And so ends day one – just another 59 days to go! Thanks so much for all your contributions, and see you tomorrow.

A cracking read from Ali at Edgbaston:

I see Caleb Jewell has been showing Gloucestershire just why he was in Mickey Arthur’s little black book: 61 off 48 balls at the top of the order.

Michael Jones and Keaton Jennings (with new moustache) have seen off Toby Roland-Jones at Middlesex, Lancs 46-0 on an honours-even kind of day. To anyone at Lord’s, or giving it their full attention on the stream, did Middlesex throw it away or great Lanky bowling?

Thanks for keeping the flame alight for the last hour and a half. Essex are still on top here at Chelmsford, Kemar Roach snaffling Jordan Cox, but not before he’d made a scintillating 117.

Time for me to write up for early Friday first edition – with Tom Clark and John Simpson licking their lips at the Warwickshire bowling, Ackermann and Graham Clark at ease for Durham; Hampshire just forty runs in arrears of Yorkshire, with only Stoneman back in the pavilion, and Jordan Cox looking good for three figures at Chelmsford. Do carry on chatting below the line.

The first hundred of the season won’t belong to Paul Walter, who is caught brilliantly by Ben Foakes – a first Surrey wicket for Matt Fisher. Surrey rejoice, Walter drops his head and trudges away to a standing ovation.

In Division Two: Lancashire left-armer Ollie Sutton has his first and second first-class wickets, a mini collapse by the Middlesex middle-order from 215-3 to 237-6.

Dudgeon (25) and Singh have taken Kent past 200 at Wantage Road; Glamorgan’s batting also a little rusty, 180-8 and Graeme van Buuren holding Gloucestershire together against Derbyshire., 192-6.

Walter (92) and Ackermann (95) do battle for first century of the season.

Hampshire are nearly half way to Yorkshire’s score, with all ten wickets in hand. Archie Vaughan has been out at Taunton – I wonder* how fragile Somerset’s batting is going to prove this year – 33-1, 121 behind Worcestershire.

Jordan Cox threads two fours off one Jordan Clark over with some panache. Chelmsford applauds with hard, early season hands. Essex 195-2.

Tawanda Muyeye (72) the top scorer for Kent, who are also struggling towards 200. A third wicket for Raphy Weatherall in the Hollioake v Lehman face-off.

And a happy 90th birthday to Geoff Smith, the oldest-living Essex player who popped into the press box.

Tom Clark and James Coles put on 121 for the fourth wicket at Edgbaston, but Coles has just been caught off Tazeem Ali for 51. Sussex, promoted with a twinkle at the end of last season, holding their own, 172-4.

Here in the Essex sunshine, Walter top-edges Fisher for four. Jordan Clark, who looks more and more like a brick-carrying body-builder with each passing year, prowls at mid-on. Essex 164-2.

And Worcestershire join Yorkshire in being bowled out in less than two sessions: 154 all out; Aldridge 5-36, Overton 3-24. At Southampton, Mark Stoneman, adding a Hampshire crest to his Middlesex and Surrey shirts, and Fletcha Middleton, have taken Hampshire to 17-0.

At Taunton, Craig Overton has added a couple of wickets to his couple of catches. Make that three , Worcestershire 153-9.

Here, at Chelmsford, Surrey persuade the umpires to change the ball.

Middlesex are doing justice to the Guardian’s tip for promotion: 173-2 in the sunshine at Lord’s. Max Holden (65 not out). Lancashire toiling away.

And Dawson (3-8) picks up the final wicket – Yorkshire all out 121. A big afternoon for Jack White, who joined Yorks from Northants in the off season.

Surrey’s post-lunch containment strategy works at Chelmsford – Kemar Roach picking up Tom Westley for 40. Enter Jordan Cox.

And Yorkshire’s brave new world lasted just over a session: now 119-9 at Southampton. Malan the highest scorer, run out for 31. Three for Abbot, two for Dawson.

A fourth wicket for Kasey Aldridge at Taunton, Roderick gobbled up by Coverton slip – his second. Worcestershire 130-5.

There doesn’t seem to be anything much wrong with Dan Worrall, who was wandering around the field at lunchtime in his singlet.

Actually quite blissful scenes in central Chelmsford: cricket fans, topped up from M and S, picnicking in Central Park in the sun. Birds tweeting. Ice cream van doing a roaring trade.

Tom Westley is all wristy gloriousness, 32 not out off 35 balls. And that is lunch. Off the players stroll in shirt sleeves, short shadows leading the way. Lunch scores to follow.

As the Essex batters have a mid-pitch chat, Walter dwarfing the six foot 2 Tom Westley, I wonder how different life would be if I was six foot seven. Surrey are without Dan Worrall ,who may or may not be injured – Surrey are keeping their cards close to their chest.

Talking of Sonny Baker, here is a lovely interview Taha did with him earlier this month.

The Guardian’s Luke McLaughlin is in north London: “Good morning from Lord’s. Middx 81-1 - Lancs surely starting to wonder if batting would have been the correct option. Stunning weather!”

But for Jimmy’s dodgy calf …

Lizzy Ammon of the Times comes back from collecting coffee and reports angry Essex fans still queueing at the gate to get in because of problems with the QR code entry system. And Walter, an Eiffel Tower of a man, eases the ball to the rope to move onto 39. Walter, incidentally, is only opening because Elgar is on paternity leave after the birth of his twins.

Matt Fisher is to get his first bowl in a Surrey jumper. Burns, in huge sunhat and shades, gives him a pep talk. It is left by Allison, first hurdle safely navigated.

Ethan “La” Bamber is making quite the first impression here at Edgbaston, marking his Championship debut for Warwickshire by slipping into a nice smooth early groove and nipping out three early wickets. Both openers fell lbw, with Tom Alsop then edging to second slip first ball when a delivery from around the wicket left him a touch. Sussex are 40 for three in the ninth over and must feel like they’ve been thrown to Los Lobos.

In Division Two: Derbyshire’s Luis Reece has dismissed Gloucestershire’s Chris Dent, Glos 32-1; Ul Hassan is still the only wicket against Leicestershire, Glamorgan 26-1; Tom Bailey has Lancashire’s first wicket at Lord’s, Middx 31-1; and Bell Drummond has joined Crawley back in the pavilion at Wantage Road, a second for Guthrie, Kent 37-2. Wonder what Adam Hollioake is thinking.

With half an hour gone, let’s skip around the grounds: Division One

Essex, 28-0, are holding their own against Surrey. Yorkshire, 25-1, have lost Lyth to Abbott – who operates without Abbas this year. Nottinghamshire’s Fergus O’Neill has tucked into Durham, 24-2. Roderick and Libby are racing along against Somerset, Worcs 49-0,; while Sussex, 40-1, have lost Haines for 17 at Edgbaston.

And the first wicket of the season goes to…Ian Holland, who persuades Zain ul-Hassan to edge to Peter Handscomb.

While at Wantage Road, Zak Crawley has been bowled….

Greetings from Edgbaston, where the sun is out, the air is chilly, and a large gathering of well-wishers has just said farewell to Keith Cook after nearly 52 years of service at Warwickshire. It was a lovely send-off for the club’s ever-upbeat operations manager (and general Mr Fix-it), with special dispensation granted to preside over the toss. This also triggered some amusing confusion out in the middle when Cook used a one Euro coin and no one was quite sure what counted as heads. Anyway, Alex Davies won it and has opted to stick Sussex in. No Chris Rushworth or Oliver Hannon-Dalby for the Bears - both veterans are injured - so new recruits Ethan Bamber and Vishwa Fernando are sharing the new ball, Dan Hughes and Tom Haines the men trying to take the shine off it.

And here come the umpires! Followed by Rory Burns and his men, then Paul Walter and Charlie Allison. The sun is out and Kemar Roach has the ball in his hand.

Briefly on the Hundred largesse. This from the ECB website:

Through consultation with the whole game, we have agreed a distribution model that will see 100% of sale proceeds shared amongst the recreational and professional game. The first 10% of any portion of the ECB’s share, or a host county’s share will go straight to the recreational game.

The proceeds from the ECB’s 49% will be divided across the 18 professional counties and MCC (less the 10% to the recreational game).

In order to minimise the risk of financial polarisation between hosts and current non-hosts, the ECB and counties have agreed to apply a formula to increase the value received by each of the current non-host professional counties.

• Proceeds up to £275m valuation (of the ECB’s 49%) will be distributed equally to the 18 professional counties and MCC.

• Proceeds between £275m and £425m valuation (of the ECB’s 49%) will be distributed only to the 11 current non-host professional counties.

• Proceeds over £425m valuation (of the ECB’s 49%) will again be distributed equally to the 18 professional counties and MCC.

Any proceeds from the sale of any of the host professional counties 51% will be distributed as follows:

• Again, a 10% distribution to the recreational game.

• 10% equally distributed across the 18 professional counties and MCC (excluding the host county) – this is to ensure that all professional counties benefit from any future growth of a host county’s retained shareholding.

• The remaining 80% of the value being retained by the host county.

• Are there limits on how the counties spend their money?

• The sale of equity in each of the eight teams in The Hundred presents a significant opportunity for a considerable capital injection into the game of cricket in England and Wales.

• The recreational game will receive 10% of total sale proceeds. With regards to the money distributed to the professional game, our overarching principle is that these funds should be employed to support the financial sustainability of professional cricket.

• We will utilise the County Partnership Agreement (CPA) to ensure that while counties do have autonomy over their funds, they are operating within a framework and are held to account on their financial sustainability.

• The expenditure of funds is expected to be in one of three core investment areas: building reserves, revenue generation, debt reduction.

”Now then Tanya!” Hello there Tim Maitland.

“Welcome back!

”Firstly, while you buggers might be basking in freakish sunshine for the start of the county championship season (how often does that happen?), here in the subtropics we’ve been “freezing”. We were down to 10C last weekend, which is unheard of in March.

”To put that in perspective, the many unheated, government-run, open-air swimming pools opened on Tuesday. Rather than lose three hours out of my day schlepping to the nearest heated pool, I went to my local baths on Wednesday. Afterwards the lifeguards, who scuttled into position on my arrival, told me I was their first customer of the year.

”If anyone is struggling to understand the subtext of this admittedly pointless story, it’s this: I hope you get snow over Easter.

”On a more important note, a suggestion for the ECB before it gets its snouts in the trough of the Hundred franchise sales and awards itself huge bonuses: stick enough of the money in trust and use the interest/proceeds to fund the counties, but only on expenditure that grows attendance or consumption of the championship itself.

”I also still believe the championship would benefit from a marketing spend and branding as “Proper Cricket” aimed at luring future curmudgeons into the so-called joys of the longer game. All done in suitable shades of off-white.”

Ah thank you Brian Withington. Here is the link to common BTL terms.

And with ten minutes to go at Chelmsford, the ground has been cleared apart from a couple of men with a brush. And the big news is that the toilets have been redone.

There were queues at Chelmsford -or should I say the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground - this morning. And some name changes (at least to me) – what was the River End is now the Sir Alastair Cook end, and the Hayes Close End is now the Graham Gooch end.