The silly season

Get your jumpers and coats ready; Middlesex will begin their 2012 season in March, the newly-released fixture list has revealed.

The improbably early fixture is a first-class match against Durham MCC University on 31 March. And it’s in Durham, making it a bitterly cold prospect.

A few days later, on 5 April, Middlesex will make their earliest ever start to a County Championship campaign when they take on Somerset at Taunton.

Will Middlesex be celebrating again next season?

They could not have asked for a tougher start to life back in the top flight; Marcus Trescothick’s side are currently joint-favourites to win the title.

The first Lord’s fixture is against local rivals Surrey – who were promoted with Middlesex last season – on 12 April.

Surrey will also take on Middlesex under the Lord’s floodlights on 14 June in the Panthers’ first T20 fixture of the summer.

Middlesex end with a County Championship match against defending champions Lancashire at Lord’s on 4 September, finishing a week earlier than the other eight teams in the division.

That could mean an anxious wait for the club, although optimists will like to think that the County Championship title – last won by Middlesex in 1993 – will have been wrapped up by then.

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