Celebration: Surrey celebrate clinching their 20th County Championship title
(Picture: PA)Surrey have been crowned county champions for the second time in four seasons after a crushing 10-wicket victory over Yorkshire at The Mickey Stewart Oval.
Having been made to follow-on, Yorkshire were bowled out for a second time for 208, leaving Surrey chasing just 55 runs for victory on the afternoon of day three.
They knocked them off in only six overs before tea, with opener Rory Burns scoring 30 off 16 balls to steer the new champions home in style.
The result, coupled with second-place Hampshire’s defeat by Kent at Southampton, saw Surrey win the title for a 20th time outright and the first since 2018, with a game to spare. They will be presented with the trophy following next week’s final game, against Lancashire at Old Trafford.
Going into the penultimate round of fixtures, the title race had looked set to go to the final round of the season.
However, things accelerated after Ollie Pope’s superb 136 helped Surrey to a first-innings score of 333 all out and later a healthy first-innings lead at The Oval, while at the Ageas Bowl, Hampshire were skittled for just 57 in their first innings in reply to Kent’s 165.
Hants were eventually set 378 for victory and made a decent fist of the chase, with James Vince scoring 73 and James Fuller an unbeaten 79 batting at No9, but eventually fell 77 runs short.
That opened the door for Surrey, who had asked Yorkshire to bat again after they fell just five runs shy of avoiding the follow-on. Starting day three on 89 for two, the visitors - who are themselves fighting relegation - still had hope of salvaging a draw with rain forecast for Friday but again had little answer to Surrey’s seam attack as Dan Worrall took four wickets.
Burns and opening partner Ryan Patel had little trouble chasing the low target to start the celebrations at a ground this week temporarily renamed in honour of club legend Mickey Stewart, who recently turned 90.
