The first edition of 2014 in our regular series  which looks at how Irish players have performed across the water. Ed Joyce and Tim Murtagh played leading roles in wins for Sussex and Middlesex.

Ed Joyce has scored three first-class hundreds in April already and his back-to-back centuries helped his Sussex side to the summit of the Championship table after a convincing seven wicket win against Warwickshire.

The Bears had no place for William Porterfield or Boyd Rankin in their line-up, and were always struggling after a first innings collapse.

Middlesex bounced back from their loss at Hove to beat Nottinghamshire at Lord's. Paul Stirling again doesn't seem to be featuring in their four-day plans for this season, and indeed it appears that he has fallen down Angus Fraser's pecking order even further with Andrew Balbirnie ahead of him in the queue.

Tim Murtagh took 5 for 61 in the welcome win as one of the country's leading wicket takers in 2013 got his campaign firmly up and running.

George Dockrell didn't feature in Somerset's drawn game with Yorkshire, while Graeme McCarter wasn't involved as Gloucester lost to Hampshire by 8 wickets, nor Stuart Poynter in Durham's draw.

Niall O'Brien wasn't in action as Leicestershire's match with Derbyshire was postponed due to bereavement.

Gary Wilson played in Surrey's season opener last week, but didn't have the best of starts, scoring just 1 run in two innings as Surrey slumped.