County Cricket - Live!

No play at the Oval, sighs Andy Bull, on the third day of Surrey's Division Two opener with Gloucestershire, where the umpires have announced that there will be an inspection at 12.15pm, but seeing as they've also decided to take an early lunch at 12.30pm it seems that they'll be doing little more than walking out to the middle and taking a cursory look at the pitch.

It's not actually raining at the moment, though the sky is heavy with grey cloud, but there's a lot of work to be done to get the pitch ready for play. And every chance, of course, that by the time that's done the rain will have returned.

The 23,500-capacity Oval is currently housing two spectators. In the press box discussions about the clay-sand ratios of south London soil mix, the effect of high tide on local drainage and the biscuit-rotation policy operating in the canteen (one day on, one day off) abound.