Thursday 25 September 2014 21:36, UK
James Tomlinson took six wickets as Hampshire beat Glamorgan to seal promotion and the LV= County Championship Division Two title.
Tomlinson returned figures of 6-48 as Glamorgan were whittled out for 152 in their second innings at the SWALEC Stadium and the visitors won by 291 runs.
It could have been an even more emphatic victory after Tomlinson had taken six wickets to reduce the hosts to 63-6, but teenager Aneurin Donald notched a defiant 59 on debut as Glamorgan stemmed the tide.
Earlier the visitors, who had gone into the final match in second place behind already promoted Worcestershire, moved on from their overnight 175-3 to 258-9 declared with Jimmy Adams top scoring on 91.
Consolation came for Glamorgan in all-rounder Jim Allenby's career-best 6-54 - for a maiden 10-wicket match haul - while the victory means Hampshire return to Division One for the first time since their relegation in 2011.
Essex missed out on promotion despite an innings and 92-run victory over Worcestershire at Chelmsford.
Graham Napier took 5-54 for Essex, including the wicket of Moheen Ali on 98, caught by Greg Smith as Worcestershire were 255 all out in their second innings.
With Ali’s wicket the visitors were reduced to 168-8, but Brett D'Oliveira and Jack Shantry offered some resistance, putting on 91 for the ninth wicket.
But the pair were bowled in quick succession, first Shantry for 38 to a slower ball from Ravi Bopara, then two balls later D'Oliveira fell for 44 to James Porter as Essex completed their comprehensive victory.
A final curtain of gloom descended on Leicestershire's miserable season when they crumbled to 112 all out to lose by 408 runs in the match against Derbyshire.
A 10th defeat of the Division Two season means Leicestershire are the first county since the Second World War to go through two seasons without winning a championship match and in the last four innings of this campaign they managed only 508 runs.
That suggested a victory target of 521 was purely notional but they folded in fewer than 30 overs, with Mark Footitt taking 5-34 to finish with 106 victims this year and become Derbyshire's highest wicket-taker in all cricket since 1965, when Harold Rhodes took 124 and Brian Jackson 122.
Ben Slater scored 119, his second hundred in the game, and India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara made an unbeaten 100 before the declaration on 372-3 left Leicestershire with a mountain to climb but they barely made it to the foothills.
Kent will do well to avoid ending their season on a low too, after being set an implausible 448 to beat Gloucestershire at Canterbury.
Gloucestershire turned 208-2 into a teatime 432 all out, thanks to their departing captain Alex Gidman's 140 off 178 balls.
Will Tavare (105) added only four to his second-day century. But Gidman took over, despite David Griffiths' career-best 6-63 and 4-90 too for much-travelled seamer Mitch Claydon.
In reply, Kent then struggled to 95-4 at stumps, still needing 353 to win.
