Essex Win First County Championship Title in 25 Years

As soon as Tom Abell hit Stephen Parry for a four to guide Somerset to a seven-wicket win over Lancashire, the party began in Essex as the county outfit won its first English County Championship title since 1992.

The Ryan ten Doeschate-led side was all but assured of the title after thrashing Warwickshire by an innings, and 56 runs inside three days at Edgbaston on Thursday (September 14), but with their closest title-rivals Lancashire being in action at Taunton, Essex had to wait for the confirmation of the title.

Lancashire’s defeat has now left them 56 points behind Essex with only two games remaining as the latter became only the second team after Notts in 2005 to win the title in the season after promotion. After being dismissed for a paltry 133 in reply to Somerset’s first innings total of 335, Lancashire could set only a small target of 68 which the hosts chased down with quite ease.

Meanwhile, the title is Essex’s seventh with all the other six coming between 1979 and 1992. Delighted with the win, head coach Chris Silverwood said he hoped the current players leave their legacy.

“Everyone talks about the (Keith) Fletcher era with Essex,” he said. “What I would love people to be doing in 20 years is talking about this era. Your Jamie Porters, your Dan Lawrences, your Tom Westleys. I want them talking about them. If they do that it means we’ve left a legacy behind and what more could you ask for?”

Captain ten Doeschate too expressed his delight over the title and compared the win with the World Cup.

“If you look at the history of the championship and the yo-yo affect of teams going up and back down again you begin to understand the scale of what we’ve achieved,” ten Doeschate after the historic title.

‘This is a small club with limited resources so for us it feels like a World Cup. You won’t have a better feeling than this and it is without doubt the proudest moment of my career. This makes up for all the years of being nearly men,” he added.