The ups and downs were confirmed before the last day of the county season but there was still time for the successful sides being taken down a peg.
Champions Durham lost more games than fourth place Warwickshire but they triumphed because they had an attack capable of bowling opposition out twice, winning an impressive ten out of sixteen matches. They failed to make it eleven despite amassing almost 500 in their second innings when Keaton Jennings and Michael Richardson each made three figures. On the last day, Sussex had a target of 295 in under seventy overs, but Luke Wells, Chris Nash and Ed Joyce got the better of Onions, Rushworth, Stokes et al to take the sixteen extra points and insodoing third place in the table. Joyce has been one of the top scorers all season in first-class cricket and should be remembered for that rather than his dismissal by another Irishman-turned-Englishman Boyd Rankin in the Dublin ODI!
Lancashire had swept most before them in Division Two but their unbeaten record was upset by struggling Kent. Despite the welter of runs, an exciting climax was forged at Canterbury, and it was the old guard who provided the steel. Robert Key struck his fifth Championship century of the summer, Ashwell Prince scored a hundred in each innings but an unbeaten 205 not out in 218 balls from 37 year-old Darren Stevens secured only Kent's third win of the season.
They just about held on to seventh place in spite of rivals Glamorgan's victory over Gloucesteshire. Murray Goodwin has confounded this critic by rediscovering his form in 2013, and he passed fifty for the eleventh time to take the Welsh side over the finishing line. However, Jim Allenby's 85 runs and 7-47 bowling analysis were the real match-winners. In a year of impressive all-round performances (think Patel and Willey), the Aussie has been possibly the pick of the bunch, and Glamorgan's near-miss in the YB40 also owed much to him. If only the whole side could put it all together more consistently in four-day cricket, they could win promotion next year.
Durham have demonstrated you can win the biggest title in domestic cricket without an overseas star, but Perth-born Allenby, another Aussie with a UK passport Michael Hogan and Zimbabwean Goodwin have largely carried the squad in the Championship. More runs from the openers and wickets from Cosker and Wagg are needed.
Anyway, I'll focus the next blog on the most memorable performers and performances of the county season. So many to choose from!
