The Last Overs of Summer
I’ve done quite a few posts recently about the ending of summer – the Autumnal Equinox and the start of a new Academic Year being two examples – but now we really have reached which I regard as the definite conclusion. Today was the last day of the last round of matches in the County Championship.
Here is the Table as it stands at the end of the last round of matches:
I haven’t followed county cricket all that closely since I moved to Ireland almost 9 years ago, but I do check the score now and then to see how Glamorgan are getting on, as I used to live quite close to the ground at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. Glamorgan were promoted last season, for the first time in 21 years but when I wrote about that at this time last year I said that
I wouldn’t bet against them being relegated straight away, though. Last time they got promoted (in 2004) they played just one season (2005) in the First Division, during which they lost 14 of their 16 matches, and dropped back down.
Happily, as you can see from the Table, that didn’t happen. They did have a poor run of games after the resumption of County Cricket after the dreaded Hundred, but won handsomely at the Oval last week and drew their final match in Cardiff against Essex today. They looked likely to win that game after scoring 505 in their first innings and bowling out Essex for 129. Following on, however, Essex batted with greater resilience and today the weather intervened. The whole morning was lost to rain, and when the players did take the field only 21 balls were bowled before it rained again. At that point, just after 1pm, the umpires abandoned the match as a draw with Essex on 351 for 6. That seemed a bit premature to me as the forecast for late afternoon wasn’t bad, Essex were still behind and, even if only 20 overs or so were possible, Glamorgan might well have forced a win. I assume the rain was so heavy and the ground already saturated that the umpires didn’t think a resumption was a realistic prospect, and it’s their decision not mine!
There’ll be big changes at Glamorgan next year with the retirements of three stalwarts: Billy Root (brother of the England captain), Colin Ingram, and Chris Cooke (wicketkeeper). The latter two are both in their forties, so their retirements were not unexpected, but Billy Root is only 34.
Somerset’s game against Surrey also ended in a draw today, with Somerset posting a mammoth 731 in their first innings in response to 422 by Surrey, but unable to force a win. Some of the matches finished yesterday, including Warwickshire’s innings victory against Leicestershire which made them well-deserved Champions. Last years Champions, Nottinghamshire, faded during the latter stages of the season and finished 4th.
Hapless Hampshire are relegated, but there is still an issue to be resolved about the remaining relegation place. Leicestershire were docked 27 points for a substandard pitch (in their game against Glamorgan). The 27 points comprise an 8-point penalty plus the removal of the points gained for winning that match (19). In fact the penalty for a pitch graded poor is 16 points, and the panel decided to defer 8 points to next season. Leicestershire have appealed that decision, and the points deduction is rescinded in full they will finish on 138 points so Essex will be relegated. It seems to me that the 8+8 point penalty is a direct application of the Pitch Regulations, so I’d be surprised if that part were rescinded, and even if Leicestershire get their other 19 points back they will still be relegated. We’ll have to wait and see.
Durham were runaway champions of Division 2, going the entire season unbeaten. Kent are promoted in second place.
In the end the final day was a bit of an anticlimax but since it’s now all over until next spring it seems appropriate to mark the end of the County Championship with a verse from one of the classic cricket poems, Close of Play, by Thomas Moult:
How shall we live, now that the summer’s ended,
And bat and ball (too soon!) are put aside,
And all our cricket deeds and dreams have blended —
The hit for six, the champion bowled for none,
The match we planned to win and never won? …
Only in Green-winged memory they abide.
September 28, 2026 at 9:36 am
Sussex would have been second if not for a 12-point deduction for financial irregularities. But you have to look to another sport, and a club in the Premier League, for the masters at that. (They don’t appeal to me…)
September 28, 2026 at 9:57 am
The phrase used is “for sustained operating losses”. Living beyond their means?
September 28, 2026 at 10:15 am
Splurging on players to win and then going cap in hand to the ECB to stay afloat.
Present arrangements have 10 counties in division 1, 8 counties in division 2, and 14 matches to be played – meaning that the counties in division 1 don’t all play each other home and away each season, which is daft. But I also see the point of having an even number of counties in each division, so that the counties keep abreast of each other in the number of games played throughout the season. Possible solutions: three divisions of 6 counties each, although not much first class cricket in that case; or let two counties die of financial starvation. The number is not set in stone, for Glamorgan were added in 1921 and Durham in 1992. Musical chairs anyone?
September 28, 2026 at 11:07 am
Yes, I think it’s silly. 8 teams with each playing each other twice makes sense for 14 games. Two leagues with 9 in each would mean 16 games, but the Hundred makes the timing impossible. Three divisions of 8 is a possibility, with promotion and relegation. There are plenty of teams in the National Counties (formerly minor counties championship), where Durham used to play. They probably don’t have good enough grounds though.
September 29, 2026 at 9:14 am
Old-style batsmen might not have known some of the unorthodox shots that get runs quickly today, but they knew how to guard their wickets on a rough pitch. I think ther might be some surprises.
September 29, 2026 at 12:25 pm
Thinking further on it… the Hundred was only different in format from T20 because of a legal monopoly in England on T20. That monopoly can be dropped with suitable sweeteners. How about: (i) ending the county T20 competition and making the Hundred a T20 competition featuring county players and overseas stars; (ii) having the counties play a 50/50 competition of the usual format (minileagues followed by KO rounds), and (iii) a 4-day county championship of either two leagues of 8 counties each (losing two professional counties), or three leagues of 8 counties (gaining six), with promotion and relegation?
The county championship ought to run from no earlier than mid-April to no later than mid-September. Seeing counties effectively out of the reckoning by June due to bad weather early on, or seeing the climax of the county championship dwindle away into autumnal rains, is ridiculous.
September 29, 2026 at 5:27 pm
I’m sure one could select 6 more from the 20 National Counties for a Division 3: Staffs, Bucks, Berks, Devon, Cheshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, etc. Durham went to first-class status in 1992 and Glamorgan in 1921. Perhaps whoever gets promoted to Div. 2 gets first-class status if they don’t have it already. Two members would already have it, of course, as they would have to be taken from the existing 18 first-class counties.
September 29, 2026 at 2:37 am
@telescoper.blog these days you can watch live video streams from all the counties on YouTube plus the BBC stream all the radio broadcast on the web in case you're abroad and can't get BBC Sounds. It's great.
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