County Cricket: Gower returns for a journey into jeopardy

IT IS banana-skin time once again for the first-class counties today, 14 of whom face lesser opposition in the first round of the NatWest Trophy, writes Rupert Metcalf. From Telford to Trowbridge, from Edinburgh to Exmouth, Test cricketers will be prodding and poking at unfamiliar wickets looking for potential perils and potholes.

David Gower is one of many England candidates with an incentive to impress the selectors in the few days before they meet to pick their team for the next Test against Australia. After recovering from a broken rib, Gower returns for Hampshire against Staffordshire, the Minor Counties champions, at Stone, where he will find Paul Allott, his former England colleague, in the home attack. If a giant-killing is to happen, Stone could witness it . . .

Devon, who beat Staffordshire at Lord's last summer to win the Holt Cup, the knock-out trophy for the Minor Counties, face Derbyshire at Exmouth. Devon Malcolm and Dominic Cork return for Derbyshire after missing their Championship defeat by Kent. Peter Roebuck, the former Somerset captain, is in his first season in charge of Devon, who were surprisingly beaten at home by Wiltshire in the quarter-finals of the MCC Trophy (formerly the Holt Cup) on Sunday.

Graham Gooch takes a rest from more onerous tasks to lead Essex at Bury St Edmunds, where they face their neighbours, Suffolk, who are captained by the former Essex spinner-cum-comedian, Ray East. The NatWest holders, Northamptonshire, are at home to Lancashire in one of two all first-class ties.