County Championship Cricket Roundup. Both Surrey and Hampshire win as both southern sides lead the way in Div One

The top two sides in the LV=County Championship Division One, Surrey and Hampshire both recorded victories in the latest round of matches.

Leaders Surrey faced an in form Essex at the Kia Oval and defeated Essex by six wickets. In a match where both sides recovered from a poor position- Essex were 91-6 before being bowled out for 271 in their first innings with Surrey also struggling on 112-7 before an undefeated 150 from Will Jacks rescued the hosts to give them a first innings lead of 31.

Essex were dismissed for 208 second time around with Dan Worrall picking up match figures of 11-122 top leave Surrey a victory target of 161 to win which they reached for the loss of four wickets to claim their sixth win of the championship.

Second placed Hampshire picked up their seventh win of the campaign and kept the pressure on Surrey by Beating Gloucestershire by six wickets at Cheltenham Cottage.

The visitors made 457 in their first innings with Felix Organ hitting 118 and captain James Vince just missing out on a century with 95.

Gloucestershire were always struggling and were dismissed for 201 with Liam Dawson taking 4-44. Hampshire enforced the follow on and again struggled but were indebted to Miles Hammond with 169 and Ryan Higgins 63 as the hosts were bowled out for 337 with Kyle Abbott taking a hat trick on his way to figures of 6-76 to leave Hampshire the simple task of scoring 82 to win.

The visitors lost four wickets in their pursuit of their target, but captain Vince with 24 eased Hampshire over the line.

After both sides winning, Surrey maintained their lead at the top of the table with 187 points, 14 clear of Hampshire and 31 ahead of third place Lancashire who beat Northants at Northamptonshire by six wickets to keep them in the title race.

After dismissing Northants for 174 in their second innings with Will Willaims taking 5-41, leaving Lancashire 278 for the victory. The visitors reached their target thanks to a century from Josh Bohannon.

In other matches in the division, at Edgbaston Kent moved up to sixth in the table after inflicting a 177 run win over Warwickshire.

Kent declared their second innings on 384-9 to leave defending champions Warwickshire who are struggling this season a stiff target of 325 to win. The champions were always struggling and eventually were bowled out for 147 with Matt Milnes taking 4-11 in six overs and Sam Billings taking 12 catches behind the stumps.

At Taunton the match between Somerset and Yorkshire ended in a draw with Somerset finishing on 225-6 in their second innings.

In Division Two leaders Nottinghamshire maintained their lead over second place Middlesex after their match against Derbyshire finished in a draw after Notts amassed a massive 618-8 declared in their first innings with Ben Duckett hitting 241 and Haseeb Hameed finishing four shy of a double century.

After bowling out the hosts for 318 and enforcing the follow on, Derbyshire batted their way to safety by closing on 249-4.

Middlesex and Sussex were involved in a high scoring draw at Lords with Sussex making 523 with Cheteshwar Pujar smashing 231. Middlesex replied with 485 with John Simpson scoring a century. In their second innings, half centuries from Tom Clark and Aristides Karvelas ensured Sussex batted their way to safety.

After the latest round of matches, Nottinghamshire still lead the way by 23 points from Middlesex, with both sides having played ten matches.

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