Hain & Latham steer Bears to draw with Somerset
Rothesay County Championship Division One, Edgbaston (day four)Somerset 498 & 229-8 dec: Rew 61; Rocchiccioli 5-67Warwickshire 351 & 161-4: Hain 68*, Latham 52 Warwickshire (11 pts) drew with Somerset (14 pts) Match scorecard
Warwickshire and Somerset harvested a predictable County Championship draw as a forgettable match finally petered out on the final day at Edgbaston.Set a notional victory target of 377 in 69 overs, Warwickshire plodded to 161-4 as Tom Latham (52 from 103 balls) and Sam Hain (68 not out from 157) escorted their team to safety and the match to a stalemate.Somerset had extended their second innings in the morning to 229-8 but not as quickly as they hoped as Australian off-spinner Corey Rocchoccioli took 5-67 on debut.It had always appeared that a bland pitch would blunt the victory aspirations of either side and so it proved. Both shored up their positions in the middle of Division One with a solid points haul from a match which offered less than vivid entertainment. The deployment of two short mid-wickets and two short extras for Latham off Migael Pretorius was about as exciting as it got for the slumbering Edgbaston faithful.Somerset resumed on the final morning on 116-3, 283 ahead overall, and started purposefully. James Rew completed a 66-ball half-century but two wickets for Rocchoccioli slowed the momentum and changed the plan. The spinner unfurled a lovely turning delivery which Rew, on 61, edged to wicketkeeper Kai Smith and Tom Banton then missed a sweep and was lbw.Bowling coach Steve Kirby had suggested after day three that Somerset would need 80 overs to try to bowl Warwickshire out, but that point arrived with the lead only 317. Tom Abell and Archie Vaughan batted watchfully to prevent a collapse then expanded to add 65 in 14 overs before Abell charged and missed at Rocchoccioli. Pretorious had his off-stump removed by Ethan Bamber and Rocchoccioli's five-for was complete when Craig Overton missed a reverse sweep and was lbw, triggering lunch and the declaration.To challenge the target - 377 in two sessions - Warwickshire needed a strong platform but they lost soon both openers. Alex Davies fell to the fourth ball, lbw to Matt Henry and Rob Yates left a gap between bat and pad and Jack Leach, who opened the bowling, turned the ball through it.That scuppered any chance of a Warwickshire win, but Somerset's hopes were ground away over the next two hours by Latham and Hain, who declined to pursue a target of 276 from 34 overs after tea. Latham drove a return catch to Overton and Jacob Bethell top-edged a pull at Pretorius but the implacable Hain reached 50 for the 58th time in first-class cricket to see the job through in a sparsely-populated stadium as far-removed as can be from the passionate cauldron it will be when England meet India next week.ECB Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
30 minutes ago
- Times
Emma Raducanu's fightback in vain but Dan Evans stuns another star
Emma Raducanu's up-and-down preparations for Wimbledon ended on a slightly deflating note as she was knocked out of Eastbourne by the Australian Maya Joint, but Dan Evans's recent resurgence continued as he defeated the American Tommy Paul to record his second win against a top-20 player in as many weeks. Raducanu's was an extraordinary match in which she showed remarkable resilience, fighting back from 2-5 down in the final set and surviving three attempts by Joint to serve out victory. When Raducanu won the first point against serve in the tie-break to lead 4-3, it seemed the momentum was with her, but Joint recovered brilliantly to win four of the final five points. It means that Raducanu goes into Wimbledon having reached just two quarter-finals this season, at Queen's and in Miami, and still struggling with a back issue. However, she said that she intends to 'step on the court' at Wimbledon regardless. 'I've just been managing it,' she added. 'Hopefully I can recover. I still have a few days before Wimbledon, so I'm looking forward to kind of recovering, and hopefully it settles. 'It bothers me. I wouldn't say it's like I can't move. Like a lot of athletes, we all carry something that we're managing and playing through, but it's OK, I can play, and I can still put out some pretty decent tennis.' Indeed, after a difficult period in which she also received some bad personal news that left her visibly emotional after her previous match, there was much to credit the British No1 in this performance against one of the rising young players in women's tennis, the 19-year-old world No51. Raducanu recovered strongly from losing the first two games in the first set, but when she slipped 2-0 behind in the second, it seemed to signal a much more decisive shift. Joint played very well, using her powers of dogged retrieval to force Raducanu to constantly play an extra shot, and often drawing the error. At one stage Joint won 11 in a run of 14 games, but, looking for only her third win against a top-50 player, she tightened up on the brink of victory, and Raducanu enacted a thrilling fightback. She broke for 5-3, then again to love to get back to 5-5, then dropped her own serve, before summoning another brilliant return game to force the tie-break. But Joint, the second-youngest player in the top 80, showed great character to get over the line, winning 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4). Evans, meanwhile, has tumbled down the rankings over the past two years, but he, by contrast, goes into Wimbledon — where he has a wild-card entry into the main draw — on the crest of a wave, having added the scalp of world No13 Paul to that of Frances Tiafoe, who was also ranked 13th when Evans beat him at Queen's last week. Showing his trademark court-craft, 35-year-old Evans, who has spoken about wanting to make the most of the time that he has left in his career, came through a topsy-turvy match to knock out Paul, the second seed, and a player of significant grass-court pedigree having won Queen's and reached the Wimbledon quarter-final last year. After the first two sets were shared, Evans broke early in the decider, but was pegged back at 4-3. But he then broke Paul again and served out to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 and earn a quarter-final against another American, Jenson Brooksby. A tearful Evans told the BBC: 'I know I've done the work and once I got some confidence, I knew that the work was in the bank… A good friend said, 'If the door opens and you're ready, you'll walk through it, if you're not, you won't,' and there's no truer word.' Evans is joined in the quarter-finals by Billy Harris, the British men's No4, who was impressive in his 6-3, 6-4 victory over the Italian Mattia Bellucci. He will meet the fourth seed, the French world No20 Ugo Humbert, and could play Evans in the semi-finals. Earlier, Jodie Burrage became the second British player this week to lose to the reigning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova after holding multiple match points. Krejcikova, who had saved two match points against Harriet Dart on Tuesday, fell 0-40 down serving at 5-6 in the third set, but Burrage could not take any of her three opportunities, missing a down-the-line pass on the first of them, losing 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3). Jacob Fearnley showed glimmers of an excellent grass-court game in reaching the Queen's quarter-final and dispatching the world No24 Flavio Cobolli on Tuesday, but he was disappointingly off his best as he succumbed 6-3, 6-1 to the American Marcos Giron. And Fran Jones, the fifth-ranked British woman, who was on Raducanu's coaching bench, also went out, losing 6-2, 6-1 against Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska. Joint was not the only youngster to impress. Alexandra Eala, 20, of the Philippines, the third-youngest player in the top 80, has already beaten Iga Swiatek and Madison Keys this season, and she continued her rise by beating the third seed, Jelena Ostapenko, in three sets after Ostapenko retired with a foot injury. Meanwhile, at Roehampton, Hamish Stewart and Oliver Tarvet advanced to the final round of Wimbledon qualifying, and are now just one win away from a place in the main draw.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
England are 7/2 second-favourites to win the Women's Euros 2025 - while reigning world champions Spain are the best-backed at 2/1
We are officially a week out from the start of the UEFA Women's Euros 2025 - as Switzerland plays host to the 16-team tournament. 2023 World Cup champions Spain are the best-backed to claim back-to-back major tournaments - with La Roja priced at 2/1. Meanwhile, England are a 7/2 second-favourite with Sky Bet to be crowned champions for a second consecutive Euros tournament. The Lionesses created history on home soil in 2022 - with Sarina Wiegman's side defeating Germany 2-1 in the final at Wembley to claim the nation's maiden Euros trophy. Germany and France round out the three favourites in the market - with the pair both priced at 5/1 odds. Germany are currently ranked two in the world behind that of the United States - while France are fifth. Sky Bet favourites to win the 2025 Women's Euros Championship: Spain 2/1 England 7/2 Germany 5/1 France 5/1 Sweden 16/1 Netherlands 16/1 Italy 25/1 Denmark 25/1 Norway 25/1 Switzerland 28/1
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Anger at plan to convert Olympic Park tennis courts to padel
Indoor courts at the Olympic tennis centre are set to be replaced by padel courts, prompting a backlash from 'extremely livid' local residents and wheelchair tennis players. The Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre informed members by email on Tuesday that it was converting its indoor hall of four tennis courts into seven double and two single padel courts to 'grow participation across all ages'. The email said that the centre was planning for work to begin this summer and finish by the autumn, with scheduled courses moved to its six remaining outdoor courts. However, within two days 650 locals had signed a petition calling for a reversal of the decision, which has been labelled 'disappointing' by the Lawn Tennis Association less than a week before Wimbledon. The petition was started by James Labous, a father of two from Walthamstow, east London, who has been playing tennis there for ten years. 'Indoor courts are actually vital for the tennis infrastructure in this country, considering our climate,' he said. • How padel fever is making a racket all over Ireland 'There aren't enough indoor courts in the country and that's probably why the sport isn't played all year round and partly why we're not developing the players we should be. This facility is a jewel and it's going to be lost.' The centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park was purpose-built for the 2012 Paralympics — the Olympic tennis was hosted at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon — and opened to the public in 2014 after a £30 million renovation. The indoor courts, Labous said, are rarely available to book on weekday evenings due to their popularity, with sessions for university groups and some 'really promising juniors'. He said regular players at the centre were 'all extremely livid'. 'It's an Olympic legacy site, it's state-of-the-art, it's a wheelchair-accessible centre,' he said, 'There was no consultation with the users of the centre. They're clearly trying to push this through really quickly.' Labous described the pay-as-you-go courts as inclusive, unlike several 'stuffy tennis clubs' in the country, adding that the year-round coaching was good value. He questioned why the centre could not redevelop other spaces, such as one of two car parks. Manoj Soma, the founder of Choice International UK, a disability equality charity, has been coaching and managing wheelchair tennis sessions at Lee Valley every Sunday for almost five years. 'I was extremely disappointed, because this was one of the only fully accessible, disabled-friendly venues in east London,' he said of the decision. Although he welcomed the opportunity for disabled people to try padel, he said: 'Wheelchair tennis is one of the paralympic sports — not padel as far as I am aware.' Soma said he had not been consulted about the change. He questioned why the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA), which owns the centre, had not proposed converting only some of the indoor courts or even creating outdoor padel spaces. • Andy Murray to get a statue at Wimbledon The LVRPA, a public authority part-funded by a council tax levy, did not hold a public consultation before announcing the plans, which will cost £490,347. Shaun Dawson, chief executive of the LVRPA, said that the Better leisure centre group, which operates the facility, had originally come to him with a proposal for padel courts. He said the LVRPA had rejected an earlier 'hybrid' proposal to retain some of the indoor tennis courts due to volume levels of padel alongside tennis. He said that they did not consider building a new structure on the site as it was designated Metropolitan Open Land, making planning approval more difficult. 'We want to make it far busier, more inclusive, more accessible in terms of different sports, and clearly there's a bottom-line dimension to that as well: more footfall makes the venue more viable and sustainable in the long term,' Dawson said. There will be nine padel courts, which he said would be available to rent for a 'similar price' to the four current courts, which were recently increased to £30 an hour. 'This isn't about running down tennis, it's about diversifying the offer,' he added. 'Padel is exploding in popularity. It's a smaller racket, it's just an easier game to play for more people. 'The Olympic legacy evolves, it doesn't stand still. We need to respond to trends and that's what we're doing.' A Lawn Tennis Association spokesman said: 'These plans are particularly disappointing as the LTA and Tennis Foundation invested half a million pounds in the original tennis facility and we understand the indoor tennis courts are heavily used. 'The data cited by LVRPA on tennis participation is incorrect. We will be engaging with the LVRPA and the operator GLL [Better] to encourage them to consider other options that can see both tennis and padel played on site.'
