Moores the merriest as Nottinghamshire end Surrey’s Championship streak
But there’s cruel heartache for Durham and some soul-searching for Lancashire and Kent
Ball one: one more for Moores
After last week’s almost crucial win at The Oval, Nottinghamshire returned home to Trent Bridge with one of sport’s trickiest assignments – maintaining momentum after the emotional victory.
Wisely (he seems to have plenty of wisdom for a man still in his 20s, much of it born in adversity no doubt), Haseeb Hameed didn’t risk 50/6 at lunch, inviting his fellow captain, Alex Davies to wear his batting pads and tossed the ball to his opening bowlers, Mohammad Abbas and Brett Hutton. They have over 300 first class matches between them and they knew the job at hand.
The next morning, Hameed himself knew his job. If he could make a century, Notts would likely gain a first innings lead and test Warwickshire’s resolve. When he left the crease with 122 to his name, the deficit was just 30 and not all the late order were going to fail. They didn’t, Kyle Verreynne and Liam Patterson-White adding 110 at a run a ball, taking the game away from the visitors.
With the title secured with a bonus point during that stand – always slightly anticlimactic, but try telling that to the Nottingham locals – the win came on day three, making it seven from 14 matches, two more than any rival. It was a team effort, eight batters who played at least 10 matches averaging at least 33 (all at strike rates between 52 and 62 – interesting that) and, across a long and disrupted season, seven bowlers took at least 20 wickets.
But one man doesn’t appear in those tables. This was Peter Moores’ fourth pennant with a third county (after two with Sussex and one with Lancashire). Like his captain, he’s had two gos with England and it didn’t work out, but, like his captain, he was only down, not out.
Ball two: Albert cues up Chahar
Speaking of feeling down, Hampshire, have suffered plenty with two white ball final defeats in September. It was suboptimal then, after taking the hit of a much-delayed points deduction for a substandard pitch, to look up and find themselves in a fight for their lives in the tangled mess at the bottom of Division two.
All seemed fine against a weakened, now ex-champions, XI at the Utilita Bowl sitting on a first innings lead of 101, but Surrey were stronger second time round, Ralphie Albert, South London snooker superstar, Jimmy White’s, grandson, top-scoring on debut with 63. But there was a sting in the tale of Hants’ topsy-turvy season.
Surrey (as they do, but possibly a week too late) had drafted in an Indian spinner, Rahul Chahar, and the legspinner, possibly inspired by his team’s second innings total of 281, a Very Very Special number, took eight wickets as Hampshire lost by 20 runs.
Ball three: a second sting in the tale
Eyes turned to Headingley where Yorkshire, now safe after Hampshire’s defeat, could slide into the flip-flops and wait for the 5pm handshakes. To avoid the drop, all Durham had to do was bat out the last day, knowing that once their total past 129, they were in credit and those runs would have to be made by Yorkshire for the win.
Nobody seemed to have grasped that fact, the cliché telling us that runs holding a lead ‘count double’, as Durham lost captain, Alex Lees in the 26th over, the score on 29/2. That was merely the precursor to a truly calamitous spell of 12 overs in which eight wickets fell for 28 runs, George Hill and Dom Bess the destroyers.
The revolving door of the dressing room had become a trapdoor to Division Two and Durham were goners, Hampshire saved. At either end of the country, fans could not quite believe what had happened. Nor, I suspect, could CFOs of Durham and Hampshire.
Ball four: another top flight campaign hoves into sight
Aside from the champions, Sussex are Division One’s big overachievers, signing off with a fourth win of the season to take them fourth in the table – with Warwickshire and Essex also on 172 points!
Centuries for James Coles and John Simpson (what a signing he has been) set up Ollie Robinson to do his thing with 11 wickets in the match. The big but fragile seamer is pushing up towards 500 first class victims at the McGrathian average of 21.59 – he comes with baggage but he also comes with a guarantee of wickets.
To their credit, Worcestershire fought hard, taking seven wickets as the visitors stumbled towards the measly target of 61, the admirable Tom Taylor grabbing his second four wicket bag of the match.
As Worcestershire do, they’ll knuckle down to make the yoyo work next season with a promotion, but Sussex can look forward to a second season in the top flight, perhaps reaping the reward of playing all those kids in the Covid season.
Ball five: gloom envelops Canterbury and Manchester
Last season, Lancashire and Kent managed only four wins between them to be relegated to Division Two. It took a win in the last round of matches for Lancashire against promotion-happy Glamorgan for the dismal duo to best that record in the lower flight, Lancashire finishing in the bottom half and Kent a pitiful 29 points adrift in last place, this week getting an absolute paddling from Derbyshire.
Does that show that there isn’t much to choose between the divisions, that the depth is there in the County Championship, that you’re almost as likely to be ambushed at Bristol or Northampton as you are at Taunton or Birmingham? Or does it tell you that clubs that are poorly managed produce poor results?
Kent lost eight points in July for a fourth (count ‘em) disciplinary infraction of the season and Lancashire’s grumbling membership have moved votes of no confidence in recent weeks. Dissent towards the umpire and trouble at t’mill in the committee rooms do not necessarily mean that bowler A will deliver too many half volleys or batter B will leave a gate and lose his off stump, but we know dysfunctional organisational cultures’ impacts are more complicated than that
What isn’t complicated is the assertion that the fans of these two grand old clubs deserve much more in 2026 and if the current leaders on and off the field can’t deliver it, they should get out of the way and let someone else have a go.
Ball six: So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good night
The Rothesay County Championship season is concluded and, glory be, will return with its 14 matches in 2026, an imperfect structure, but surely the best we can hope for in the short term. Let’s face it, in the medium and long term too.
It’s been my privilege to write about it here adding to the super work led by Tanya, Jim, Ali and others at The Guardian, a newspaper that continues to treat the grand old Champo with the respect it deserves and, as always, consistently earns. While crowds on grounds can look a little lost amongst the empty seats, many, many more follow the YouTube streams, now more professional than ever, and local commentaries, all enjoying a global reach.
There’s a case to be made that English domestic first class cricket has a place in more people’s summers than at any time in its history – more modest than when Compton and Edrich raised spirits after the War, but there all the same.
Finally, as a writer ‘about things’ (cricket and theatre) I need two constituencies – the makers and the readers. So thanks to the players, the coaches, the staff and the volunteers at the counties. Thanks also to the unseen workers at Guardian HQ who go well beyond the call of duty to get these words from my screen to yours. And thanks to you for reading and commenting, adding so much to this wonderful game of ours.
Well, it’s ours for now…