Bizarrely, while the 34-year-old now has a triple century to go with his quadruple century, none of Northeast’s 30 first-class hundreds are doubles. He has 28 centuries between 100 and 199, but none between 200 and 299. As he approached Gooch’s record, he passed 13,000 first-class runs.
Starting the season with such a bang opens up an intriguing possibility, that Northeast could become the first batsman since Graeme Hick in 1988 (and just the 10th overall) to reach 1,000 runs by the end of May in an English season. Before June, Glamorgan have six more Championship matches after this one.
Northeast’s was not the only outstanding individual achievement of the day. At Trent Bridge, Essex’s metronomic seamer Sam Cook took a hat-trick to keep his side in their season opener against Nottinghamshire. Cook picked up the wickets of Lyndon James, Brett Hutton and Dillon Pennington to keep Notts – for whom Joe Clarke made 104 and debutant Jack Haynes 77 – to 293, a lead of just 40.
At Edgbaston, Warwickshire and Worcestershire are playing out a tight contest. Worcestershire made 360 in their first innings, before Ed Barnard’s 89 provided the backbone of Warwickshire’s response, which had reached 290 for five late on the second day.
Leicestershire’s Ben Mike had a fine day on his return to face his former club Yorkshire at Headingley. First, he scored 90 in the Foxes’ 354, picking up the late wickets of Finlay Bean and Shan Masood.
At Hove, Northamptonshire reached an early stumps on day two 292 for seven against Sussex, for whom Ollie Robinson took his first wicket of the season.
Elsewhere, the early-season weather continued to cause trouble. The first two days have been washed out in Durham v Hampshire and Derbyshire v Gloucestershire.
