Old guard shine in the gloom

Darren Gough continued his comeback from injury with 2 for 31 as Yorkshire cruised to a six-wicket win over Warwickshire at Edgbaston. Gough struck with two late wickets in three balls to restrict Warwickshire to 158 for 9, Ashley Giles hitting an unbeaten 61. Led by 61 off 40 balls from Michael Lumb, Yorkshire strolled to victory with seven overs to spare.

Graeme Hick's unbeaten 52 helped Worcestershire to a 35-run victory over Gloucestershire in a low-scoring, rain-affected match at Worcester. Gloucestershire never mastered Australian pace bowler Matt Mason (4 for 35) as they scraped 143, and although Worcestershire lost Kadeer Ali early, Hick and Vikram Solanki (20) put on 65 for the second wicket. Solanki fell shortly before rain sent the players scurrying for shelter, and Worcestershire's 98 for 2 from 24.2 overs was enough for the them to win under Duckworth-Lewis regulations.

It was also easy going for Kent as they beat Leicestershire by 54 runs at Canterbury. Mark Ealham got Kent off to a flying start with 41 from 26 balls, and Matthew Walker made Leicestershire pay for dropping him twice as he finished on 82 not out. Leicestershire never recovered from losing early wickets, and Kent's wicketkeeper Geraint Jones claimed a competition record-equalling six catches. Former Somerset Peter Trego finished with 4 for 39 on his Kent debut.

Surrey got off to a winning start with a 15-run victory over Essex in another match affected by rain. Adam Hollioake 77 and Azhar Mahmood 98 in a 154-run partnership for the seventh wicket after Surrey had been put in to bat and slumped to 82 for 6. Will Jefferson's 47 off 36 balls got Essex off to a good start, but Saqlain Mushtaq and Alex Tudor shared six wickets, and Ronnie Irani's spirited 64 was not quite enough

In Division Two, Durham eased to a seven-wicket Duckworth-Lewis win over Somerset at Taunton with 44 balls to spare thanks to an unbeaten 101 from Gary Pratt made from 79 balls (equalling the fastest century in the competition by a Durham player) and 92 from Nicky Peng. Somerset's 233 was based on 74 from Marcus Trescothick

If Mike Hussey was suffering from jetlag having landed in England less than 48 hours earlier then it didn't show as smacked an unbeaten 84 to steer Northamptonshire to a 45-run win over Lancashire at Old Trafford. Chasing 197 to win from 37 overs, Lancashire appeared to be well placed at 117 for 3. But Hussey's run out of Andrew Flintoff caused panic and the Lancashire innings subsided in a flurry of swipes.

The retirement of Phil Tufnell was supposed to have left Middlesex's spin bowling cupboard bare, but nobody told Paul Weekes as he took 3 for 45 and then chipped in with 76 as Middlesex beat Derbyshire by five wickets at a gloomy Lord's. Michael di Venuto (61) and Chris Bassano (52) guided Derbyshire to 129 for 2 before Weekes and Simon Cook (4 for 30) engineered a collapse, and Middlesex always looked on course for a win which eventually came with seven balls to spare, Ben Hutton hitting the winning runs for the second day running.