Middlesex opener Sam Robson admitted to a mixture of emotions after scoring his first century of the season on day one of their County Championship Division Two match with Derbyshire.

Robson hit 17 fours in his 134, spending over five hours at the crease, as the hosts reached 350-8 at Lord’s, with young Max Holden unbeaten on 96 overnight.

And the former England batsman revealed it had been a tough campaign for the 2016 champions, who saw their hopes of promotion ended by defeat against Kent last week.

Robson said: “I feel a bit of everything emotions-wise, delight and relief.

“It’s been a tough year for myself and all the batsmen if we are honest. We haven’t played as well as we would have liked there’s not any doubt about that.

“It’s felt like you’ve been battling your backside off for a lot of it, so it was nice to settle in and set my stall out to try and bat for a while.

“Once you did get through the new ball the pitch was nice to bat on, but having said that a few still stayed low and we saw with the second new ball tonight that period is tough work.

“From what I have seen it is not going to get easier so that is a good sign for us.”