Middlesex132 for 4 (Stoneman 72*, Harris 3-47) trail Glamorgan 214 (Cooke 52, Higgins 4-59, Murtagh 3-58) by 82 runs

London in the second week of September: a Lord's final, the Last Night of the Proms and wistfully relaxed afternoons at the cricket. Not this September, though; this year the one-day final has been moved to Trent Bridge, the flag-waving sing-song has been cancelled and Glamorgan's attempts to bed down at the nearby Danubius Hotel were scuppered by the Metropolitan Police, who have commandeered the joint for a week they are dreading. So instead, David Lloyd and his players are billeted in Watford and after ninety minutes of this game against Middlesex they were 70 for 5.

Stoneman's unbeaten 72 was full of the punches and pulls that will still be recognisable to Durham supporters and he is playing a vital innings. For the victors here will be warm favourites with two matches to play, so the respective coaches probably insisted their teams focus only on their cricket this morning. Such things might not be easy as we negotiate these unique days. For it wasn't illness that stopped the Proms and the coppers haven't booked the hotel for a party….

…The same face, pictured differently, looked out from every newspaper today. Just after eight o'clock, Lord's tested its sound system and the first few bars of the nation's anthem echoed in deserted stands. An hour and a half later the whole thing would be prefaced by a minute's silence, faultlessly observed, with the teams and umpires facing the pavilion. The mind went back to other Mondays, then the fourth days of Test matches, distant in time, both comparable and different, when two national sides would face each other in a packed ground with the Ashes at stake. A practised, put'em-at-ease smile would greet young Australians on their first visit to England and hoping to be sent victorious.

This morning the Middlesex supporters filling in the details of their opponents' collapse surely noticed that their scorecards are black-bordered and so, for intermittent, unsuspected moments are the lives of some who do not consider themselves royalists. And so, yes, it may have been difficult for everyone to concentrate on the cricket…

Middlesex's quicker bowlers also continued to bowl an attacking length and my attacking length is best mates with your half-volley.

This was illustrated immediately after lunch when Kiran Carlson and Cooke milked Murtagh for a quartet of boundaries before the Middlesex skipper pulled his length back a foot or so and Carlson's blameless forward defensive gave Simpson the fourth of his five catches. But Cooke continued to combine prudence with opportunism and reached his fifty off 80 balls, only to depart in the next over when a reckless drive at a wide one from Ethan Bamber inside-edged the ball onto the blue paint covering the off stump. The bail dropped like a damp leaf on a windless autumn evening.

Still Glamorgan were not done. Ajaz Patel arrived and immediately began to club Higgins and Bamber's over-pitched stuff around Lord's with the air of a man who dies with his rifle in his hand. Seven boundaries in 36 runs followed but Higgins got his man when a pretty ghastly slash at a wide ball edged the ball behind. Indeed, the medium-quick bowler took 4 for 59 from 15.1 overs on his return to Lord's and seemed happy to be home.

For their part, Middlesex's batters were content to be batting in mid-afternoon, although such luxury did not protect them completely. After Sam Robson had fallen for 10 to Michael Hogan, Stoneman and Stevie Eskinazi put on 54 before Eskinazi got a brutish delivery from Harris and edged behind to Cooke. The Middlesex skipper departed but not before giving the pitch the sort of look Ena Sharples reserved for Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street when Elsie had her war-paint on.

Next over Pieter Malan played on to Harris, who also inveigled Max Holden into snicking his first ball to Northeast at slip. Unexpectedly, Middlesex were in a crisis, so out strode Simpson, just as he does about five times a season it seems. He and Stoneman took their team to the close without great alarm and tomorrow they will renew their battle with Glamorgan, the first-class county of Wales, a country that suddenly has a new prince.