County cricket: Championship and Blast reach midsummer shake-ups

A flurry of matches this week have set up the fight for divisional status in the Championship and the quarter-finals in the BlastBy Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket BlogIn Group One in the County Championship, the qualifying slots for Division One probably lie between Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Durham (with defending champions Essex needing snookers). Nottinghamshire’s recruitment policy is always going to curl the lip of neutrals, but few will begrudge the rewards that have come t