Cricket 2011: English County Championship Division 2, Round 9

Surrey, Essex and Derbyshire kept their promotion hopes alive with wins in this round, but Northamptonshire still top the table.

Northamptonshire top the table with 146 points. Middlesex, who have a game in hand on their close rivals, are in second with 114 points; Gloucestershire sit in third with 110 points.

Derbyshire are in fourth place on 108 points after a 186-run victory against Glamorgan at the County Ground.

The home side slipped to 130-7 before Jonathan Clare (130) and Dan Redfern (99) came together to help them up to 360. Graham Wagg claimed 3-58.

Glamorgan fell to 69-5 in reply, but centuries from Jim Allenby (113) and Mark Wallace (104), and 60s from James Harris (60-not-out) and No. 11 batsman Will Owen (69), enabled the away side to reach 445.

Tony Palladino (3-85) and Jonathan Clare (3-87) each took three wickets.

Chesney Hughes's 167 rescued Derbyshire from 22-4 to a commanding 438. James Harris took 4-123 and Will Owen 3-71.

Chasing 354, Glamorgan collapsed to 167, despite Gareth Rees making 52. Tony Palladino's 5-50 gave the home side victory by 186 runs.

Glamorgan slip to seventh on 107 points, but still have a chance of promotion.

Essex are fifth on 109 points after their second win on the bounce—a 254-run win against Leicestershire at Grace Road.

James Foster's 117-not-out helped the away side to 322 as Nadeem Malik picked up 3-72.

Leicestershire went from 154-2 to 274 all-out, with David Masters taking 5-67 and Tom Craddock 4-59.

Essex powered to 281-1, thanks to Billy Godlemen's 130 and Owais Shah's 112, before declaring on 344-5. Jigar Naik picked up 4-89.

Chasing 393 for victory, Leicestershire were dismissed for just 138 as last man Harry Gurney was unable to bat. All six Essex bowlers picked up wickets to give the away side victory by 254 runs. 

Leicestershire are rooted to the bottom on just 59 points with one win, three draws and five defeats.

Surrey are sixth on 108 points after a narrow 21-run win against Kent at Kennington Oval.

Zander de Bruyn's 179 helped the home side to 387, as Joe Denly claimed 3-71 and Wahab Riaz 2-68.

Kent slumped to 87-6 before Alex Blake (96) and Geraint Jones (61) saw them to 250. Tim Linley bagged 3-52 and Stuart Meaker 3-67.

Steve Davies (39) top-scored as Surrey were bundled out for just 184, but a final wicket partnership of 36 between Linley (18) and Chris Tremlett (16) was to prove crucial.

David Balcombe picked up 5-61 and Denly 3-43 to give Kent a target of 322 to win.

Robert Key's magnificent 162 took them close, but the next top score of 35 from Martin van Jaarsveld was just not enough to get them over the line as they were all-out for 300.

Linley took 4-48, Gareth Batty 4-71 and Zafar Ansari 2-49, including the wicket of Robert Key, to give Surrey a 21-run victory.

Kent sit in eighth after being defeated on 78 points; this defeat extinguishes any hopes they had of promotion back to Division I.

The next round of fixtures sees Surrey face Middlesex, Northamptonshire play Derbyshire and Gloucestershire square off against Kent.