Overseas plaudit

If you want to get Mark Alleyne's goat, ask him to praise individuals. "In the Rugby World Cup Jonny Wilkinson was absolutely magnificent but that drop-goal wouldn't have been possible without Matt Dawson's pass, but that's never mentioned, which really annoys me," rails Alleyne, the county's player-coach.

Still, he was prepared to make an exception of sorts after Roger Sillence, with 92 from 98 balls, and Mark Hardinges put together an eighth-wicket stand of 154 against Warwickshire: "That delighted me. A big deal has been made out of us not being able to find the right overseas players, so it was great to see those two seize their chance, and against the leaders too. Roger is always entertaining."

Earlier in August the flak flew after Chris Taylor chose to bat through the final day at Lord's: wouldn't setting Middlesex a target have better served the team's admittedly slim prospects of doing some Bear-catching?

Alleyne views such theories with wry detachment. "On a bland pitch we had no choice. They stuck us in, had sweepers back on the boundary in the first hour and were making no attempt to win. Middlesex could have declared earlier. When they did it was to deny us a bowling point. Then they tried to make themselves look like victims. They wanted to have their cake and eat it."