The final round of county cricket starts tomorrow. Not quite the excitement of last year when Middlesex, Yorkshire and Somerset all had the chance to win the championship on the last day, Essex have lapped the field. Pleasing to see a county who have had good player development for some years finally getting getting to the top and funny how much influence a good coach / director of cricket/ grand pajandrum can have.
What remains to be setlled is the final relagation spot.
The county table looks like This.
The fixtures include Somerset currently in the hot seat of 7th place versus 5th placed Middlesex who can still go down. Hampshire in 6th place and Yorkshire in 4th also face the prospect of relegation.
If Somerset beat Middlesex and both sides get a full complement of bonus points both Somerset and Middlesex would end the season on 151 points. If that happened Hampshire would need 12 points to stay up and Yorkshire 6. Hampshire face woeful Warwickshire but Yorkshire have to go to Essex.
Looks like Yorkshire are inching towards safety but any of Somerset, Hampshire and Middlesex can go down though Somerset surely need to win if they are to survive.
A couple of things might spoil the fun.
1. The weather forecast for Chelmsford, Taunton and Birmingham isn't dreadful for the next four days isn't dreadful, but it ain't great either.
2. Hampshire are a zombie team, they finished down with the dead men in 2016 but the ECB's inappropriate decision to punish financial mistakes with points deductions saw Durham (also known as poor old Durham) go down in their place. Will the ECB intervene to rescue Hampshire again?
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