Rothesay County Championship 2025 – Friday 4th April Matches Tips and Betting Preview

The Rothesay County Championship 2025 season gets underway on Friday and in a miraculous turn of events it looks like the weather is going to be perfect for the four days of the opening round so we should start the campaign with some results.

There is no TV coverage of these matches unfortunately as the IPL has the televised attention but all of the counties that are at home will have a live stream available through their YouTube channel so we can follow all of the action.

Division One

The champions Surrey are probably involved in the pick of the matches in the opening week of the season when they begin their title defence at Chelmsford against an Essex side who have been strong challengers of theirs in recent seasons. It was actually Hampshire who chased home Surrey last season and they go up against newly promoted Yorkshire at the Vitality Bowl. Somerset were another side who went close to pipping Surrey to the title last season and they begin their campaign at home to the outsiders for the division in Worcestershire. Sussex are back in the top flight after a period away and they begin their first campaign back at this level with a trip to Edgbaston to face Warwickshire while in the other match Nottinghamshire welcome Durham to Trent Bridge for what could be a decent game.

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Division Two

There is no easing our way into things in Division Two this season as the two title favourites meet straight out of the traps when Middlesex go up against Lancashire at Lord’s. Both sides will be looking to lay something of a marker down in this one. Kent are the other team fancied by the bookmakers to be strongly in the promotion mix and they open up their season at Wantage Road where they will face Northamptonshire. Glamorgan have a home game to start their Championship campaign with. They will go up against Leicestershire while the other match sees Derbyshire taking on Gloucestershire in a key game for both.

Betting

I’m pretty keen on Gloucestershire this season and while I would prefer it if they had their overseas pair available for this week, Derbyshire are without Blair Tickner who will bring a whole different dimension to their bowling attack so that makes me think that the 10/11 on Gloucestershire winning this strikes an ounce of value. There is no doubt in my mind that they have the better bowling unit of the two and at this time of the season that is usually the difference.

That isn’t to say that Gloucestershire are inferior with the bat. Of course, they would be stronger with Cameron Green and Cameron Bancroft available but James Bracey, Chris Dent, Ollie Price and Ben Charlesworth can all score solid runs at this level. Derbyshire are going to feel the full force of a pace barrage here though and if the pitch is a bit quicker than usual at this time of year, which it could be with the decent weather that has been around, then I think Gloucestershire will be too good in this one. Derbyshire have only won one red ball game in the last two seasons and I don’t think they win this either.

Tips

Back Gloucestershire to beat Derbyshire for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365