GOLDEN BEARS

Warwickshire storm to title-clinching victory

Warwickshire held their nerve to claim their eighth title in the final session of the county championship season — victory at the death making it ‘special’, according to coach Mark robinson.

Fittingly, it was captain will rhodes — whose exhilarating batting provided his attack with sufficient time to bowl somerset out — who claimed the winning catch as late-afternoon sunshine bathed edgbaston.

a little over half an hour later, he was back on the outfield raising the trophy to chants of ‘You Bears’ from a crowd pushing 2,000.

‘with 20 overs to go on the last day, that’s a special way to win a championship and it’s good for the game,’ said robinson.

Lancashire began the final day with the advantage but Thursday’s one-wicket victory that eliminated opponents hampshire from the title race also left the door open for rhodes’ team.

and they bustled through it to seal the pennant at 4.25pm when somerset’s No 11 Jack Brooks sliced a delivery from Liam Norwell to rhodes in the gully.

The 118-run success was reward for some bold cricket by a team comprising seven players recruited from other counties and led superbly by two men from hull — rhodes and robinson.

warwickshire still had plenty to do to manufacture a position from which they could secure the victory they required after resuming on 179 for one, a lead of 157, but they began on the front foot, adding 115 for the loss of two wickets in 15 overs courtesy of aggression from centurion rob Yates, fellow left-hander rhodes and Matt Lamb.

it meant that chris woakes — granted permission to play by the ecB following the cancellation of england’s fifth Test against india — had the new ball in his hand three quarters of an hour before lunch.

Just one success came before the interval when, in the penultimate over, left-arm spinner Danny Briggs extracted extra bounce and Tim Bresnan’s superb reactions at slip accounted for Tom Lammonby.

six wickets followed before tea with woakes and former Gloucestershire pair Norwell and craig Miles all superb. somerset, faced with the prospect of chasing down a 273-run target or resisting for 79 overs, simply subsided.

and when woakes knocked out the off-stump of Jack Leach in the second over of the evening, a fourth final-session win of the season was in sight for a collective who have relied so heavily on the sum of their parts.

Not once did they record a score of 400 across their 14 matches. Neither did any of their players register 1,000 runs or 50 wickets — the personal landmarks batters and bowlers aspire to.

robinson added: ‘i’ve never said we were the best team, the most perfect team but we have been resilient this year and showed a lot of character. somerset and essex have been the best over the past three years and we’ve beaten them both.

‘all we have talked about all season is keeping games alive and if you take them deep you never know. when you get your moments, you have to seize them.’

They did just that, so plans for Lancashire’s players to gather in the Point at Old Trafford to watch the final throes of the action together were scrapped. however, they will get the chance for retribution as the two clubs meet in the Bob willis Trophy final at Lord’s on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, england’s Ollie Pope was left with a Bradman-esque average in first-class cricket following a career-best score for surrey in their draw with Glamorgan. The 23-year-old required 275 to take it to an even 100 but fell to the part-time spin of hamish rutherford one run shy, leaving him on 99.94 — sir Donald Bradman’s Test average.