Charlie Shreck is aiming for a repeat performance when Nottinghamshire head to Lord’s to play Middlesex in a crucial LV County Championship match.

LV County Championship Division Two
Aug 29-Sept 1: Middlesex v Notts
Start time: 11am
Ball by ball commentary is available online from BBC London here.

Shreck took a hat-trick in the fixture last year and then sat back as the Notts batsmen piled on the runs on the way to an innings victory, with Stephen Fleming and Samit Patel making big hundreds.

The giant Cornishman removed Ed Smith, Eoin Morgan and Paul Weekes on day one of the 2006 fixture, as well as David Nash three balls later.

And after returning to first-team action at the weekend in the NatWest Pro40, the 29-year-old hopes to see another memorable performance from his team-mates.

He said: “It was a pleasure watching the lads get a load of runs last year and it would be great to spend a day or so watching them at work from the dressing room.

“I certainly enjoyed my bowling in the first innings, although the second innings was more hard work (Shreck picked up 1-84 from 30 overs).”

Notts lie in second place in Division Two with a 40-point lead over Middlesex, who have a game in hand.

But Shreck is still confident the side can overhaul leaders Somerset to claim the Division Two title, rather than just be content with securing promotion.

He added: “I still think we can push for first. If we win our two games against Middlesex and Derbyshire, we can go down to Taunton with a few more of the lads back from injury and give it a real go.”

Shreck is still not completely recovered from the shin injury which kept him out for two months but said: “It’s got to the stage where it’s now playable.

“It was frustrating because I had been wanting to get out there playing a long time ago. I had been doing bowl-throughs in the nets for a while but the problem was actually moving about in the field.

“I can tell that I haven’t bowled for 10 weeks, but I’ll get through it.”

Squad news:
The curse of the on-loan bowlers hit Notts again during the victory over Northants last week, as Mark Davies has returned to Durham after suffering a hamstring strain.
Mark Ealham may not be back before the end of the season after a recurrence of the same injury, while AJ Harris also misses the trip to London with a back strain.

Squad:
Gallian, Jefferson, Wagh, Fleming (capt), Shafayat, Patel, Read (wkt), Swann, Adams, Franks, Shreck, Ferley, Francis.