Warwickshire clinch their first County Championship title in nine years by beating Somerset in ruthless 118-run win at Edgbaston

• Warwickshire have clinched their first County Championship triumph since 2012
• The Bears' 118-run win over Somerset denied Lancashire the title on the final day
• The Red Rose edged out Hampshire on Thursday but that victory was not enough

Warwickshire held their nerve to claim their eighth title in the final session of the County Championship season - victory at the death making it ‘special’ according to coach Mark Robinson.

Fittingly it was captain Will Rhodes whose catch at a sun-soaked Edgbaston confirmed the 118-run win and delivered the club’s first pennant since 2012.

A little over half an hour later, he was back on the outfield raising the trophy to roars of ‘You Bears’ from a crowd pushing 2,000.  

‘With 20-odd overs to go on the last day, that’s a special way to win a Championship and it’s good for the game,’ said Robinson. ‘Four-day cricket is alive and kicking and for anyone that didn’t think that, this week has given them a reminder.'

Lancashire began the final day with the advantage but the one-wicket victory that provided it and eliminated Hampshire from the title race also left the door open for a team superbly marshalled by their Hull-raised leadership duo of Rhodes and Robinson.

Warwickshire still had plenty to do to bustle through it after resuming on 179 for one, a lead of 157, but Rhodes provided an impetus with his audacious early-morning stroke play alongside centurion Rob Yates that was not relinquished. In all, 115 runs were added in 15 overs, for the loss of two wickets.

It meant that Chris Woakes - granted permission to play by the ECB following the cancellation of England’s fifth Test against India - had the ball in his hand three quarters of an hour before lunch.

Just one success came before the interval when, in the penultimate over, left-arm spinner Danny Briggs extracted some extra bounce and Tim Bresnan’s superb reactions at slip accounted for Tom Lammonby.

Six further wickets followed before tea, though, with Woakes and former Gloucestershire pair Liam Norwell and Craig Miles all superb as Somerset - faced with the prospect of chasing down a 273-run target or resisting for 79 overs - subsided.

And when Woakes removed Jack Leach’s off-stump in the second over of the evening, a fourth final-session win of the season was in sight for a collective who have relied so heavily on the sum of their parts.

Not once across 14 matches did they post a score of 400. Nor did any of their players register 1,000 runs or 50 wickets - the personal landmarks to which batters and bowlers aspire.

‘I’ve never said we were the best team, the most perfect team but we have been resilient and shown a lot of character. Somerset and Essex have been the best over the past three years and we have beaten them both,’ Robinson added.

‘All we have talked about all season is keeping games alive and if you take them deep you never know. When you get your moments, you have to seize them.’

That moment came at 4.25pm when, in the over after Lewis Gregory perished chasing a wide one from Miles, Somerset number 11 Jack Brooks sliced to gully off Norwell.

‘You dream of holding the winning catch and to claim the title is the pinnacle for every domestic player,’ said Rhodes.

Plans for Lancashire’s players to gather in the Point at Old Trafford to watch the final throes of the action together had long been scrapped by that point. However, they will get the chance for some form of retribution as the two clubs meet in the Bob Willis Trophy final at Lord’s from next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, England’s Ollie Pope was left with a Bradman-esque average in first-class cricket at the Kia Oval following a career-best score for Surrey in the run-drenched draw against Glamorgan. 

The 23-year-old required 275 to take it to an even 100 but fell to the part-time spin of Hamish Rutherford one run shy, leaving him on 99.94 - the mark Sir Donald Bradman finished on.