Harmison does the damage

Ian Blackwell presses on towards 150 against Surrey

Steve Harmison took a hat-trick as Durham condemned champions Sussex to their first LV County Championship Division One defeat of the season.

Acting captain Matt Prior produced a sparkling unbeaten 133, but Sussex were bowled out for 212 with Harmison taking 4-75 and Callum Thorp 4-77 in the seven-wicket win at Hove.

That left Durham needing just 126 to win and Michael Di Venuto set them up with 60 after Jason Lewry struck early on to remove Phil Mustard for a duck and Will Smith for nine.

Hampshire were staring at a huge first-innings deficit after slumping to 130 for five against Kent at the Rose Bowl.

Replying to the visitors’ 431 for eight declared, Hampshire were 42 without loss early on but finished the day in deep trouble.

Jimmy Adams, John Crawley and Michael Lumb managed just 14 runs between them, but Dimitri Mascarenhas (30 not out) and Greg Lamb (13 not out) at least steadied the ship.

Surrey hold a slender 52-run lead over Somerset with three second-innings wickets in hand going into the final day’s action at Whitgift School.

Trailing by 120 runs after the first innings, the home side reached 172 for seven at stumps on the third day.

Scott Newman fell nine short of a century but Mark Ramprakash was dismissed for 15 and no other batsman made more than 20.

The third day of the Roses clash between Yorkshire and Lancashire was washed out at Headingley Carnegie.

Lancashire will hope to resume tomorrow on 243 for two in response to Yorkshire’s total of 395.

Leicestershire returned to the top of Division Two after taking 14 wickets in 58.2 overs to crush Glamorgan by an innings and 16 runs at Grace Road.

The Welsh county, who began the third day on 99 for six, were all out for 189 to follow on 201 runs behind, and were then dismissed again for 185 in 31.3 overs between lunch and tea.

South African Dillon du Preez, who took three wickets in the first innings, returned 5-48 in the second - with the only resistence coming from a rapid last-wicket stand of 94 off 46 balls between Alex Wharf (51 not out) and David Harrison (64).

An impressive 85 from Ravi Bopara failed to stop Worcestershire securing their first win of the season, a 75-run triumph over Essex at New Road.

Bopara put on 111 for the sixth wicket with James Foster after the visitors had been set a challenging victory target of 340.

They were eventually bowled out for 264 to enable Worcestershire to end a frustrating run of four weather-affected Division Two draws in a row, although they were docked three points for a slow over rate.

A quickfire 30 from Charl Langeveldt put Derbyshire in position to record only their second win of the season against Middlesex at Lord’s.

When bad light ended play early Derbyshire were 260 for nine in their second innings, a lead of 242.

Langeveldt faced 17 balls, hitting three fours and a six, as he went about setting Middlesex a target they will not fancy chasing tomorrow.

Tony Frost frustrated Gloucestershire with his fourth first-class century as Warwickshire battled to ensure a draw was the only feasible outcome on a drab third day at Gloucester.

The 32-year-old wicketkeeper, brought out of retirement this season, led his side to 399 for eight in reply to 420 against a home attack deprived of captain Jon Lewis because of a shoulder problem.

Frost went on to a career-best 141 not out, receiving good support from Jim Troughton (79), Neil Carter (24), Chris Woakes (26) and Naqaash Tahir (33 not out).