Warwickshire peaked at the right time and are worthy champions

1. It’s not where you start, it’s where you finishSince the County Championship returned six weeks ago, Warwickshire have drawn a rainy game against Nottinghamshire and won their five other matches, the last four by huge margins. That’s an inarguable case for a pennant deservedly and comprehensively won.Perhaps one day there will be as many statues of Chris Woakes around Birmingham as there are of a different Ozzie, the Black Sabbath singer. This time last year, Woakes was hobbling from the dressing room, arm in a sling to bat for England. This year, that same arm is holding up the Championship trophy. He made his Warwickshire debut playing alongside his current coach, Ian Westwood, 20 years ago. The roots of this title run deep.For last week’s comprehensive hammering of Leicestershire, no such roots were required, form and momentum easily sufficient to defeat a county coming off a harsh points penalty, their One-Day Cup final defeat and relegation pending a rather hopeless appeal. Sam Hain topped off a marvellous season with a century and Ethan Bamber added another nine wickets to his competition-leading haul.No title is won without significant leadership, on and off the field. Ed Barnard joined Warwickshire from Worcestershire in 2023 and was appointed captain at the start of this season. He and his club can reflect on two decent decisions there.2. Oh, Somerset!Three wins in the last six matches of the season is pretty good, but Warwickshire won five, so it’s heartache again for Somerset, their latest runners-up slot feeling more like “first loser” after so many near misses.Any lingering hope of a last-round miracle disappeared as news filtered in from Edgbaston of the stand between Hain and Barnard delivering a lead for Warwickshire, as Dan Lawrence and Ben Foakes crossed 340, only four down at Taunton. Heads did not drop, though, Jack Leach and Lewis Gregory restricting Surrey’s first innings to 422 in a fine fightback.The home side racked up 731 – Tom Lammonby providing 229 and Tom Abell adding 307 – to give themselves a chance of going out on a high, even if the title had gone. With rain about on the fourth day, wickets were taken, but not enough to force the win. By late afternoon James Rew had the pads off and was bowling off-spin, the cue for hands to be shaken. It was not title lost but rather a case of a title won elsewhere.Tom Abell scored 307 in Somerset’s draw with Surrey. Photograph: Harry Trump/Getty Images3. Jonny be good Nottinghamshire were also in the title conversation to the end, but two defeats in their last two matches ended hopes of retaining their crown. They were beaten by Yorkshire in the final week of the campaign, losing a humdinger that could have gone either way.Haseeb Hameed was sent in by Jonny Bairstow and batted more than four hours for his 71 on a track that yielded 42 maidens from the 100 overs sent down by the Yorkshire attack. None of the five pacers went at above three an over, with George Hill under two, in a throwback to a previous century.The benefit of that grafting with the bat came through as Olly Stone bagged a fivefer and Hameed returned to the crease, this time with a very handy lead of 72. Notts still could not score at any kind of rate but this time they lost wickets as well, Jack White matching Stone’s haul with Ben Coad just one behind.Yorkshire needed 158 and looked on their way when 50 was crossed with the opening pair still at the crease, but Liam Patterson-White and Mo Ali got among them with able support from Mitchell Hay’s seven dismissals from behind the stumps. The feeling persisted that they needed to get Bairstow out to win and, with last man Jack White leaning on his bat at the other end, that feeling was borne out, Yorkshire’s captain spearing Ali into the stands for a walk-off six.It was quite the punchline to the match and Yorkshire’s season. Three straight wins ensured they finished fifth in the table, giving them much to build upon.4. They can be heroes, just for 176 daysSussex walloped Hampshire to finish third in the table. If not for their 12-point penalty, they would have finished second – a magnificent achievement by the players.Things did not start well for Sussex, who were seven down with only 124 on the board, but Jack Leaning and Jack Carson fashioned 75 runs for the eighth wicket to guide them to 244 – firmly in the “could have been a lot worse” category.Jaydev Unadkat got things going with a fivefer and the relegated hosts, no doubt eager for the season to end, conceded a lead of 116. Tom Haines helped himself to a century and, despite a creditable fight from Hampshire, Sussex clinched the win and third place in the table. It was a super end to a season that had promised so little.Tom Haines hit a century for Sussex as they beat Hampshire and finished third in the table. Photograph: Neil Marshall/ProSports/Shutterstock5. Northamptonshire’s hopes fade earlyLate-season matches can assume an unusual shape, tired pitches, tired players and events elsewhere driving a narrative as much as good old-fashioned runs and wickets.Northamptonshire started their final match with a chance of promotion, albeit dependent on events at Canterbury. By early on the first afternoon, that chance had all but evaporated, after Middlesex – with a spring in their step and the One-Day Cup in their cabinet – dismissed them for 103.Choosing to bat at 10.30am in September at Lord’s is what Sir Humphrey Appleby would describe as brave, but Luke Procter wanted runs on the board. His players barely got bats on the ball, as the four-pronged attack of 30-something seamers plugged away on a line and length and extracted that half-bat’s width of movement that served Glenn McGrath so well in St John’s Wood.I was awarding Kent second spot right there and then, but suddenly the board said 32/4 and it was game-on again. Cue a few shots from Ben Geddes to install a little belief and the arrival at the crease of the reassuring figure of Ryan Higgins, who notched his second century in four days.To their credit, Northants fought back, Saif Zaib going down fighting with a characteristically pugnacious century, but the pitch was as dead as a Norwegian Blue by now and Middlesex cruised over the line to acclaim down the M2. The fact that their rivals were not even going to get the four points they needed at the start of the round to draw level had been known by the Canterbury fans for days, but there was still a cheer when promotion was secured.Daniel Bell-Drummond had taken a different view from that of Northants’ Luke Procter at the toss and opted against the “runs on the board” cliche and gone for “need to take 20 wickets” one instead. It wasn’t going entirely as planned, but Matt Milnes and Khaled Ahmed extracted some movement with the older ball and Gloucestershire’s 124/3 became a disappointing 229 all out.Ben Compton’s 126 in just over six hours held Kent’s reply together and a first-innings lead of 124 was always likely to be enough against a side that had only the pride of finishing above Lancashire to play for – and that ain’t much.Kent look less well equipped than Durham for Division One. They will need more from Zak Crawley and Tawanda Muyeye with the bat, and stronger support for Milnes with the ball if they are to survive. But we would have been saying something similar about Glamorgan this time last year and they sit comfortably in mid-table.As this column prepares to hibernate until April, it’s my cue to thank readers and, especially, commenters whose knowledge, warmth and humour extend this paper’s coverage of county cricket so wonderfully, led by the tireless Tanya with her rolling, rolling, rolling blog. It’s an enduring privilege to watch this game, and to write and read about it. I hope readers who convene here every week know that they play a small, but important, part in preserving the county game’s precarious foothold in the national conversation.And, as for Lancashire …This article is from The 99.94 Cricket Blog