By stumps, they were 113 for 4 from 50 overs.
After the relatively slow proceedings on the first two days, the third day gave the spectators nearly 400 runs while eighteen wickets fell. [[Graeme Welch]] took two wickets in consecutive deliveries in the early stages, as Essex crashed to 128 for 6, but [[Ronnie Irani]] made a four-hour 99 and was well supported by [[James Middlebrook]] and [[Darren Gough]] - the latter registering 51 off just 38 deliveries. Welch finished with figures of five for 68, his second five-for of the season, as Essex finished on 306. Then, Essex's bowlers suddenly found some form, [[Ravinder Bopara]] getting two early wickets to see Derbyshire to 34 for 4. Another rearguard effort from [[Luke Sutton]] and a fine 74 from [[Jon Moss (cricketer)|Jon Moss]] saw Derbyshire to stumps with a lead of 314 with eight down - Sutton still [[not out]] with 38. A further 22 runs were added on the second day, while Danish dismissed [[Jake Needham]] to complete his second five-for of the match - Sutton was left stranded on 46 not out, setting Essex 337 to win. As [[Alastair Cook]], [[Grant Flower]] and [[Ravinder Bopara|Bopara]] fell in quick succession, Essex were reeling on 82 for 3, but [[William Jefferson (cricketer)|William Jefferson]] made 83 to set them back on track, and a 177-run partnership between [[Andy Flower]] and [[Ronnie Irani]] set Essex on the course for victory. They made it with five wickets to spare, and Derbyshire's winless drought continued.
[http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/14-19AUG2005/DERBY_ESSEX_CC2_16-19AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Lancashire v Yorkshire (16-19 August)====
'''''Lancashire (11pts) drew with Yorkshire (11pts)'''''
[[Craig White]] and [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]] gave [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] control of the first day of the Roses clash against [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]]. Wood made 86 and White 110 [[not out]], while the Lancashire captain [[Mark Chilton]] was stumped for options and had to turn to part-time spinner [[Marcus North]] for seven overs of bowling - which yielded the wicket of [[Ismail Dawood]]. Thanks to hard hitting from [[Deon Kruis]], who finished with 35, Yorkshire ended their innings on 417 after 125 overs, [[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] taking the number 10 and 11 to end with three wickets, the same number as [[Glen Chapple]]. Lancashire set about chasing the total with a massive opening [[partnership (cricket)|partnership]] between Chilton and [[Ian Sutcliffe]] - the pair added 223 and battered [[Chris Silverwood]] out of the attack, as the opening bowler was left with 13 of Yorkshire's 157.1 overs.
Sutcliffe was eventually dismissed seven runs short of a century, [[caught]] by [[wicket-keeper]] Dawood off [[Tim Bresnan]]'s bowling, and Bresnan got another wicket when he trapped [[Mal Loye]] [[lbw]]. Bresnan and [[Deon Kruis]] were Yorkshire's best bowlers, sharing nine of the ten wickets, and starting with Sutcliffe's dismissal, Lancashire lost five wickets for 27 runs to Bresnan and Kruis. However, 146 from [[Andrew Symonds]], and half-centuries from [[Dominic Cork]] and [[Warren Hegg]] gave Lancashire a 120-run lead. Yorkshire batted to stumps on day three without loss, and survived 89 overs on the fourth day with ease. [[Craig White]], [[Anthony McGrath]] and [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]] all made fifties for Yorkshire, while no Lancashire bowler got more than one wicket. Yorkshire remained 2.5 points ahead of Lancashire in the Championship table, but were third following Essex' victory over Derbyshire.
[http://live.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/14-19AUG2005/LANCS_YORKS_CC2_16-19AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Worcestershire v Somerset (16-19 August)====
'''''Worcestershire (22pts) beat Somerset (4pts) by an innings and 56 runs'''''
[[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] were bowled out for 318 on the first day at [[New Road, Worcester|New Road]], but for the efforts of Malaysian [[Arul Suppiah]] (who made 72), [[wicket-keeper]] [[Carl Gazzard]] (74) and the 18-year-old debutant from [[Taunton]], [[Robert Woodman]] (46 [[not out]]), it would have been far worse. The [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] bowlers shared out the wickets, and Somerset were in real trouble at 57 for 5, but Suppiah stayed calm and the lower order made good contributions. [[Nadeem Malik]] got the best figures for Worcestershire, with three for 63.
However, Somerset's bowling left something to be desired. After an opening stand of 51, Worcestershire powered onwards, with number three [[Zander de Bruyn]] smashing 28 fours in a four-hour 161. [[Ben Smith]] and [[Steve Davies (cricketer)|Steve Davies]] also got centuries, as Worcestershire at one point were 618 for 3. Three wickets from [[Keith Parsons]] set them back, but Worcestershire could still [[declaration and forfeiture]] declare on 696 for 8. Suppiah started well once again, making 34 in a 110-run partnership with [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]] as Somerset made their way to 138 for 1. Then spinners [[Ray Price (cricketer)|Ray Price]] and [[Gareth Batty]] shared the next seven wickets for 70 runs, and Somerset imploded to 209 for 8 while still needing 169 to avoid the innings defeat. A good rearguard from number eight [[Carl Gazzard]], and his partners [[Andy Caddick]] and [[Simon Francis (cricketer)|Simon Francis]] saw Somerset first past 250 and then past 300. They looked to make Worcestershire bat again when [[Kabir Ali]] had [[Simon Francis (cricketer)|Francis]] [[bowled]] - his only wicket of the innings, as he finished with expensive [[bowling analysis|figures]] of 8.5-0-50-1. Batty and Price bowled 87 of Worcestershire's total of 108.5 overs, and Price's 44 overs included 21 maidens.
[http://usa.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/14-19AUG2005/WORCS_SOMERSET_CC2_16-19AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
==== Table at 19 August ====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 19 August 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 13 || 6 || 5 || 2 || 0 || 37 || 37 || 178
|-
|| 2 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 13 || 5 || 6 || 2 || 0 || 39 || 32 || 165
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 12 || 5 || 7 || 0 || 0.5 || 36 || 30 || 163.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 12 || 5 || 6 || 1 || 0 || 32 || 35 || 161
|-
|| 5 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 12 || 5 || 1 || 6 || 3.5 || 39 || 36 || 145.5
|-
|| 6 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 13 || 3 || 4 || 6 || 0 || 36 || 32 || 126
|-
|| 7 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 11 || 3 || 5 || 3 || 0 || 26 || 32 || 120
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 12 || 2 || 4 || 6 || 0.5 || 30 || 33 || 106.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 12 || 0 || 4 || 8 || 0 || 22 || 34 || 72
|}
=== Round seventeen ===
====Essex v Somerset (24-27 August)====
'''''Somerset (16pts) beat Essex (5pts) by five wickets'''''
[[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] exploited Essex' declarations to take a five-wicket win despite rain dominating at [[Castle Park Cricket Ground|Colchester]], Somerset's fourth win of the season. After the first day was over, Somerset's overseas player [[Charl Langeveldt]] dug out [[Grant Flower]] on the second morning, but good contributions from the rest of the batting line-up - [[William Jefferson]] top-scoring with 93 - gave Essex a relatively comfortable 220 for 5 by stumps on day two. They powered on to 400 before [[declaration and forfeiture|declaring]], losing only one wicket while [[James Foster (cricketer)|James Foster]] made 107 [[not out]]. When Somerset were asked to bat, [[Andre Nel]] whipped out two Somerset wickets with the first three balls of the game, but no Essex bowler could get any more wickets as [[James Hildreth]] made 76 [[not out]] before the close of day three to set Somerset to 112 for 2. Overnight, the two captains agreed to a [[declaration and forfeiture|mutual forfeiture]] of innings, so that Essex would not have to bat again. Hence, Somerset would have to chase 289 in a day to win, while Essex would have to bowl them out. [[Andre Nel]] removed [[Michael Wood]] for a duck again, but [[Arul Suppiah]] added a quick 29, and former [[England Under-19 cricket team|England Under-19]] player Hildreth settled in well. He made his second unbeaten score of the match, this time worth 125, guiding Somerset past the winning target in 66.1 overs with five wickets to spare. [[Danish Kaneria]] bowled 24 of Essex' 66 overs, but to little effect, ending with one wicket for 80 runs, while Nel got [[William Durston]] for a duck to end with four wickets for the match - all ducks.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/24-28AUG2005/ESSEX_SOMERSET_CC2_24-27AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Leicestershire v Northamptonshire (24-27 August)====
'''''Leicestershire (12pts) drew with Northamptonshire (8pts)'''''
[[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire's]] first innings lasted three days, in which time they scored 390 runs for the loss of six wickets. The rain meant that only 119 [[over (cricket)|overs]] were possible in three days. Leicestershire declared 22 balls into the fourth morning after getting 400, and spent the rest of the last day bowling [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] out for 261, [[Claude Henderson]] taking a season-best five for 63. With only one completed [[innings]] for each side, the match ended in a draw.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/24-28AUG2005/LEICS_NORTHANTS_CC2_24-27AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Yorkshire v Durham (24-27 August)====
'''''Yorkshire (12pts) drew with Durham (11pts)'''''
[[Michael Hussey]] and [[Paul Collingwood]] led [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] to a healthy total against the [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] bowlers in the 40 [[over (cricket)|overs]] possible on the first day at [[Scarborough]]. Hussey ended the day on 85 [[not out]] as Durham made their way to 140 for 1. [[Deon Kruis]] and [[Tim Bresnan]] got one wicket each in the morning, but Durham fought back with [[Gordon Muchall]] and [[Dale Benkenstein]] adding 157 for the fourth wicket. Durham were eventually bowled out midway through day three, having made a total of 414. Kruis took five wickets and Bresnan four, but they both conceded more than 100 runs in the process. Yorkshire opted for batting practice, batting out the last day and a half to make 475 for 6, with [[Paul Jaques]] scoring 172. [[Paul Collingwood]] took three for 56 for Durham, but could not help them to an extra bowling point, and with no possibility of taking the third extra point Durham's captain Hussey agreed to a draw after Yorkshire's 129th over.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/24-28AUG2005/YORKS_DURHAM_CC2_24-27AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Lancashire v Worcestershire (25-28 August)====
'''''Lancashire (22pts) beat Worcestershire (6pts) by an innings and 73 runs'''''
[[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] recorded an innings victory at [[Stanley Park (stadium)|Stanley Park]] in [[Blackpool]] against [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] to go second in the Division Two table of the County Championship. [[Mal Loye]] and [[Stuart Law]] made [[century (cricket)|centuries]] in the first innings, which became a very difficult one for the Worcestershire bowlers. On the second day, Worcestershire finally got some breakthroughs, as Loye was dismissed for 187 and North for 60, and Lancashire could [[declaration and forfeiture|declare]] with a total of 562 for 8. [[Chris Gayle]] played an innings in typical fashion, hitting eight fours from 25 [[delivery (cricket)|deliveries]] before he was [[bowled]] by [[Dominic Cork]] for 43. Cork also got [[Graeme Hick]] for a duck, as Worcestershire closed the second day on 111 for 3. [[Ben Smith]] and [[Vikram Solanki]] fought back, however, pairing up for 140 for the fourth wicket, and Worcestershire looked confident of avoiding the [[follow-on]] with the score on 330 for 4. However, two wickets from [[Andrew Symonds]] and three from [[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] ended the Worcestershire effort for 376, still trailing by 186.
[[Mark Chilton]] enforced the follow on, and things went from bad to worse for the visitors. No batsman passed 25, [[Glen Chapple]] got four [[wicket]]s for Lancashire, and by the close Worcestershire were 112 for 9 - needing 72 to avoid an innings defeat. However, with the tenth [[delivery (cricket)|ball]] of the fourth day Chapple dismissed [[Kabir Ali]] to end with five for 32, and Warwickshire were all out for 113.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/24-28AUG2005/LANCS_WORCS_CC2_25-28AUG2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
==== Table at 28 August ====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 28 August 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 14 || 6 || 6 || 2 || 0 || 42 || 39 || 189
|-
|| 2 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 13 || 6 || 6 || 1 || 0 || 37 || 38 || 183
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 13 || 5 || 8 || 0 || 0.5 || 41 || 33 || 175.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 14 || 5 || 6 || 3 || 0 || 44 || 32 || 170
|-
|| 5 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 13 || 5 || 1 || 7 || 3.5 || 43 || 38 || 151.5
|-
|| 6 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 14 || 4 || 4 || 6 || 0 || 36 || 34 || 142
|-
|| 7 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 12 || 3 || 6 || 3 || 0 || 28 || 34 || 128
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 13 || 2 || 5 || 6 || 0.5 || 35 || 36 || 118.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 12 || 0 || 4 || 8 || 0 || 22 || 34 || 72
|}
=== Round eighteen ===
====Durham v Derbyshire (30 August-2 September)====
'''''Derbyshire (10pts) drew with Durham (8pts)'''''
[[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] [[Fast bowling#Categorisation of fast bowling|medium pacer]] [[Ian Hunter (cricketer)|Ian Hunter]], formerly of [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]], got career-best [[bowling analysis|bowling figures]] of five for 63 as Derbyshire - the only winless team in the Championship so far this season - nearly managed to record a win at [[Riverside Ground]] against the table-toppers from Durham. Nine batsmen reached double figures, yet only two passed 30, and no one made it to fifty, as [[Dale Benkenstein]] top-scoring with 49. [[Liam Plunkett]] dug out one [[wicket]] in the first evening and one on the second morning, as Derbyshire crashed to 64 for 4, but a grinding 231-minute [[partnership (cricket)|partnership]] between [[Jon Moss (cricketer)|Jon Moss]] (92 runs) and [[Chris Bassano]] (87) yielded 148 runs to turn the game around. [[Luke Sutton]] hit an uncharacteristically quick 55 off 119 balls, as Derbyshire ground their way to 326.
[[Australian cricket team|Australian]] opener [[Jimmy Maher]] recorded his second successive single-figure score in his first match for Durham, as the hosts crawled to 59 for 3, but centuries from [[Paul Collingwood]] and [[Dale Benkenstein]] sent them back on track. The pair added 206 runs together before Collingwood was out for 112 - his sixth first-class century in twelve matches - while Benkenstein continued to 162 [[not out]], adding 80 valuable runs with [[Gareth Breese]] and 21 for the ninth wicket with [[Brad Williams]] before declaring. The declaration set Derbyshire 280 to win in 66 overs, and after [[Michael di Venuto]] and [[Steve Stubbings]] put on 91 for the first wicket Derbyshire eyed their first win for three years. However, despite 101 from Stubbings, the rest of the batting order could not quite hit quite quickly enough, and they finished on an agonising 277 for 6 - three runs short of victory.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/30AUG-02SEP2005/DURHAM_DERBY_CC2_30AUG-02SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Northamptonshire v Lancashire (30 August-2 September)====
'''''Northamptonshire (19pts) beat Lancashire (6pts) by 285 runs'''''
[[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] recorded their fourth win of the season thanks to their top order batting and their spin bowling. They had won the [[toss (cricket)|toss]] and batted, placing themselves well at 224 for 4, but the last six wickets yielded only 63 runs, and Lancashire [[pace bowling|seamer]] [[Dominic Cork]] could take three late wickets to end with four for 27. Northamptonshire were bowled out early on the second morning for 289, but immediately hit back, [[Damien Wright]] dismissing [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire's]] captain [[Mark Chilton]] for 0. In a bowling effort dominated by [[spin bowling|spinners]] - [[Jason Brown (cricketer)|Jason Brown]] and [[Monty Panesar]] sharing 68 of the 94 [[over (cricket)|overs]] bowled - Northamptonshire tugged away, and but for [[Stuart Law]]'s 111, the hosts might have got a first innings lead. However, it was Lancashire who got a lead of 12, with Brown taking five for 113 from 36.3 overs.
[[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] then took two early wickets, leading to a long bowling effort for him - he bowled 28 overs, but could not add to his wicket tally, while [[Usman Afzaal]] ran away to 147, adding 183 with [[Bilal Shafayat]]. Northamptonshire [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] eight overs into the last day, with the score 400 for 6 to unleash their spinners on Lancashire's batting line-up - and they did so very successfully. Brown got his second five-for of the match, ending with match figures of ten for 135, and [[Monty Panesar]] also got three wickets as Lancashire collapsed in a heap for 103 - with only Chilton passing 20, in a reversal of fortunes from the first innings.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/30AUG-02SEP2005/NORTHANTS_LANCS_CC2_30AUG-02SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Worcestershire v Leicestershire (30 August-2 September)====
'''''Leicestershire (12pts) drew with Worcestershire (9pts)'''''
Opener [[John Maunders]] batted for four hours for his first [[century (cricket)|century]] of the [[first class cricket|first class]] season, and a further two hours to make a total of 148, which helped [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] to a solid total of 407 at [[New Road, Worcester|New Road]] - yet the slow nature of his batting meant there was little time to force a victory. [[Paul Nixon]] also hit a three-hour fifty for Leicestershire, while [[Kabir Ali]] got the best bowling figures with four for 95, including nine [[no-ball]]s and one [[wide (cricket)|wide]]. [[Spin bowling|Spinners]] [[Ray Price (cricketer)|Ray Price]] and [[Chris Gayle]] took a total of five wickets in their 32.1 overs, while both [[Shoaib Akhtar]] and [[Gareth Batty]] went wicketless. Worcestershire's batsmen all got starts, but not much more, and [[David Masters]] dug out both openers to end with three for 49 as Worcestershire were all out for 290 - [[Claude Henderson]] taking care of the last four wickets with nine [[delivery (cricket)|balls]], to end with four for 72 in the innings.
Leicestershire lost both openers to [[Kabir Ali]] who took three wickets at a cost of more than five runs an over as [[Aftab Habib]] and [[Tom New]] hit plenty of runs off him. Habib made 90, as Leicestershire [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] on 255 for 5, setting Worcestershire 371 in five hours, but the chase was halted by bad light. When it finally got underway, Worcestershire crashed to 87 for 4 after two wickets from [[Charl Willoughby]], but fifties from [[Ben Smith]] and [[Gareth Batty]] saved the draw for Worcestershire.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/30AUG-02SEP2005/WORCS_LEICS_CC2_30AUG-02SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
==== Table at 2 September ====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 2 September 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 15 || 6 || 7 || 2 || 0 || 43 || 42 || 197
|-
|| 2 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 14 || 6 || 6 || 2 || 0 || 40 || 41 || 189
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 13 || 5 || 8 || 0 || 0.5 || 41 || 33 || 175.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 14 || 5 || 6 || 3 || 0 || 44 || 32 || 170
|-
|| 5 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 14 || 5 || 2 || 7 || 3.5 || 45 || 41 || 160.5
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 13 || 4 || 6 || 3 || 0 || 30 || 37 || 147
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 14 || 4 || 4 || 6 || 0 || 36 || 34 || 142
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 14 || 2 || 6 || 6 || 0.5 || 40 || 39 || 130.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 13 || 0 || 5 || 8 || 0 || 25 || 37 || 82
|}
=== Round nineteen ===
====Somerset v Northamptonshire (7-10 September)====
'''''Northamptonshire (12pts) drew with Somerset (10pts)'''''
[[Ian Blackwell]] and [[Arul Suppiah]] made scores of 98 and 91 respectively, as [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] made their way to 396 batting first at [[The County Ground, Taunton|Taunton]], although the lower order struggled against the spin of [[Monty Panesar]] - who dug out [[Richard Johnson (cricketer)|Richard Johnson]] and [[Charl Langeveldt]] for [[duck (cricket)|ducks]]. [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]] set the pace, adding 63 with [[James Francis (cricketer)|James Francis]] in an opening partnership where Francis only contributed 8 before he was [[lbw]] to [[Steven Crook]], who had changed counties from [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] to [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]]. That was Crook's only wicket of the match, however, as he finished with match figures of 25-2-107-1.
Northamptonshire got off to a bad start, losing the first three wickets for 76 runs, but [[century (cricket)|centuries]] from [[Usman Afzaal]], who made 112, and [[David Sales]], ending on 154 before being [[caught and bowled]] by [[Richard Johnson (cricketer)|Richard Johnson]], lifted them back with a 175-run stand for the fourth wicket. Fifties from [[all-rounder|all-rounders]] [[Damien Wright]] (who added 131 with Sales for the sixth wicket), [[Simon Crook]] and [[Johann Louw]] lifted Northamptonshire to 574. Then, Wright took two wickets and Somerset fell to four runs for two wickets. Francis made his second half-century and [[James Hildreth]] also scored 50, however, leaving Somerset at 163 for 4 at stumps on day three. The match was intriguingly poised, but rain ruined a potentially interesting finish, as no play was possible on day four and the match was drawn.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/05-13SEP2005/SOMERSET_NORTHANTS_CC2_07-10SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Yorkshire v Worcestershire (7-10 September)====
'''''Yorkshire (10pts) drew with Worcestershire (8pts)'''''
Rain wrecked the match at [[Headingley Stadium|Headingley]], a match which would probably have ended in a result if the normal 400 overs of play were possible instead of the 221.4 actually available. Although no batsman passed 50, [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] accumulated 308 in 85 overs. [[Tim Bresnan]] took three wickets for 45 with his [[fast bowling|pace]], while [[Australian cricket team|Australian]] [[Mark Cleary]], playing in his first game for [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] after a season with [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] in [[2004 English cricket season|2004]], had to be content with one man - [[Pakistani cricekt team|Pakistani]] bowler [[Shoaib Akhtar]] - while conceding 70. [[Anthony McGrath]] batted almost without support in Yorkshire's first innings, but his five-hour [[not out|unbeaten]] 173 sent Yorkshire to a total of 317, despite struggling at 190 for 7 before [[Richard Dawson (cricketer)|Richard Dawson]] stepped in to make 49. [[Kabir Ali]] took four for 79 for Worcestershire, [[Nadeem Malik]] got three and [[Gareth Batty]] two, but they couldn't prevent the hosts racking up a nine-run lead.
Worcestershire were then shaken by South African [[Deon Kruis]] who took the first three wickets in a frantic last session. Worcestershire hit at nearly a run a ball, ending the day with 126 off 24 overs, but lost four wickets in the process. Only 40 overs of play were possible on the third day, as Australians Cleary and [[Ian Harvey]] bowled Worcestershire out for 211. Yorkshire set about chasing 203 at a rapid pace, losing [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]] and [[Joe Sayers]] but still making 125 for 2 in 25 overs before rain set in, shortening the day's play to five overs and ruining Yorkshire's chances as they needed 78 more with 8 wickets in hand. Worcestershire were later deducted two points for a slow over rate.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/05-13SEP2005/YORKS_WORCS_CC2_07-10SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Leicestershire v Derbyshire (8-11 September)====
'''''Leicestershire (12pts) drew with Derbyshire (5pts)'''''
[[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] [[pace bowling|pacer]] [[Ian Hunter (cricketer)|Ian Hunter]] continued on his good form from the last Championship match, where he took five for 63 against [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]], as he removed [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] opener [[John Maunders]] for 0 in the second over of the match at [[Grace Road]]. That was as good as it got for Hunter and Durham, though, as [[Darren Robinson (cricketer)|Darren Robinson]] and [[Tom New]] pounded their bowlers 217 in four and a half hours, as Leicestershire turned the match from the difficult position of 4 for 1. Nevertheless, one and a half days prevented them from forcing a victory. [[HD Ackerman]], [[Dinesh Mongia]] and [[Paul Nixon]] also passed fifty, as Leicestershire [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] having made 552 for 6. Derbyshire then crashed to 62 for 3 at the close of play on day two, but were saved by rain, as the third day's play was cancelled. In 50 [[over (cricket)|overs]] on day four, [[Charl Willoughby]] and [[Stuart Broad]] took two wickets each as Derbyshire were all out for 190, but there was no time for another innings and the match was declared a draw.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/05-13SEP2005/LEICS_DERBY_CC2_08-11SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Essex v Lancashire (9-11 September)====
'''''Lancashire (20pts) beat Essex (5pts) by eight wickets'''''
[[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]]'s [[Indian cricket team|Indian]] [[spin bowling|spinner]] [[Murali Kartik]] got match figures of ten for 168 at [[The County Ground, Chelmsford]], helping them to promotion in Division Two of the County Championship with two weeks to spare. [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] won the [[toss (cricket)|toss]] and chose to bat first, and were bowled out for 267, Kartik taking five and [[James Anderson (cricketer)|James Anderson]] three wickets. They struggled to 145 for 7, despite [[Alastair Cook]]'s 64, but [[James Middlebrook]] and [[Andre Adams]] rescued them to two batting points in the first innings. [[Ian Sutcliffe]] and [[Mark Chilton]] added 94 for the first wicket, but Adams and [[Danish Kaneria]] fought back with two wickets each, as Lancashire ended on 139 for 4. On the second day, [[Andrew Symonds]] and [[Glen Chapple]] both made fifties, sharing a 136-run stand with sent Lancashire to 340 - before spinners Middlebrook and [[Danish Kaneria]] removed the last four wickets for no further score.
In the last session of the second day, Kartik took four wickets, and despite six double-digit scores Essex completed the day on 134 for 6, only leading by 61 runs. [[Sajid Mahmood]] then took two on the third day to finish Essex off for 227, setting Lancashire 155 to win, and a 106-run opening [[partnership (cricket)|stand]] between [[Mark Chilton]] and [[Ian Sutcliffe]] brought them to the brink. Two wickets from Kaneria did not stop them, as Law hit an unbeaten 13 to power on to an eight-wicket victory, Sutcliffe ending with 80 [[not out]] as Lancashire won by eight wickets.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/05-13SEP2005/ESSEX_LANCS_CC2_09-12SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 12 September====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 12 September 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 15 || 7 || 6 || 2 || 0 || 43 || 44 || 209
|-
|| 2 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 15 || 6 || 7 || 2 || 0 || 43 || 42 || 197
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 14 || 5 || 9 || 0 || 0.5 || 44 || 36 || 185.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 15 || 5 || 6 || 4 || 0 || 46 || 35 || 175
|-
|| 5 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 15 || 5 || 3 || 7 || 5.5 || 48 || 44 || 168.5
|-
|| 6 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 14 || 4 || 7 || 3 || 0 || 35 || 40 || 159
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 15 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 0 || 40 || 36 || 152
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 15 || 2 || 7 || 6 || 0.5 || 45 || 42 || 142.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 14 || 0 || 6 || 8 || 0 || 25 || 38 || 87
|}
===Round twenty===
====Durham v Northamptonshire (14-17 September)====
'''''Northamptonshire (12pts) drew with Durham (8pts)'''''
[[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] needed a draw in this match to secure promotion from Division Two of the County Championship, and the weather handed it to them, as only 222 overs of play were possible over four days. [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] went for the victory, declaring both their innings closed, but Durham hung on and escaped with eight points. [[century (cricket)|Centuries]] from [[Usman Afzaal]] and [[Riki Wessels]], along with 84 from [[Robert White (cricketer)|Robert White]] lifted the visitors to 414 for 7 on the first day, despite Durham pacer [[Liam Plunkett]] grabbing five for 84 and after the second day was washed out they [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]].
Northamptonshire broke through immediately, [[Damien Wright]] dismissing [[Jimmy Maher]] [[lbw]] for 0, and Wright got a further three wickets as Durham were 115 for 6 at one point. [[Gareth Breese]] and Plunkett saw out the remainder of the day, though, but Durham still needed 93 to avoid the [[follow on]]. [[Andrew Crook]] eventually broke the partnership, as Durham lost three wickets for 15 runs to go to 224 for 9, but resistance from [[Brad Williams]] saw him add 56 from number 11 with Breese to take Durham six runs past the follow-on target of 264. Northamptonshire set about making quick runs, and lost a bucketful of wickets, [[Callum Thorp]] taking three for ten as the visitors declared on 101 for 7 after 21 overs. Northamptonshire set Durham 246 to win, and got a good start when [[Damien Wright]] had [[Jimmy Maher]] [[bowled]] for 2, but Durham battled out 15 overs before rain set in and forced the game into a draw.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/14-19SEP2005/DURHAM_NORTHANTS_CC2_14-17SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Derbyshire v Yorkshire (16-19 September)====
'''''Yorkshire (12pts) drew with Derbyshire (7pts)'''''
[[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]], a team chasing points in their attempt to promote from Division Two of the County Championship, racked up a 304-run lead on first innings against [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]], yet failed to win. However, the 12 points earned gave them promotion from Division Two. Winning the [[toss (cricket)|toss]] and batting first, Yorkshire relied on [[Australian cricket team|Australians]] [[Mark Cleary]] and [[Ian Harvey]] to take wickets, as Cleary ended with three for 46 and Harvey with five for 40. Harvey got his first five-for of the season as Derbyshire were bowled out for 216, while [[Steve Stubbings]] was the only batsman to pass 30. [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]] and [[Joe Sayers]] then added 113 for the first wicket to put Yorkshire just 103 behind with all wickets intact at the end of the first day's play. On the second morning, Durham got four wickets for 101 before [[Anthony McGrath]] and [[Ian Harvey]] smacked [[century (cricket)|centuries]] in a two-and-a-half-hour partnership worth 156. Yorkshire were eventually bowled out at stumps on day two, having made their way to a lead of 304, despite [[Ant Botha]] wrapping up the tail to take four for 90.
[[Steve Stubbings]] gave Derbyshire a good start with a four-and-a-half-hour 91, leading Derbyshire to 216 for 4, but [[Mark Lawson (cricketer)|Mark Lawson]] set Derbyshire back with his [[leg break|leg spin]], which reduced Derbyshire from 216 for 4 to 233 for 7. However, Botha and [[Tim Lungley]] added 133 for the seventh wicket, Botha recording his highest career score as his four hours at the crease yielded an unbeaten score of 156. Lawson wrapped up the Derbyshire innings, ending with five for 155 as Derbyshire were bowled out for 523, having added 290 for the last three wickets. Still, Yorkshire only required 220 in 59 overs, but Botha tied them down - in a marathon 23-over spell after coming on as first change bowler, Botha only conceded 20 runs and took two wickets - helping as Yorkshire lost their first six wickets for 82. [[Joe Sayers]] and [[Simon Guy]] then batted for three quarters of an hour to save the draw for Yorkshire.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/14-19SEP2005/DERBY_YORKS_CC2_16-19SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Table at 19 September====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | County Championship - Division Two at 19 September 2005
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 15 || 7 || 6 || 2 || 0 || 43 || 44 || 209
|-
|| 2 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 16 || 6 || 8 || 2 || 0 || 45 || 44 || 205
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 15 || 5 || 10 || 0 || 0.5 || 49 || 39 || 197.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 15 || 5 || 6 || 4 || 0 || 46 || 35 || 175
|-
|| 5 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 15 || 4 || 8 || 3 || 0 || 40 || 43 || 171
|-
|| 6 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 15 || 5 || 3 || 7 || 5.5 || 48 || 44 || 168.5
|-
|| 7 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 15 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 0 || 40 || 36 || 152
|-
|| 8 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 15 || 2 || 7 || 6 || 0.5 || 45 || 42 || 142.5
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 15 || 0 || 7 || 8 || 0 || 26 || 40 || 94
|}
===Round twenty-one===
====Lancashire v Leicestershire (21-23 September)====
'''''Leicestershire (17pts) beat Lancashire (3pts) by four runs'''''
[[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] prevailed in a match at [[Old Trafford (cricket)|Old Trafford]] where 726 runs were scored in four completed innings and Leicestershire's young bowler [[Stuart Broad]] and captain [[HD Ackerman]] starred. Leicestershire chose to bat after winning the toss, and were taken apart by [[Glen Chapple]] and [[Murali Kartik]], who shared nine wickets, while the highest partnership for Leicestershire was worth 53. The lack of veteran bowler [[Dominic Cork]] did not seem to bother [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] unduly, as Chapple got five wickets for 22 runs and Kartik four for 43. Only [[Jon Maunders]] and [[HD Ackerman]] passed 20 for the visitors, and they were all out for 165. Lancashire accumulated runs slowly, and their score was 61 for 2 at the close of play on the first day. With [[Mal Loye]] out with an injury, Lancashire posted 191, Maunders taking four for 28 and [[Stuart Broad]] three for 57 to limit Lancashire's lead to 26 runs. An opening partnership of 63 saw Leicestershire take the lead, but [[spin bowling|spinners]] [[Murali Kartik]] and [[Andrew Symonds]] took two wickets each, while the three seamers Chapple, [[Sajid Mahmood]] and [[James Anderson (cricekter)|Anderson]] took one each to round off the day. Ackerman was left overnight on 37 - 11 short of the highest score in the match so far.
Ackerman added 30 to his overnight score, but was eventually [[bowled]] by Anderson, who took three wickets on the third day to end with innings figures of four for 45. Lancashire were set 175 to win, and at one point needed 102 with nine wickets in hand. However, [[England Under-19 cricket team|England Under-19]] prodigy [[Stuart Broad]] removed three men for five runs with his seam bowling, and wickets fell regularly after that - [[Dinesh Mongia]] and [[Charl Willoughby]] taking two each. Lancashire eventually needed 18 for the last wicket to win, and [[Mal Loye]] stepped in to bat despite an injury - he battled for half an hour, scoring three runs, but his batting partner Anderson was [[caught]] by [[David Robinson]], leaving Lancashire all out for 170, five runs short of victory. However, despite the loss, Lancashire were almost assured of the Division Two victory, as their main competitors [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] were still trailing in their match with [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]].
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/21-24SEP2005/LANCS_LEICS_CC2_21-24SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Northamptonshire v Yorkshire (21-24 September)====
'''''Northamptonshire (21pts) beat Yorkshire (3pts) by an innings and 21 runs'''''
[[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] [[Spin bowling|spinners]] [[Jason Brown (cricketer)|Jason Brown]] and [[Monty Panesar]] shared all ten [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] [[wicket]]s on the first day at [[The County Ground, Northampton|Northampton]]. Yorkshire had won the toss and recorded a 66-run opening stand when the spinners first broke through, Panesar having [[Matthew Wood (cricketer)|Matthew Wood]] [[caught]] by [[Robin White (cricketer)|Robin White]]. The rest was one of classic spin bowling - few runs and the occasional wicket - Panesar conceded just over one run an over (ending with [[bowling analysis|figures]] of 27.5-11-32-5), and the average run rate for the innings was just above two. Former [[English cricket team|England]] [[all-rounder]] [[Craig White]] added 51 as Yorkshire were bowled out for 177. Early wickets from [[Deon Kruis]] reduced Northamptonshire to 34 for 2, but a three-hour stand of 220 across two days between [[Martin Love]] and [[Usman Afzaal]] took Northamptonshire to a lead of 77 with seven wickets in hand when Love fell for 95. Afzaal pushed on, making 157 before being dismissed by Kruis - who took five for 75 - and a 76-run partnership between [[Simon Crook]] and Panesar took Northamptonshire to 476 for 9 before the declaration came. Crook fell three short of a maiden first-class century, while Yorkshire [[leg break|leg spinner]] [[Mark Lawson (cricketer)|Mark Lawson]] was taken for 150 in 30 overs.
Yorkshire's scoring rate was, again, slow, and their second innings yielded 278 runs in nearly nine hours - though it was also frequently interrupted by rain. Panesar took the first five wickets, and despite partnerships of 50 for the seventh and eight wicket, Brown ended Yorkshire's innings with five of his own. The two spinners bowled 96.5 overs out of a total of 109.5 overs served up by Northamptonshire bowlers in the second innings, and ended with uncannily similar second-innings [[bowling analysis|bowling analyses]]: Brown 50.5-14-95-5, Panesar 46-15-96-5. Brown and Panesar also split the 20 wickets equally between them - the second time in the history of the first-class game that this feat had occurred, and the first in 100 years. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/4277612.stm]
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/21-24SEP2005/NORTHANTS_YORKS_CC2_21-24SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Somerset v Derbyshire (21-24 September)====
'''''Derbyshire (22pts) beat Somerset (3pts) by an innings and 18 runs'''''
Half-centuries from [[James Hildreth]] and [[James Francis (cricketer)|James Francis]] took [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] to 259 in 64.5 overs at their home ground at [[The County Ground, Taunton|Taunton]]. Hildreth's 84 included 15 fours, while Francis hit ten fours in his 54. For [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]], [[all-rounder]] [[Graeme Welch]] took three early wickets for 42, while 19-year-old [[Wayne White]], who had made his [[first class cricket|first class]] debut with match figures of one for 123 a week earlier against [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]], ended with four wickets for 77 in just under 13 overs. [[Chris Bassano]] and [[Steve Stubbings]] then added 87 for the first wicket, and Derbyshire closed on 126 for 1. On the second day, Stubbings continued with [[Hassan Adnan]], and both earned career best scores - Stubbings with 151 and Adnan with 191 [[not out]]. [[Gareth Andrew]] was the only Somerset bowler to take more than one wicket, ending with four for 134, but Derbyshire made 707 for 7 - a county record [http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Records/England/Firstclass/Derbyshire/Team_Records/Highest_Team_Total_For.html] - declaring when [[Luke Sutton]] fell for 53, leaving [[Graeme Welch]] stranded on 99 [[not out]].
Francis then hit a 125-ball century as Somerset battled to save the draw and avoid becoming the first team to lose to Derbyshire for 14 months. But Francis went early on the last morning, the last man out in a collapse that started with 173 for 2 in the morning (Arul Suppiah had been dismissed with the score 172 for 1) and ended on 174 for 5. Somerset [[Captain (cricket)|captain]] [[Ian Blackwell]] took seventeen fours and two sixes off Derbyshire's bowling in a 67-ball ton, but Welch came back, taking the last three wickets as Derbyshire broke their duck of 21 matches without a win and completed their Championship win since July [[2004 English cricket season|2004]].
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/21-24SEP2005/SOMERSET_DERBY_CC2_21-24SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Worcestershire v Essex (21-24 September)====
'''''Worcestershire (11pts) drew with Essex (10pts)'''''
A total of 19 wickets fell in four days at [[New Road, Worcester|New Road]], despite only half a day being lost to rain. Batting first, Essex made 574 despite [[Stuart Wedge]] taking five for 112 in his second [[first class cricket|first class]] game, getting [[Ravinder Bopara]] as his first wicket. Essex got two early wickets; first class debutant [[Jahid Ahmed]] got his first wicket by removing 21-year-old [[Daryl Mitchell (cricketer)|Daryl Mitchell]] for 6, and [[Andre Adams]] [[bowled]] [[Graeme Hick]], but Worcestershire's third-wicket partnership added 333, with [[Stephen Moore]] hitting 152 out of his 191 runs in boundaries. However, Worcestershire [[declaration and forfeiture|declared]] overnight on 424 for 3, and Essex scored 201 for one wicket in 36 overs, [[Alastair Cook]] rounding off his first season as an Essex regular with an unbeaten 117. Worcestershire were set 352 in 60 overs to win, and despite an 84-ball ton from [[Graeme Hick]] Worcestershire finished four runs short of the ten extra points a win would have given.
[http://uk.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005/ENG_LOCAL/CC2/SCORECARDS/21-24SEP2005/WORCS_ESSEX_CC2_21-24SEP2005.html (Cricinfo scorecard)]
====Final table====
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! colspan=10 style="border-right:0px;"; | 2005 County Championship - Division Two
|- bgcolor="#efefef"
! Pos
! Team
! Pld
! W
! D
! L
! Pen
! Bat
! Bowl
! Pts
|-
|| 1 || [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] || 16 || 7 || 6 || 3 || 0 || 43 || 47 || 212
|-
|| 2 || [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] || 16 || 6 || 8 || 2 || 0 || 45 || 44 || 205
|-
|| 3 || [[Yorkshire County Cricket Club|Yorkshire]] || 16 || 5 || 10 || 1 || 0.5 || 49 || 42 || 200.5
|-
|| 4 || [[Northamptonshire County Cricket Club|Northamptonshire]] || 16 || 5 || 8 || 3 || 0 || 45 || 46 || 193
|-
|| 5 || [[Essex County Cricket Club|Essex]] || 16 || 5 || 7 || 4 || 0 || 51 || 36 || 185
|-
|| 6 || [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] || 16 || 5 || 4 || 7 || 5.5 || 53 || 46 || 179.5
|-
|| 7 || [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] || 16 || 3 || 7 || 6 || 0.5 || 45 || 45 || 159.5
|-
|| 8 || [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] || 16 || 4 || 5 || 7 || 0 || 42 || 37 || 155
|-
|| 9 || [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] || 16 || 1 || 7 || 8 || 0 || 31 || 43 || 116
|}
==Links to detailed coverage of the 2005 English cricket season==
{{English cricket competitions in 2005}}
{{English first-class cricket clubs in 2005}}
[[Category:2005 English cricket season]]
| 