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2025 County Championship Round Three Review Show

·1 hr 23 min·5 clips

Ethan Brooks hit seven sixes in 88 from 105 balls after Worcestershire were 192 for 8.

Aaron opens the show with Matt Wiley, Joe Nuttall, and Kieran McCarthy for a rare full-house round-three review. The opening stretch stays focused on the Division One results. Essex's 28-run win over Worcestershire at Chelmsford is the one clear decisive result of the round. After that, the division is mostly swallowed by rain and drawn games. Durham and Yorkshire finish level at the Riverside. Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire also end in a heavily rain-affected draw at Edgbaston. Hampshire and Somerset share the points, and Sussex and Surrey do the same at Hove. The panel is blunt about how much the weather has taken out of the round. Even so, there is still plenty to pick over. Warwickshire's bowling becomes one of the main talking points. Michael Booth gets especially strong praise for the pace he can generate. The panel likes even more the way he is now using that pace with real consistency. Last season's raw tools are acknowledged, but the emphasis stays on how much tighter his control has become this year. That improvement is treated as the clearest sign of progress. Ed Barnard and the returning Oliver Hannan-Dorby also come under the microscope. Their 21-over stand on day four is framed as a proper show of character. The conditions were grim, with the light described as increasingly overcast and close to pitch-black by the close. Even so, the pair are credited with batting through it and helping Warwickshire hold their position. The batting week for the Bears is still described as underwhelming. Yet the panel keeps coming back to the same practical point, which is that points are still points. Warwickshire remain in the top four. The bye week arrives with them still in the mix despite injuries and a side with plenty of inexperience. The tone around them is therefore mixed, but ultimately positive. After that, the show heads away from the West Midlands and towards the South Coast. Sussex's strong start in Division One becomes the next subject. Joe's enthusiasm for that part of the conversation helps steer that section of the discussion. The episode keeps its county-cricket grounding throughout, moving from scoreboard context into player judgment and then into what the round means for the season ahead.

As heard by us

Rain trims the drama, but county-cricket detail and points context still carry it.

Round three of the 2025 County Championship has a sensible shape to it: Essex's 28-run win in Chelmsford sits against a week of rain-affected draws, so there is more to sort through than to celebrate.

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