Last hour.

Signalled today at 5pm in Essex v Northants match.

18 overs remained.

Players shook hands shortly afterwards.

People on the previous version of this forum insisted I didn't know what I was talking about.

They said it was signalled at 16 overs remaining in normal times; and 15 during Covid.

Just saying.

Effectively 16 because of overs between innings?

VicNorth wrote:Effectively 16 because of overs between innings?

Yes, seen that before. The batting side says it is about to declare with 18 overs left, so that can be it. Not sure if it ever appears as a declaration as such but nobody is going to argue.

There couldn't ever be a win without a fourth innings, so there would have to be a break, declaration or not. What is interesting - to me at least - is that the Umpire signals the last hour when he does. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be anything to do with word of intent to declare from the batsmen. But I understand what you are getting at, and think we on the same page really. Certainly a friendlier response than last time I mentioned it!

A declaration with 18 overs remaining (and after 4:50pm) can be the end of play, but the umpire should not have signalled last hour - merely only doing so ceremonially at 5pm, at which point the captains agree a draw.

I have seen a couple of examples of declarations at (eg) 4:49pm so that the team can bowl one over to get their over rate in order. I remember Surrey doing so against Essex in 2019 (RJ Burns 1-1-0-0).

What's the difference between a ceremonial signal and an actual signal?

What happened today was, I'm sure, exactly the same as what happened, in the instance that I mentioned, at the Oval.

Scorecard shows no declaration.

The signal was a 5pm. With 18 overs left. I'm going with loss of two overs is implied.