The great escape...
Somerset send champions Middlesex down
Champions one year, relegated the next. Middlesex followed the fate of Yorkshire in 2002, Nottinghamshire in 2006 and Lancashire in 2012 when they lost against Somerset while Hampshire finally forced a draw.
It was the tightest of relegation battles, with two points spanning the four counties who jostled to avoid going down into the Second Division with Warwickshire.
Middlesex began the final day of this season in fifth position, only to be overtaken by Somerset in the morning, then Hampshire in the evening.
Essex, meanwhile, gazed down from their exalted position as champions, thanks to having by far the two most effective bowlers in the First Division: their seamer Jamie Porter, who finished with 75 wickets at only 16 runs each, and taken, what is more, in only 399 overs, and their off-spinner Simon Harmer, who took 72 wickets at 19.
Middlesex, set 345 to win, were dismissed for 113 by Somerset, who thus completed a great escape. Unable to assemble decent totals in the first half of the season, Somerset – through Marcus Trescothick, Steve Davies and Tom Abell – scored enough for their spinners to win three of their last four games. Abell, saddled with the captaincy at the age of only 23, said: “It’s far and away the best day of my career. I have been through some pretty dark times as captain this season, so to finish on such a high note is a very special feeling.
“We spoke at the start of the day about winning the game for Matt Maynard [director of cricket] and Darren Veness [head of strength and conditioning], who are both leaving.”
Jack Leach took five of Middlesex’s second-innings wickets to finish with 51 at 25. It was the pace at which he spun the new ball – reminiscent of India’s Ravi Jadeja – which prompted Middlesex to make representations to the cricket liaison officer, Wayne Noon; and if points had been deducted for an unfair pitch, Middlesex would have been saved and Somerset relegated.
Noon announced after the game that the pitch would be graded as nothing worse than “below average”, and as Somerset had not had another home pitch marked that way over the previous 12 months, they could not be penalised.
“According to the pitch document we have to work with, I have marked this one as below average for excessive spin on days one and two,” Noon said.
“At no stage was there any suggestion of unevenness in bounce. The criteria is that it is not how a pitch looks but how it plays.”
Middlesex captain Adam Voges, speaking before Noon’s decision, said: “We came here knowing we would face a pitch that helped Somerset’s spinners because every team in the world prepares wickets to aid their strengths.
“But there needs to be a line which teams can’t cross. Whether Somerset have crossed that line for this match is for the match referee to decide. I have certainly let him know my thoughts. What we didn’t expect was rake marks at both ends that were encroaching into danger areas on what was already a worn pitch [but] the ECB directive is that a pitch cannot be marked poor simply for excessive spin.”
For the rest of the day, Middlesex hoped that Warwickshire, the bottom county, would defeat Hampshire and send them down. Had that been the case, it could have been seen as justice delayed, because Hampshire were due to be relegated last season only for Durham to be sent down into the Second Division instead for financial irregularities.
Hampshire, one wicket down at the start of day four, lost only six more – a case of Rod’s Drift for the sake of their benefactor, Rod Bransgrove.
James Vince scored only 30 but soaked up 124 balls in doing so. Liam Dawson was equally obdurate, scoring nine off 94.
Of their two England players selected for the Ashes, Vince finished with 626 runs at 32, and Mason Crane with 16 wickets at 44.