at 19 June Friday game Essex v Northamptonshire (8 July) Essex (4pts) beat Northamptonshire (0pts) by five wickets Essex Eagles recorded their seventh win in eight attempts in the National League, cementing their place at the top. After Northamptonshire Steelbacks won the toss and batted at Chelmsford, three run-outs and Grant Flower's bowling, which yielded three for 21, saw them go from 185 for 5 to 200 all out. Essex's reply was secured by a healthy 90 not out from Flower after Essex had struggled initially, being 95 for 4. 29 not out from Dutch-South African Ryan ten Doeschate sent them past the target with ten balls to spare. (Cricinfo scorecard) Table at 8 July Post-Twenty20 resumption Middlesex v Gloucestershire (17 July) Gloucestershire (4pts) beat Middlesex (0pts) by four wickets Middlesex Crusaders amassed 333 for 4 in 45 overs – that's nearly seven and a half runs an over, well over the average five in 45-over games – and still lost to Gloucestershire Gladiators. It didn't look as the score would be as big at first, as Paul Weekes with 81, Ed Smith with 53, Owais Shah with 55 and Scott Styris with 42 kept the score ticking at roughly a run a ball. However, Kenyan-born Jamie Dalrymple slashed four sixes and seven fours in an unbeaten 24-ball 60 to up the run rate late on, and Gloucestershire's Jon Lewis, who earlier in the summer had played ODIs for England, conceded 86 runs in nine overs. Gloucestershire always kept up with the run rate, however, as Phil Weston, Craig Spearman and Matt Windows lifted Gloucestershire to 275 for 2, and despite Paul Weekes' late burst of four wickets, Mark Alleyne and Ian Fisher shared a stand of 18 to see Gloucestershire to the target. (Cricinfo scorecard) Nottinghamshire v Hampshire (17 July) Nottinghamshire (4pts) beat Hampshire (0pts) by one wicket Captain Stephen Fleming stood tall for Nottinghamshire Outlaws winning them the game as they chased down 241 at Trent Bridge. Hampshire Hawks had batted first, and no Hawk batsman converted their starts, and Gareth Clough's two for 44 threatened to stop their innings prematurely, as they were 152 for 6 when Kevin Latouf gave a return catch to Samit Patel. However, a big seventh-wicket partnership between Dimitri Mascarenhas and Sean Ervine lifted Hampshire to 240 for 8. Mascarenhas and Ervine also grabbed two wickets each in the Nottinghamshire reply, and things