Weather wins in Swansea

Northamptonshire’s hopes of tightening their grip on the LV Division Two clash with Glamorgan were held up by rain and bad light on a second day which saw only 26 overs of play.

After resuming their first innings at Swansea on 456 for six, Northants added a further 75 runs before declaring at tea on 531 for eight.

It was only the second time a county side have got more than 500 runs at St Helen’s and it left Glamorgan requiring 382 to avoid the follow-on.

Play did not start until 1445 because of morning rain, but despite the visitors’ already strong position skipper Nicky Boje decided to bat on.

The pursuit of quick runs, however, was held up when Jason Gillespie produced a beauty to bowl Johannes van der Wath (four).

Glamorgan’s seamers continued to make inroads with David Harrison bowling Andrew Hall for 40, also from the Mumbles Road end, but not before the 500 was brought up in the 109th over.

Boje declared at tea and in doing so prevented Glamorgan from gaining a third bowling point.

The Northants players came on the field for the start of the Glamorgan first innings but in the increasing gloom the umpires, Mike Harris and Richard Kettleborough, took one look at the light metre before walking off back into the pavilion.

And five minutes after the umpires took the players from the field, rain started falling on St Helen’s.

With the rain becoming more heavy and persistent the umpires called play off for the day at 1715.