And, with the covers on at Old Trafford, and the bread rolls gone, time to sign off. Huge congratulations to Surrey – the outstanding team of the Championship – who, for all their advantages, play brilliant cricket and care about the red-ball game. Commiserations to Somerset, who met a Lancashire side who suddenly found their mojo. Congratulations also to promoted Sussex, and bad luck to Kent, time to lick your wounds in the party division.
We’ll be back for the final time next Thursday, with one more promotion place and one more relegation place to sort out, and a trophy to hand over at Chelmsford. Comments will continue on our match report. Thanks for your company, bye!
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Division Two table - with one round left
1 Sussex (PROMOTED) 221
2 Yorkshire 201
3 Middlesex 186
4 Northamptonshire 152
5 Leicestershire 145
6 Gloucestershire 141
7 Glamorgan 128
8 Derbyshire 110
Division One table - with one round left
1 Surrey (CHAMPIONS) 221
2 Hampshire 195
3 Somerset 193
4 Essex 179
5 Durham 158
6 Worcestershire 151
7 Warwickshire 146
8 Nottinghamshire 141
9 Lancashire 126
10 Kent (RELEGATED) 85
"It's been good fun"
And a grinning Keaton Jennings:
“It’s been a really good game of cricket. A good surface, two teams competing over the course of four days. It’s been good fun.
“I’m really chuffed the lads have put in what I think is our best team performance over the course of this campaign. It’s really pleasing. It’s down to guys putting their hands up. Luke Wells getting 130 and putting in a performance that the team required to try and get us into a winning position and then taking poles this morning.
What would I borrow from Surrey? Their bank balance
A phlegmatic Jason Kerr.
Are Surrey catchable? “Absolutely. They’re obviously a formidable club, they’ve got a method of playing at home, they know how to win, they’ve got incredible depth in their club but as an incredibly aspirational club we definitely feel we can catch them.
What would you borrow from them? “Their bank balance!”
“We haven’t ’ got the same amount of resources so we have to find other ways, be smarter and we have to try and create that depth by creating even more players.
“We can produce a lot of batters, we inherited Bash, but you have to be specific and fill the gaps we haven’t got. If we keep producing batters, that’s great but we need to created bowlers, spinners, wicketkeepers, you need depths across more facets and that’s where we need to be more strategic.
“Seamers are where it is really difficult, that’s when you look at the resources of Surrey compared to a lot of the other counties - their depth in the seam department is significant. That’s where we’d all be envious, we need two Craig Overtons, two Lewis Gregorys, which allows you to rest, rotate and keep them fresh
Craig, Lewis, they’re not in the twilight of their careers yet but they’re obviously experienced players and at some point they’ll start to dip and we need to make sure we’re replacing those guys as well. A great challenge though.
“I can only speak for Somerset, but from the kids coming through there is a real hunger for success in red ball cricket.
“We’ve won two trophies in five years – in 2019 we won the 50 0ver, and the Blast last year, we know how to win. Obviously, its a monkey on our back that we' ve never’ won the CC so that becomes elusive but its not a narrative that’s in the dressing room. I think one of the successes this year is that we’ve found a way to win at home – our five wins have come at home, we now need to take that on the road.”
Final round games
Division One
CHESTER LE STREET: Durham v Kent
CHELMSFORD: Essex v Surrey
TRENT BRIDGE: Nottinghamshire v Warwickshire
TAUNTON: Somerset v Hampshire
NEW ROAD: Worcestershire v Lancashire
Division Two
SOPHIA GARDENS: Glamorgan v Gloucestershire
GRACE ROAD: Leicestershire v Derbyshire
HOVE: Sussex v Middlesex
HEADINGLEY: Yorkshire v Northamptonshire
Final Scores
Division One
Southampton: Hampshire 462 and 204 BEAT Worcestershire 273 and 158 by 235 runs
Kent 225 and 230 (f/o) v Nottinghamshire 433 and 28-0
Nottinghamshire won by 10 wickets
Old Trafford: Lancashire 140 and 398 BEAT Somerset 146 and 224 by 168 runs
Surrey 415 and 25-0 v Durham 262 and 177
Surrey won by 10 wickets
Division Two
Derbyshire 173 and 119 v Middlesex 358
Middlesex won by an innings and 66 runs
Sophia Gardens: Yorkshire 361 and 273 BEAT Glamorgan 239 and 209 BY 186 runs
Gloucestershire 109 and 195 v Sussex 311
Sussex won by an innings and seven runs
Northamptonshire 383 and 137-1 v Leicestershire 203 and 316
Northamptonshire won by nine wickets
Hampshire BEAT Worcestershire by 235 runs!
Southampton: Hampshire 462 and 204 BEAT Worcestershire 273 and 158 by 235 runs
A scrap for the runner’s up position down at Taunton next week, after Kyle Abbot finishes things at Southampton with four wickets in the first hour. Hampshire now leapfrog Somerset – if they finish second, it will be for the first time since Shane Warne was captain.
Yorkshire beat Glamorgan by 186 runs
Sophia Gardens: Yorkshire 361 and 273 BEAT Glamorgan 239 and 209 BY 186 runs!
Easy does it…Yorkshire go into the final game of the year, against Northants, 15 points ahead of promotion rivals Middlesex.
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Not that it will make Somerset feel any better but...
This is the first time in the history of the County Championship that there have been 21 wickets onthe first day and the game has lasted till the fourth.
Just popping down to speak to Somerset, as Lancashire bellow loudly in their dressing room. Elsewhere, Glamorgan are nine down, and Worcestershire seven, as the penultimate round zips towards a conclusion.
“Get in there!” 🏆🏆🏆
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) September 20, 2024
🤎 | #SurreyCricket pic.twitter.com/bM3I7jqafo
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Luke Wells: heart-breaker
What a match! A century and 4-36 in Somerset’s crucial second innings.
Surrey have won the Championship! Lancashire beat Somerset by 168 runs
And that, my friends, is that.
In 7.1 overs, Somerset demolished, Rew bowled Phillip 31. Handshakes between the teams. Lancashire live to go again. For Somerset, another broken heart.
Somerset performing to type here it turns out (with thanks to Ken Grime)
Somerset have an extraordinarily poor Championship record at Old Trafford considering some of the great cricketers who have played for them.
They have only ever won 8 times in Lancashire, once at Southport and 7 times at Old Trafford in 80 matches.
At OT the record is Lancs won 27, Somerset won 7, draws 22. Total matches 58
And another...
To howl of laughter from somewhere close to the Lancashire dressing room, Randell is bowled for nine by, yes, Luke Wells. Somerset 220-9.
And another...
Overton makes the smallest of steps with the biggest of legs and retreats to the pavilion. Eight down, Somerset now need 184. Phillip the wickettaker.
A wicket first ball at Old Trafford!
A googly! Bemuses Gregory and he loses his middle stump.
“Oh dear, dear, dear,” says Anthony Gibson. Wells on a hattrick.
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Surrey on the brink, Kent down, Sussex up: Thursday's roundup
Surrey are on the verge of a third successive County Championship title after beating Durham within three days at the Oval and then sitting back to watch their challengers, Somerset, falter at Old Trafford.
Dan Worrall’s two wickets in the first over of the day doomed Durham’s innings barely before it had breathed, and he finished with four wickets, as did Sam Curran. Only Emilio Gay’s 48 prevented an innings defeat for Durham, but Rory Burns and Dom Sibley quickly reached the 25 needed, to tick off Surrey’s sixth home win of the season. They will be champions on Friday if Somerset, six down, fail to score the 189 more they need to beat Lancashire and take the title race into the final round.
In Manchester it was Luke Wells who all but crushed Somerset’s dreams under his big boots, first with an excellent counterattacking 130 to take Lancashire almost out of reach, then with two crucial wickets, one of them in the last over of the day when Kasey Aldridge was brilliantly caught off a quicker ball by Matty Hurst, ending a stoical 49-run sixth-wicket stand with James Rew.
The 18-year-old Archie Vaughan had earlier danced to a maiden championship half-century of great composure and timing, before being caught off the excellent George Balderson.
Barring something extraordinary from Rew and partners at Old Trafford in the morning, Surrey will become the first side since Yorkshire in the 1960s to win three on the bounce. As Sam Curran said: “I’m sure the boys will be glued to the streams over the next day.”
Sussex’s coach, Paul Farbrace, said “I’m not thinking beyond getting a nice cold beer and putting my feet up,” after his side thrashed Gloucestershire to earn promotion to Division One nine years after relegation. Sussex wrapped up victory in less than a session after Gloucestershire’s second innings imploded, and Henry Crocombe closed the curtains by pinning Dom Goodman in front of his stumps, to collect his fourth wicket. A bouncing team gathered together on the square for a jubilant group hug.
To altogether glummer faces, Kent’s relegation was confirmed after an innings defeat by Nottinghamshire at Canterbury. It is the first time since 2018 that they will snuffle around among the tree roots and acorns.
After a flurry of runs on Wednesday evening, Kent started the day with a spring in their step but Tawanda Muyeye’s dismissal in the first over soon knocked that away. The nine subsequent wickets fell for 139, leaving Nottinghamshire to knock off only 23 for victory.
Notts have shuffled further towards safety – meaning that even if Lancashire win and get 24 points in the final round, Notts will need only 10 points from their last game to stay up.
A disembowelling of Derbyshire kept Middlesex’s hopes of promotion just about alive. Their fifth win of the season came after Derbyshire lost their last seven wickets in the first 90 minutes of a dingy morning. Toby Roland-Jones pocketed five more wickets (10 in the match), to add to his handsome tally of 52 for the year.
Northants won back-to-back -championship matches for the first time in five years after crushing Leicestershire at Wantage Road. There were five wickets for Yuzvendra Chahal and though a maiden first-class century for Scott Currie orchestrated a plucky Leicestershire fightback, it was not enough.
Liam Dawson’s quietly brilliant season continued – he added another half century and five more wickets (to reach 50 for the first time in a championship season) to usher Hampshire towards defeat of Worcestershire. Jake Libby was 55 not out at stumps, but Worcestershire’s task looks a ticklish one, with 277 still needed and only five wickets left.
Yorkshire strolled towards -victory at Sophia Gardens and will need only three more wickets in the morning to go into the final round with a cracking chance of promotion. Ben Coad chipped away at Glamorgan, who were set 396 in the final innings, picking up his 50th first-class wicket of the season on his way to four for 30.
Scores on the doors
Division One
Hampshire 462 and 204 v Worcestershire 273 and 117-5
Worcestershire need 277 with five wickets standing
Kent 225 and 230 (f/o) v Nottinghamshire 433 and 28-0
Nottinghamshire won by 10 wickets
Lancashire 140 and 398 v Somerset 146 and 204-6
Somerset need 189 to win with four wickets standing
Surrey 415 and 25-0 v Durham 262 and 177
Surrey won by 10 wickets
Division Two
Derbyshire 173 and 119 v Middlesex 358
Middlesex won by an innings and 66 runs
Glamorgan 239 and 141-7 v Yorkshire 361 and 273
Glamorgan need another 255 with three wickets standing
Gloucestershire 109 and 195 v Sussex 311
Sussex won by an innings and seven runs
Northamptonshire 383 and 137-1 v Leicestershire 203 and 316
Northamptonshire won by nine wickets
Preamble
Good morning from Old Trafford, for the final time this season. Today is make or break for Somerset – can they win and go into the final week with the Championship still a tangible idea. For Lancashire too, skin in the game – a victory will mean that a last-gasp escape from Division Two is possible. Play starts here at 10.30am, and at the other two games still in progress – at Sophia Gardens, and Southampton. Do join us!
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