Climax to 2016 County Championship

For the first time for ages (ever?) the County Championship is likely to be decided by a clash of the two contenders in the final match.
Having retired, I've seen more county cricket this year than for many seasons. One of the things that has stood out is the number of young players, in some cases very young, who are coming through. To mention just a few - Tom and Sam Curran, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Aneurin Donald, Nick Gubbins, Haseeb Hameed and Tom Alsop, who I saw make a very composed 100 at The Oval this week.
Less happily, there appears to be a shortage of top-class England-qualified spinners. The doing away with the toss was supposed to lead to better pitches and an opportunity for the slow men. However, a wet start to the campaign hardly encouraged much spin bowling and some of the pitches (Lord's, for example) have been batsmen's paradises.
Given all that, Middx have done well to be battling it out with Yorkshire at this late stage. Personally, I shall be thrilled to see them take the title.

I cant help feeling the CC has become a bit of joke now. Partly down to so many top players only making occasional appearances, and countys signing overseas pros based on their T20 prowess rather than First Class potential. The number of drawn games has been ludicrous and really devalued both divisions this season.
It seems far too easy for many of these young guns to make a big noise on the county scene and be touted as the next big thing, but very few seem ready when asked to step up to international cricket even when given Lions chances first.
Its nice to have an proper climax at least, but thats about the only saving grace for this season which really has seen an acceleration in the demise of the competition.

Bizarre start today to the Lancs-Middx match. Middx, as the away team, declined to bowl first and so a toss took place. May be it did not occur to Lancs that this meant Middx were keen to bat first. So what happens? Lancs win the toss AND PUT MIDDX IN.
Did it pay off? Well, not so far, as Middx are 93 for no wicket at lunch.

To add to the list of young players to watch, there is Kiran Shah Carlson, just 18, who helped rescue the Glams innings against Essex today with a century.
Very much Middx's day as they close on 250-odd for three, while Yorks will collect no batting points having been skittled for 145, with Somerset only 38 behind with nine wickets left.