Somerset endure familiar title heartbreak as Taunton draw with Surrey seals another runners-up finish

Oh, Somerset! Title heartbreak again as Taunton draw seals another near miss

Somerset's latest tilt at the County Championship has ended in familiar heartbreak, with a high-scoring final-round draw against Surrey at Taunton confirming yet another runners-up finish — one that, after so many near misses, feels more like "first loser" than second place.

Three wins in the last six matches of the season is a perfectly good return, but Warwickshire won five, and that difference decided the pennant. Any lingering hope of a last-round miracle disappeared as news filtered in from Edgbaston of the stand between Sam Hain and Ed Barnard delivering a lead for Warwickshire — even as Dan Lawrence and Ben Foakes carried Surrey past 340 at Taunton, only four wickets down.

Heads did not drop, though. Jack Leach and Lewis Gregory led a fine fightback that restricted Surrey's first innings to 422, and Somerset then responded emphatically, racking up 731 to give themselves a chance of going out on a high even with the title gone. Tom Lammonby provided 229 and Tom Abell added a monumental 307.

With rain about on the fourth day, wickets were taken — but not enough to force a victory. By late afternoon James Rew had the pads off and was bowling off-spin, the cue for hands to be shaken all round.

"It was not a title lost but rather a case of a title won elsewhere." — The Guardian's county cricket blog

That, in the end, was the bitterest pill for Somerset: a superb final week's cricket at Taunton that mattered only in the table, not the trophy, as the championship was decided a hundred miles away in Birmingham. The wait goes on.