Last round of County Championship games...

Fixtures:

Div One:

Derbyshire v Warwickshire
Nottinghamshire v Somerset
Surrey v Yorkshire
Sussex v Durham

Div Two:

Glamorgan v Gloucestershire
Hampshire v Essex
Kent v Lancashire
Worcestershire v Northamptonshire

Northants are very strong favourites to gain promotion alongside Lancs, as they start 20 points ahead of Essex.

Derby, who play Warks, have to win to give themselves a chance.  Notts and Somerset, who play each other, are still both at risk, but would ensure that they both survived if they play out a draw with a decent number of bonus points.

Will be interesting if that Somerset/Notts game 'convinently' plays out as a draw.

SCORES AT LUNCH

Div One:

Derbyshire v Warwickshire -- Warwickshire 88-3
Nottinghamshire v Somerset -- Notts 115-4
Surrey v Yorkshire -- Yorkshire 80-2
Sussex v Durham -- Durham 75-2

Div Two:

Glamorgan v Gloucestershire -- Gloucestershire 87-1
Hampshire v Essex -- Hants 115-1
Kent v Lancashire -- Lancashire 77-2
Worcestershire v Northamptonshire -- Worcestershire 72-6

Northants nearly home and dry. ..

jimbohammers wrote:Will be interesting if that Somerset/Notts game 'convinently' plays out as a draw.

Hard to do that from the start but I doubt there will be any agreement to move things along if a draw looks likely on the last couple of days! Whatever happens a draw will be enough to save one of them.

Whatever happens Northants promotion now looks very secure but I can't help but feel that Essex's policy is still rather odd. Even if it is only a 5% chance why rest players? Many counties don't rest players even for dead rubber Champ games...

Whatever happens Northants promotion now looks very secure but I can't help but feel that Essex's policy is still rather odd. Even if it is only a 5% chance why rest players? Many counties don't rest players even for dead rubber Champ games

-------

Totally agree shelsey, seemed a very strange decision. What are they resting their players for exactly?

Surrey fans, your old mate is bowling well today. Chris Jordan 12 overs, 7 maidens, 16 runs, 2 wickets

Hampshire closed on 396-8

i dont know why we keep picking Saj Mahmood

CF - Essex is not the only club in which there are is a player or two who seems always to be on the team sheet no matter how limited their returns on the pitch.     Surrey have a strong track record on that!

Good to see Vince amongst runs again. Quality player. Has to play for England at some point, simply too good not to. Seems to have had the kind of heavy scoring season which does his talent justice, and makes a strong claim for inclusion in squads in years to come.

I see Mills has struggled again for essex. No idea what he's doing in the Lions squad if I'm honest.

Woakes has scored a century and rescued Warwickshire batting at 6. His international future still seems to me to be very much as a batting all-rounder.

Congrats to Alan Richardson, who in picking up two wickets today, reached 250 first class wickets for Worcestershire since joining 2010. He has taken those wickets at an average of 22! Fantastic signing and has done a superb job for us since arriving and doesn't look to be slowing down either.

Mat - that's a great achievement by Alan Richardson. Thanks for highlighting it.

Supporters adore a player like Richardson not so much because of his success (even though that's considerable) but because he gives everything to the team cause.

He certainly has a fine record over the last few years. Still going strong at age 38. 

Maybe Surrey will sign him up in a couple of year's time when his career is beginning to wind down! (Sorry - that joke beginning to wear a bit thin... )

You do seem to have a habit of taking our older players!

Stunning achievement for him, more than a few eyebrows raised when he signed but he's proven everyone wrong. And you are right Guildford, as long as someone gives everything to the cause, supporters appreciate it. The fact he's taken 250 wickets is an added bonus, but a very nice one at that!

SCORES AT LUNCH

Div One:

Derbyshire v Warwickshire -- Warwickshire 258-8 (delayed start)
Nottinghamshire v Somerset -- Notts 378-7 (delayed start)
Surrey v Yorkshire -- Yorkshire 434 all out
Sussex v Durham -- Durham 164 all out -- Sussex 309-8

Div Two:

Glamorgan v Gloucestershire -- Gloucestershire 275 all out - Glamorgan 11-1
Hampshire v Essex -- Hants 456 all out - Essex 52-2
Kent v Lancashire -- Lancashire 284 all out - Kent 41-3
Worcestershire v Northamptonshire -- Worcestershire 163 all out - Northants 191-8

Northants may scrape the batting point they need.

Mike Selig wrote:Good to see Vince amongst runs again. Quality player. Has to play for England at some point, simply too good not to. Seems to have had the kind of heavy scoring season which does his talent justice, and makes a strong claim for inclusion in squads in years to come.

Mike  

Looks like the Warks lower order have broken the resistance of Derby. 148 - 7 has now become 359 - 8.  They really do seem to have the ability to bat right down the order.

Corporalhumblebucket wrote:......  Notts and Somerset, who play each other, are still both at risk, but would ensure that they both survived if they play out a draw with a decent number of bonus points.

Full bonus points all round in the first innings of that match  

But looks unlikely to matter much as Derby are really struggling to finish the Warks first innings

Woakes moves past 150.

Maurice Chambers 50 from number 10...career average of 5 before that innings...wow, talk about dispiriting for Derbyshire.

Worcs beat Northants, Moeen Ali takes 6-77 in the final match of the season. All pretty irrelevant with Northans promoted, hopefully those 6 wickets should propel Moeen to the MVP award, very close with Samit Patel.

I would personally go for Onions, because he's been the best player in the best team, but I concede that MVP awards tend to favour batsmen or batting all-rounders - I remember a European T20 tournament where one of our guys finished joint highest wicket taker, yet finished in the MVP stats behind someone who had scored a couple of 30s and taken half the wickets...

Div One:

Derbyshire v Warwickshire -- Warwickshire 391-9d -- Derbyshire 103 + 120 all out
Nottinghamshire v Somerset -- Notts 406 + 172-3 -- Somerset 372
Surrey v Yorkshire -- Yorkshire 434 -- Surrey 626-5
Sussex v Durham -- Durham 164 + 410-7 -- Sussex 328

Div Two:

Glamorgan v Gloucestershire -- Gloucestershire 275 + 6-0 -- Glamorgan 306
Hampshire v Essex -- Hants 456 -- Essex 207 + 218
Kent v Lancashire -- Lancashire 284 + 393-5d -- Kent 260 + 75-3
Worcestershire v Northamptonshire -- Worcestershire 163 + 295 -- Nothants 202 + 141


RESULTS:

WARWIKSHIRE BEAT DERBYSHIRE BY AN INNINGS AND 168 RUNS, MEANING DERBYSHIRE ARE RELEGATED. WARWICKSHIRE AT ONE POINT IN THE GAME WERE 120-6. CHRIS WOAKES THE KEY MAN WITH BAT AND BALL.


HAMPSHIRE BEAT ESSEX BY AN INNINGS AND 31 RUNS, ESSEX FAIL TO GET AN UNLIKELY PROMOTION. A STRANGE TO DECISION TO REST THE LIKES OF BOPARA, MASTERS AND TOPLEY. MATT COLES TOOK 10 WICKETS IN THE MATCH.


WORCESTERSHIRE BEAT NORTHANTS BY 115 RUNS, NORTHANTS PROMOTED TO DIV ONE DESPITE A LOSS HERE. WORCESTERSHIRE WERE BOWLED OUT FOR 163 IN THE FIRST INNINGS BUT FOUGHT BACK AND CLAIMED AN UNLIKELY VICTORY. NORTHANTS WON'T BE TOO BOTHERED THOUGH. MOEEN ALI WITH 6-77

While im free from work for a bit (don't tell the boss)

Here is my Div 2 team of the season...

Moeen Ali
Ashwell Prince
Liam Dawson
James Vince
Murray Goodwin
Darren Stevens
Andrew Hall
James Foster
Graham Napier
Kyle Hogg
Alan Richardson

Subs:
Dave Masters, David Willey, Michael Hogan, Will Gidman

Moeen won MVP if anyone is interested.