LEADERS Worcestershire took control of their match against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham.

They advanced from an overnight score of 48-1, in response to Gloucestershire's 271, to 392-7, with steady batting performances right down the order.

Ben Smith fell just eight runs short of his century, but Steve Rhodes (42no) and Kabir Ali (15no) were carrying on the good work when the close of play came.

Elsewhere in Division Two, second-placed Northamptonshire finished off Somerset before the end of the second day, taking victory by an innings and 61 runs at Northampton.

The hosts took 18 wickets on the day as Somerset tumbled to a first-innings total of 96 and performed only marginally better than that in their second attempt, which saw them bowled out for 168.

Jason Brown provided the sting in the tail for the hosts, taking six of the last seven wickets, to finish with figures of 6-42 from Somerset's second innings.

Yorkshire ended the second day at Scarborough a healthy 118 runs ahead of Hampshire, with a total of 23 without loss from their second innings.

It would have been much worse for the visitors had Simon Katich not been around.

His 143 off 194 balls held the innings together until he ran out of partners with the score on 289.

Yorkshire began the day in disappointing fashion, collapsing from 326-5 to 384 all out, but their bowlers, and a four-wicket display by Chris Silverwood in particular, soothed their frustrations.

On the first day at Derby, Durham made good headway against bottom-of-the-table Derbyshire, moving to 433-7 after Nicky Peng (99) and Vince Wells (106) had shone.

AbdulRazzaq and David Nash came to the rescue for Middlesex after a devastating spell of swing bowling from Jimmy Ormond looked to have turned the Frizzell County Championship Division One match at Guildford decisively Surrey's way.

Ormond claimed his first first-class hat-trick to complete a haul of four wickets in six balls and leave the visitors floundering on 165-5 in their first innings.

Ormond took out opener Andrew Strauss (87) and then, three balls later, began the wicket spree that claimed Ben Hutton (2), Ed Joyce (0) and Paul Weekes (0).

But the visitors, with Razzaq (78) and Nash (69no) at the forefront, rallied to 346 for eight, in response to Surrey's first-innings total of 411.