On the other hand, Richie Richardson appears to have volunteered to take this burden upon himself, adding to the even greater pressure of captaining a losing West Indian team.The old Richardson, the happy-go-lucky cricketer with the wide-brimmed hat, now sports a seriously grim expression underneath a maroon helmet. Quite why he wanted armoured headgear against the Duchess's pop-gun attack was a little bemusing, but by far the saddest aspect of it all is that one of the few instantly identifiable Test cricketers has now joined the massed ranks of anonymity.Those who had come to see Brian Lara or Curtly Ambrose were disappointed, as Ambrose spent the day plugged into a Walkman, and Lara, as he does whether he is on the field or not, passed the time practising his golf swing. Making him bat with a nine-iron this summer would represent a pretty fair piece of handicapping.On the other hand, the English weather might still have a patriotic part to play. While a steel band incongruously bashed out their full repertoire of sunshine calypsos (one), the tourists' only real concern at Arundel was trying to avoid frostbite. The hot potato stall cleaned up, but the Bognor Ice Cream Company van could barely have covered its petrol money.David Graveney ensured that the England selectors were represented (always assuming that he gets a vote under the Illy system) but only because he was playing, and the one note he will have made is to advise Raymond against adopting the West Indies' extravagant limbering-up routine.England's bowlers will doubtless find enough ways of getting injured without adding half a dozen torn hamstrings during the pre-game warm-up.. DAVID LLEWELLYN reports from The Oval Durham 189-8Surrey 190-3Surrey win by seven wicketsA brutal half-century by Alistair Brown was probably good enough cause for the police to turn up in protective headgear and riot shields outside The Oval. They were there to monitor and contain, if necessary, a small demonstration between Kennington police station and The Oval tube station.

Even the police helicopter was at risk from a couple of Brown's more ambitious attempts at finding the boundary.His 79, which contained three huge sixes and nine boundaries, scattered fielders and shattered the labouring Durham bowlers. A victory target of 190 with Brown in this sort of mood was hopelessly inadequate as Surrey won with almost five overs to spare.It was amazing that Durham had managed to make as many. No single batsman stood out, although nine of them did get into double figures. Each time a partnership began to blossom the Surrey bowlers would nip it in the bud. Martin Bicknell was a model of economy, while Tony Pigott belied his 36 years with a useful 3 for 34. Surrey's two Marks, Kenlock and Butcher, were a mite generous, contributing eight wides between them to the Durham cause, but charity was not in Brown's heart when he strode out.He and Darren Bicknell shared a 56-run opening partnership before Bicknell attempted an extravagant drive and was caught behind. Alec Stewart then joined Brown and they added another 66 runs.

At that point Brown, whose innings lost none of its culture despite the big hitting, whipped a delivery from the Surrey old boy, James Boiling, to Mel Bettsin the deep at wide mid-wicket. By then Brown had passed 2,000 runs in the competition, having made his debut in 1992.Graham Thorpe went four overs later but the crowd's disappointment was tempered by the arrival of another Oval favourite, David Ward, who is currently only playing limited-overs matches. He made an unbeaten 32 and, with Stewart's 44, took Surrey to their second Sunday League win.. BARRIE FAIRALL reports from Southampton Hampshire 268-5West Indies 225Hampshire win by 43 runsThere was precious little calypso, just a collapse here yesterday. West Indies arriving cold from the Caribbean, following their Australian ordeal, immediately failed their first county test. It is not that they were bad, for the most part they were pathetic as they fell apart against a side who hitherto had spent much of the early season having sand kicked in their face.Yesterday morning, a local long-serving scribe had approached Andy Roberts, once Hampshire's terror of a strike bowler and now the tourists' coach "How are you Andy?" he inquired in a friendly fashion "Cold," came the single word response. Come the afternoon and the chill had spread deeper, the matine idols of Arundel, unable to avoid defeat in spite of Ottis Gibson's late blast in this 55-overs match.At the County Ground, Giles White was Hampshire's man of the match, his unbeaten 68 bolstering the innings and three catches, one a brilliant take to account for Keith Arthurton, helping to hustle the slide which bottomed out when Gibson skied Heath Streak to Mark Nicholas at mid-off.And yet the day had begun badly for Nicholas, who had won the toss only once so far this season and promptly lost out again now.

In front of a near full house, though, Hampshire had 43 on the board before Paul Terry was caught and bowled by Winston Benjamin while Sean Morris was looking assured at the other end in the absence of the injured John Stephenson.Morris, put down by Stuart Williams on 42, went on to make 62 before being bowled by Benjamin after the break and the only disappointment of the morning session was the dismissal of Robin Smith, who square cut Ian Bishop ferociously only to see the ball finish up in Brian Lara's midriff on the boundary's edge.White and Nicholas, meanwhile, were to feature in an 80-run partnership for the fourth wicket and at 201 for 4 Hampshire were well placed to launch a late assault, White's half century coming from 59 balls and including seven boundaries.Previously, Hampshire's only win had come against Combined Universities in the Benson and Hedges Cup and they only succeeded then thanks to losing fewer wickets. Now, however, they had West Indies in all sorts of trouble at 98 for 6 and the only real problem then was Gibson. He at least injected some much needed life into the batting, taking two sixes off Norman Cowans and then reaching a 42-ball fifty by raising a delivery from Martin Thursfield on to the roof of the pavilion. When he went once too often for the big hit, though, small wonder Nicholas was almost turning cartwheels..