Rob Steen's round up.
"Partial to your abracadabra," sang the late Ian Dury. It is exceedingly doubtful whether Glamorgan are quite so keen on Marcus Trescothick's brand of sorcery.
Given all the talk of the England captaincy swirling about his head, Trescothick might have been distracted in Taunton yesterday. Instead he returned to Somerset duty, to face his favourite foes, sporting a natty pair of shades. Powering to 121 off 83 balls, his seventh century in all forms of cricket this season, on a day when no one else scaled three figures, the future Lord Tresco of Tesco extended to 39 years Glamorgan's campaign to land a one-day cup.
"Who is this bloke?" asked the then Glamorgan coach Duncan Fletcher two Augusts ago after the Welsh club had felt the lash of the opener's bat.
This, moreover, was the third time in 10 weeks he had plundered them for a hundred.
He set the tone and 126 runs cascaded from the first 15 overs, the first 50 needing only 23 balls as Somerset, set 270, coasted home with 50 balls to spare.
If "Get Carter" was Essex's motto at Edgbaston, it availed them naught. On his one-day debut for Warwickshire , Neil Carter, a left-arm seamer and another of the new influx of South Africans nailing his colours to a fresh mast, took three for 12 in his first eight overs, ushering out Essex for 160.
"Hopefully this performance has given people an idea of what I am capable of," said Carter afterwards.
At 93 for five in reply Warwickshire were groggy, but Dougie Brown restored fibre and order with an unbeaten half-century.
Of the original 17 first-class entrants for the 1963 knockout competition, the only county other than Glamorgan never to hoist the trophy in any of its incarnations are Leicestershire , for whom hope flared anew as they unveiled Shahid Afridi to productive effect against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.
The leg-spin of Afridi, whose Pakistan teammate Abdur Razzaq yesterday signed for Middlesex for 2002 and 2003, undid Paul Johnson and Kevin Pietersen as the home side ground out 176.
When the visitors replied, Greg Smith had Afridi (23 off 24 balls) caught behind. Afridi was one of three casualties of the South African's opening burst, but an unbroken stand of 45 between Vince Wells and Ben Smith cut today's target to 52 off 20 overs.
Andrew Symonds, like Afridi a substitute import, had a jolly time for Kent . Collecting five for 21 as Northamptonshire dwindled from 73 for one to 92 for seven before Paul Taylor dragged them to 200 with his maiden one-day fifty, the Australian secured a six-wicket win with a bruising 39.
Quarter-final draw: Yorkshire or Surrey v Warwickshire; Lancashire or Sussex v Durham; Kent v Somerset; Worcestershire v Nottinghamshire or Leicestershire.