Spearman supreme

Few men can claim to have usurped Hobbs, Hammond and Grace in the same innings. What made Craig Spearman's county-record 341 against Middlesex all the more extraordinary was that he showed unsuspected staying power. Small wonder Mark Alleyne, who originally recommended him to the club because of the "simplicity" of his approach, cites it as "probably the best innings I've seen from a Gloucestershire player; I can't think of one to rival it. It had everything. A lot of us think he gets rather bored when he gets to 100. But when he got to 160, he looked invincible. The way he played the spinners and manipulated the field was a joy. There was a real lightness of touch. Also, in the context of the game, it put us in a position to win, which those sort of innings often don't."

The leading Division One bowler at the Championship's halfway stage was Jon Lewis; not that the England selectors appeared to be taking a blind bit of notice. "It can't be age and it can't be Bristol," says Alleyne. "He's worked really hard in a summer dominated, in our division, by batsmen. Over the last 12 months Bicknell, Saggers and Kabir Ali have all been picked, and he's certainly as good as those guys."

Moment of the month Spearman's march into history