DEFENDING the county championship title is unknown territory for the new breed of Nottinghamshire players, some of whom were at junior school when the challenge was last met in 1988. Their adversaries are gunning for them, as Lancashire illustrated.

The Nottinghamshire shortfall from last year is not only quick runs but also batting reliability and their wickets fell like clockwork, one every 30 minutes for the first two hours after heavy overnight rain prevented play before lunch. Their dilemma is whether to be patient or maintain an attacking attitude and there was an unconvincing mixture of both until Stephen Fleming and Chris Read shared a partnership of 73 before Read, scorer of a half-century, played on to Oliver Newby, who took three wickets, including that of Fleming.

The fifth-wicket pair had responded to the attritional accuracy of the Lancashire attack with the antidote of stealing singles after David Hussey played the most quixotic innings, with 19 off 22 balls before top-edging a cut to backward point. Dominic Cork and Glen Chapple approached their feisty best with the new ball, a combination of both dismissing Jason Gallian with Cork holding a low catch at third slip.

Darren Bicknell relished the introduction of Newby, hitting two boundaries in his first over, but Newby sent his off stump cartwheeling when he cut one back through the gate. It was distinctly Lancashire’s day.