Yorkshire's title dream ends as Notts clinch pennant on dramatic final day

Starting the day on 51-1 the plan was to knock off some quick runs and set Kent a chaseable target for later in the day. But things did not go to plan with the last nine Yorkshire wickets falling in exactly nine overs for just 37 runs.

James Tredwell was the man to cause the damage as he took a hat-trick on his way to recording excellent figures of 7-22.

The only scores of note for the home side were 46 for Adam Lyth and 30 for Anthony McGrath, and Ajmal Shahzad ensured the score breached the 100-mark with a few lusty blows down the order to make 16.

Yorkshire, needing a win to have any chance of securing a first county championship title since 2001, were left with the massive task of knocking over Kent for less than 90.

They made the perfect start, however, as Moin Ashraf and Shahzad both took early wickets, accounting for openers Northeast and Denly.

Robert Key and Martin van Jaarsveld took the score to 68 and Tredwell struck the winning boundary after they had collapsed to 82-6.

Nottinghamshire are the county champions as the Trent Bridge side defied the odds to finish level on 214 points with Somerset at the top of the LV County Championship table, winning the pennant on the basis of having claimed more wins than their rivals.

Chris Read's side gambled on Somerset and Yorkshire not winning their matches against Durham and Kent respectively and decided to search for bonus points.

They knew that, with three points for the draw, they had to claim an extra six bonus points.

That meant getting five for reaching a first innings score of 400 and then one more for taking three Lancashire wickets.

And, after superb knocks from Adam Voges and Samit Patel helped post 400 for nine declared, Ryan Sidebottom and Andre Adams struck with the ball to tee up the success.

Voges scored his first hundred for 13 months, the Australian right-hander hitting 126 off 183 balls.

Voges, 30, was aided by a brilliant 96 off 91 balls from Patel as the pair shared a crucial fifth wicket partnership of 153 in 28 overs to give their effort impetus.

Resuming the day on 89 for two from 28 overs, Nottinghamshire were frustrated by a 65-minute delay at the start of the day due to a wet outfield.

But they soon got going despite losing Mark Wagh and Alistair Brown to the bowling of Sajid Mahmood.

Voges and Patel hit 20 fours and a six between them to achieve something few had thought possible.

Lancashire's left arm spinner Simon Kerrigan took five wickets for 80 runs, removing Patel, Chris Read, Steven Mullaney, Voges and Adams either side of tea to help reduce the visitors to 390 for nine.

But Sidebottom and Darren Pattinson squeezed out the 10 remaining runs.

And it left them with a minimum of 16 overs with which to take the wickets.

Sidebottom had Karl Brown caught at first slip by Alex Hales for four in the fourth over of Lancashire's first innings.

And New Zealander Adams, the county's leading wicket taker this season, then took two wickets in four balls to clinch glory.

He had the home side's stand-in skipper Mark Chilton caught behind by Read for one and then West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul caught at second slip by Patel.

Lancashire, who are guaranteed 35,000 for finishing fourth in the table, finished on 11 for three.

The visitors, however, had taken the 500,000 prize pot for winning their second title since 2005.

::Today's play saw the last ball bowled with the Old Trafford square located at east-west.

The Stretford End and the Brian Statham Way End will be made redundant with the square being turned by 90 degrees this winter as part of the ground's multi-million pound redevelopment.

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