County Championship: Leicestershire go up as Division Two champions

Leicestershire’s promotion as champions in Division Two of County Championship was confirmed despite the final day of their match with Kent going the same way as days one and three, abandoned without a ball bowled to consign the contest to a draw.

Early morning rain topped up an already saturated outfield at the Uptonsteel County Ground, where umpires Hassan Adnan and Simon Widdup, mindful of their duty to minimise the risk of injury to players, determined after a number of inspections that there was no prospect of it drying out enough for play to resume.

With Leicestershire taking a 25-point lead into the last two rounds of games, the 13 points they take for a draw in this match is enough to put them out of reach of second-placed Glamorgan, who took only nine from their drawn match in similar conditions 30 miles away at Derby.

Leicestershire, who will play Division One cricket next season for the first time since 2003, would have preferred their title-winning moment to have come on the field, to be followed by a trophy presentation in front of their own supporters.

In fact, they will not get their hands on the silverware until the conclusion of their final fixture, against Northamptonshire away, which starts next Wednesday.

Nonetheless, they did their best to create their own excitement, celebrating with champagne and fashioning a ‘Champions’ board from part of the boundary board, while cheered on by enthusiastic supporters.

The only member of their team who might have felt a little frustrated not to get on the field was veteran seamer Chris Wright, who is retiring at the end of this season at the age of 40.

Although his retirement has been marked by his teammates off the field, the conditions denied him the chance of a send-off on the field in front of a home crowd. He also needs three more wickets to reach 600 in his career in first-class matches and is one away from 800 in all formats.

Leicestershire’s season has finished in something of an anti-climax, with four of their last six matches ending in draws, this one being a third in a row in which the weather has been a major factor.

Yet they have been short-priced favourites to emerge with the title since the end of May, having won five of their first seven matches to establish a commanding advantage.

It is their second silverware in three seasons after lifting the Metro Bank One-Day Cup in 2023 but their first championship since 1998 – two years before the competition adopted a two-division format – when they took their second County Championship pennant in three years, coached by the club’s current president, Jack Birkenshaw.