Surrey have been crowned the winners of Division One of the 2023 County Championship, sealing their second title in as many years before the end of the final round of competition.
The defending champion entered the final round almost confident of victory in first place. The only possible rivals in this cup match were Essex, who played away to Northants. Essex needed to collect bonus points and win the match to have any chance of knocking Surrey out of top spot.
After Surrey were bowled out by Hampshire for less than 250 runs in the first innings at the Agus Bowl, Essex played at least the first 110 overs of the innings to earn enough bonus points to remain in the race. 400 runs needed to be scored. Their hopes of accomplishing this were dashed on the second day as the score fell to 125-4 at the end of the game.
This morning (September 28) they plummeted to 211. This meant that Surrey were safe champions and Essex no longer had enough points to overtake Surrey’s scoring. Essex were then bowed out for 119 after being asked to continue, with Paul Walter’s 73 his the only contribution beyond his 11.
Sally was told the news in the middle of her second innings of bowling at the Agus Bowl. Will Jacks was about to bowl Nick Gubbins when an announcement came over the tannoy speakers that they were county champions.
The moment @surreycricket found out they are the 2023 county champions#LVCountyChamp pic.twitter.com/TZld9SCfnD
– LV= Insurance County Championship (@CountyChamp) 28. September 2023
Surrey has won eight of 13 games this season, drawn four and lost one. Tomorrow’s final game against Hampshire concludes the campaign, with him needing 73 runs to win with four wickets remaining on the night.
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