The women’s county cricket season came to an end yesterday with a nail-biting finish. Going into the final round of games, Yorkshire headed the league with a narrow advantage over Warwickshire, with Lancashire trailing in third. Warwickshire and Lancashire were due to play each other, while Yorkshire had an easier game against 4th-placed Nottinghamshire.

As Raf Nicholson reports, Lancashire pulled off a spectacular 5-wicket away victory, thanks largely to some brilliant bowling from Sophie Ecclestone.

Meanwhile Yorkshire were having a bad day, scoring only 178. Fortunately for them they didn’t need to win. They had a substantial points lead over Lancashire. If the worst came to the worst, taking 5 Notts wickets would gain enough bonus points to tie with Lancashire and take the title on a tie break as they had won the head-to-head. Nottinghamshire, however, were having none of this, and roared to a six-wicket victory. So Lancashire ended up champions by just one point.

Down in Division 2, there was a top-of-the-table clash between Hampshire and Somerset. Hampshire managed to win that one, which I think means that they took the division title, but both teams will be promoted to Division 1 for next season. That’s good news for both Western Storm and Southern Vipers who naturally want their feeder teams playing at the highest level possible.