The response from Lewis was immediate and ultimately magnificent. He won the toss on a chilly, overcast morning and put in the County champions.He needed just four balls to cock a snook at the England hierarchy. Opener Wasim Khan nibbled at a wide delivery and was well taken by Alistair Brown at second slip It got better. After Martin Bicknell accounted for the other opener, Andy Moles, in the next over, Lewis struck twice more in the morning and also took a superb catch at backward point. Finally he helped to dock the tail to finish with a return of 4 for 45 – his second best haul for the county – while Brendon Julian claimed his 50th first- class wicket for Surrey, although he did concede 21 extras (10 no-balls, and a wide), and had it not been for those needless runs he would have had an identical return to Lewis.Unfortunately on his way to that excellent set of figures Lewis and his band ran up against Scorned of The Oval Mark II.

The slow left-arm bowler Ashley Giles, who played club cricket for Guildford, had thought he might have a future with Surrey. He was mistaken, so in 1992 he took himself off to Warwickshire where he has since flourished, establishing himself in the first team and arriving here with 52 first class wickets.It was with the bat that he exacted his revenge, flaying the Surrey attack for his third half-century of the summer, while his team-mates dropped like flies around him, to restore some dignity to the Warwickshire cause.He and Keith Piper pulled the innings out of the mire with a seventh- wicket stand of 101. The home side then underlined their superiority when openers Darren Bicknell and Mark Butcher made relatively untroubled progress to the premature close. It was a close-run thing as to what was going to end the day. A slow over-rate had made overtime a certainty and it could well have been nightfall that would drive the players off, had it not been for the timely intervention of bad light..

Yorkshire 290 Essex 79-2

In an ideal world, Essex would have marked their ascent to the top of the Championship table yesterday with a display of the efficiency that has earned them five successive wins. But cricket does not always follow a logical course and it was Yorkshire who had the better of a thoroughly entertaining day, even though they would not have been entirely satisfied.
Craig White batted majestically for the second successive game and Martyn Moxon and Richard Blakey both made half-centuries, but the big innings that would have strengthened Yorkshire’s grip on a match they must win never materialised, despite Essex’s problems.But it was always going to be a difficult day for someone. Football

Glenn Hoddle rode shotgun, the Association’s director of public affairs protected the other flank, and the spirit of Alex Ferguson stalked in the shadows. They were there to protect English football’s latest jewel, David Beckham, at his first press conference.
Six months ago few outside Manchester knew of Beckham, by next week he could be a household name even in Moldova, where England launch their World Cup campaign on Sunday. A scan on Hendry’s groin has revealed no major damage, but Brown will wait until Saturday before deciding if he will play in the Ernst Happel Stadium.WALES (v San Marino, World Cup Group Seven, Cardiff Arms Park, Saturday): Southall (Everton); Browning (Bristol Rovers), Bowen (West Ham), Melville (Sunderland), Coleman (Blackburn), Pembridge (Sheffield Wednesday), Horne (Everton), Robinson (Charlton), Giggs (Manchester United), Saunders (Nottingham Forest), Hughes (Chelsea).WALES UNDER-21 (v San Marino, European Under-21 Championship, Barry, tonight): A Williams (Blackburn), Blaney (West Ham), Brace (Wrexham), Young (Cardiff), Jarman (Cardiff), C Edwards (Swansea), Bellamy (Norwich), Robinson (Wolves), Hartson (Arsenal), J Thomas (Blackburn), Rowlands (Manchester City).SCOTLAND UNDER-21 (v Austria, European Championship, Amstetten, tonight): Meldrum (Kilmarnock); Shields (Rangers), Browne (Raith), McConnell (Clyde), Ritchie (Hearts), Thomas (Hearts), Miller (Rangers), Glass (Aberdeen), Bonar (Raith), Hamilton (Dundee), Harper (Hibernian).. Craig Brown leads his side into the new campaign with a question mark still against the Blackburn centre-half’s participation. The Everton midfielder, Gary Speed, who missed that match as he was enjoying his honeymoon in the United States, has been recalled.
Scotland will give defender Colin Hendry another 48 hours to prove his fitness for Saturday’s World Cup match against Austria in Vienna.