{"id":249642,"date":"2026-06-23T12:29:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/the-county-championship-is-delivering-a-magnificent-season\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T12:29:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:29:39","slug":"the-county-championship-is-delivering-a-magnificent-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/23\/the-county-championship-is-delivering-a-magnificent-season\/","title":{"rendered":"The County Championship is delivering a magnificent season"},"content":{"rendered":"

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    1. <\/span>Liam and Fergus lead Essex a merry jig<\/h2>\n

    Almost seven weeks after their last win, reigning champions Nottinghamshire went to Chelmsford to face Essex, who have won three matches in that time. This being the 2026 County Championship, they left with a crushing victory \u2013 of course they did \u2013 and top spot for the long midsummer break.<\/p>\n

    Liam Patterson-White, the spin bowling allrounder who has been ignored by England and even by the Lions, dismantled the home side\u2019s lower order en route to match figures of 9-109 off 53 overs, taking wickets and controlling the run rate as Graeme Swann once did for his county.<\/p>\n

    Jack Haynes\u2019 undefeated century anchored Notts\u2019 reply, but there were runs for Haseeb Hameed up top and Fergus O\u2019Neill and others below, as the visitors\u2019 posted a lead of 273, which proved far too many.<\/p>\n

    O\u2019Neill, completing his five-match contract with a fivefer to secure the innings win, leaves with 26 wickets at 16.4 and 285 runs at 57.0. The big New Zealand-born Victorian can expect a warm welcome on his return next spring \u2013 if he\u2019s not claimed by Cricket Australia first.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    2. <\/span>Cooke and company burn Surrey<\/h2>\n

    Glamorgan were the only other winners in the tight top eight that started the round, walloping Surrey who, in football terms, are close to being labelled a \u201ccrisis club\u201d.<\/p>\n

    The match turned largely on late-order runs. Glamorgan\u2019s slump to 79-6 in their first innings was pretty much matched by Surrey\u2019s 70\/6, but the contributions of those last four wickets varied from 279 to 35. The home side got 80 from Colin Ingram, a ton from fellow 40-year-old Chris Cooke, and Mason Crane scored the maiden first-class century he has been threatening all summer long.<\/p>\n

    As is so often the case, the side invited to follow on made a much better fist of things, Rory Burns notching his first three-figure score of the season and Tom Lawes, called in for a Test-bound Gus Atkinson, joining the rest of the lower order cashing in on a tiring attack.<\/p>\n

    The always-impressive captain, Kiran Carlson, and wise old owls Ingram and Sean Dickson showed plenty of nous to chase down the 195 that sent their county fourth in the table, just nine points off the top. Who saw that coming?<\/p>\n

    What the England selectors should see coming is 18-year-old Abergavenny-born Tom Norton, who took a maiden fivefer in the first-innings rout and a couple more in the second dig to give him 21 wickets at 22.8 in his first senior season. He may be a bit raw but, if Sonny Baker is the bar, I suggest he is well clear of it.<\/p>\n

    <\/svg><\/span>The England selectors should be monitoring the 18-year-old Glamorgan bowler Tom Norton.<\/span> Photograph: Neil Marshall\/ProSports\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
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    3. <\/span>White flag from White Rose<\/h2>\n

    Just when eight counties began to feel a degree of safety, with Hampshire and Leicestershire all but marooned in the two relegation slots, they both won to leave Yorkshire (and plenty more) sleeping a little less easily across July and August.<\/p>\n

    And it was Yorkshire themselves who got something of a pasting at Grace Road, losing by an innings and 39 runs as Leicestershire won in the top flight for the first time since Tony Blair was prime minister.<\/p>\n

    Six home bowlers picked up wickets as the visitors were shot out in 55 overs and Leicestershire closed the first day just eight in arrears, three down. Rehan Ahmed and Nick Kelly led the charge with tons on the second day and that long-awaited win was wrapped up on the third, with just some late-order resistance sparing the Tykes\u2019 blushes.<\/p>\n

    The Foxes\u2019 chances of staying up may depend on Ahmed\u2019s availability for the late-season matches, a top-order bat doubling as a frontline spinner the key to their side\u2019s balance. Yorkshire, with only Joe Root averaging more than 40, clearly need runs. And soon.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    4. <\/span>Hants not pants at last<\/h2>\n

    Two teams whose fortunes have diverged all season flew at each other like angry seagulls in a low-scoring slugfest in Hove.<\/p>\n

    Sussex had the best of day one, dismissing Hampshire for 191 and then knocking off 121 of those, three down. Day two dawned with seven wickets gone in an hour or so and Hampshire securing an unexpected lead. But the wickets kept falling, the home side knocking over six Hants bats for 66 runs and were big favourites again.<\/p>\n

    But, as is often the case in a bowlers\u2019 match, the poor sods had to do the batting too, Delano Potgieter and Felix Organ leading the fightback to set the hosts 253 for the win that would take them top. Another horrendous middle- and late-order collapse saw the points go west, as Kyle Abbott added three second-innings scalps to his six in the first innings, 20-year-old pacer Eddie Jack his chief accomplice.<\/p>\n

    After a tremendous show of resilience this season, Sussex will return in August and face Warwickshire and Somerset \u2013 both of whom will be gunning for the pennant. They don\u2019t want to lose those games or their very promising season might unravel quickly.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    5. <\/span>No Stokes? No problem \u2013 at least for Durham\u00a0<\/h2>\n

    Chester-le-Street witnessed a tremendous arm wrestle of a match. Durham beat Northamptonshire with 16 balls to spare to go 32 points clear at the top of Division Two.<\/p>\n

    With Ben Stokes in the Durham XI (until England withdrew him) the home side looked rather better suited to giving New Zealand a match than the hotchpotch that were sent out at the Oval. That didn\u2019t stop Ricardo Vasconcelos batting seven hours for 187 to put Northants in the box seats, posting 450. The home side lost three quick wickets but Stokes made 95 and inspired plenty of resistance down the order as Durham limited the deficit to 45.<\/p>\n

    The wholly admirable Matthew Potts was among the wickets as usual, but Durham went out to bat with the task of making 296 in 80 overs \u2013 a perfect recipe for exciting cricket.<\/p>\n

    At 107-4, they were second favourites, but David Bedingham and Colin Ackermann (in for Stokes) have 29 and 28 first-class tons, respectively, and it\u2019s hard to think of a pair more suited to the job at hand than these two South Africans. An unbroken stand of 189 runs got it done.<\/p>\n

    <\/svg><\/span>Ben Stokes was bowled for 95 in Durham\u2019s match against Northamptonshire.<\/span> Photograph: Andy Kearns\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n
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    6. <\/span>Another happy Canterbury tale<\/h2>\n

    When does something stop being news? Kent, after so long in the doldrums, cannot stop winning to the extent that it feels more a \u201cdog bites man\u201d story than a \u201cman bites dog\u201d when they do. Nevertheless, it was another thriller in Division Two as Middlesex fought to the bitter end at the St Lawrence Ground \u2013 so that is news enough.<\/p>\n

    You don\u2019t often get over 400 if your top score is 70 (that from another South African enjoying a fine season, Chris Benjamin) but consistent scores down the card is a sign of strong morale \u2013 and that\u2019s what Kent have just now. Sebastian Morgan was the standout bowler, a maiden fivefer his reward.<\/p>\n

    Middlesex were soon in severe trouble, four down in no time, but Max Holden stood firm for 182 and Zafar Gohar made 95 and a slim lead was secured. Another young Middlesex and England Under-19s bowler, Naavya Sharma, led the effort as Kent were again solid through the card, but lacked the century a match defining innings usually needs. Cue the old stager, Matt Milnes, who knocked over both openers on his way to a five-wicket haul and, despite Gohar again defying the attack, Kent were home with 49 runs to go into the second promotion slot.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    1. Liam and Fergus lead Essex a merry jig Almost seven weeks after their last win, reigning champions Nottinghamshire went to Chelmsford to face Essex, who have won three matches in that time. This being the 2026 County Championship, they left with a crushing victory \u2013 of course they did \u2013 and top spot for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6803],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-249642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}