Durham display character to secure opening draw

A record 212-run third-wicket stand between Michael Di Venuto (99) and Dale Benkenstein (98) and half-centuries from Ian Blackwell (52) and Phil Mustard (60no) shored Durham up at 352-7.

They had inched 66 runs in front by the time rain and bad light closed in for the second time to take out 34 overs and compromise Essex's bowling options on the final evening.

Durham avoided a first home defeat since June 2008, in what was their opening LV= Division One match of this summer. But four points were nonetheless the sum total of their efforts – hardly a portentous start in pursuit of a third successive title.

Lancashire's bowlers made the completion of their victory over Warwickshire look easy during the fourth day at Old Trafford.

The Red Rose county picked up 21 points as they won their opening fixture of the new season for the second year running by bowling the visitors out for 197 in their unlikely pursuit of 319.

In Division Two, Glamorgan secured their first County Championship victory at Lord's in 56 years after mopping up the last six Middlesex wickets in just over two hours to win by 78 runs and with 62 overs to spare.

It was former Middlesex all-rounder turned Glamorgan captain Jamie Dalrymple who proved the key figure in securing his county's first win of the campaign, leaving the hosts to contemplate their second defeat in as many starts.

It was Dalrymple's off-spin that accounted for Middlesex top-scorer Dawid Malan for an excellent 115, a dismissal that ultimately exposed the Middlesex tail to the second new ball and made the result a foregone conclusion.

Leicestershire celebrated their first away victory in the County Championship for four years when they won for the second time this season despite a defiant century from Derbyshire opener Wayne Madsen.

The South African made 109 but highly-promising fast bowler Nathan Buck took 3-35 and former Derbyshire seamer Andrew Harris also collected three wickets as Leicestershire dismissed the home side for 199 to win by 203 runs with 11.2 overs to spare.

Sussex needed just 33 minutes to wrap up a 10-wicket victory over Surrey on the final day of their match at Hove.

Surrey had not added to their overnight score of 243-9 when they lost Jade Dernbach to the 10th ball of the day, the number 11 edging to slip to give spinner Monty Panesar a second wicket.

That left Sussex with a token victory target of 33, and openers Mike Yardy and Chris Nash needed just 6.4 overs to knock off the runs.