Somerset and Notts chase history, Bears also in hunt

Let's start with the current leaders and the most romantic tale of all - Somerset. One of only three counties never to have been crowned champions, this is the holy grail.

Think of Boston Red Sox's 'Curse of the Bambino' 86-year wait between World Series titles, Hibernian's 114-year yearning to win the Scottish Cup again, Mayo's success in the All-Ireland Gaelic Football in July after 11 successive defeats in the final. Somerset's quest for the County Championship is of a similar ilk.

They had that great team in the late 1970s and early 1980s of Ian Botham, Joel Garner and Viv Richards which amassed plenty of one-day glory, while in recent years, there has been T20 Blast success.

But the Championship - the standard bearer for the county game - has remained elusive, and in a cricket-mad town like Taunton, excitement is building once again.

Of course, they have been close before. Between 2001 and 2019, they finished runners-up on no fewer than six occasions in the title race.

Tom Abell, Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton and Jack Leach were all part of that last side to come second and they remain integral members of the team now.

Overton has had an outstanding season with ball and bat, but he is wise enough to know the pitfalls of looking too far ahead.

"There's still a long way to go in this Championship and so much cricket to be played," he told BBC Radio Somerset.

"We've just got to keep doing our thing, keep doing the basics and see where we are at the end of this game."

Nottinghamshire were the underdogs 12 months ago as they prevented Surrey from winning four titles in a row, including a memorable victory at The Kia Oval.

This season, they have been the side to beat as they try to become the first Notts side to retain the title.

Joe Clarke has been the stand-out batter on the county circuit with a whopping 1,240 runs, almost 300 more than anyone else in Division One, while the bowling attack led by Olly Stone and Dillon Pennington has caused problems for all batting sides.

However, a failure to beat struggling Leicestershire earlier this month allowed Somerset to nip ahead of them and a tense 54-run success over Hampshire kept the margin between the top two at four points.

"We all knew coming into this week what was needed to really keep us amongst it heading into the two final games," said Stone, who took 9-95 in the Hampshire win at Trent Bridge.

"We go to Sussex now and they're playing good cricket at the moment and then we come back home against Yorkshire when we'll know what we have to do.

"Hopefully we can push hard to bring it home again."

While Somerset and Nottinghamshire chase historical, landmark successes, Warwickshire have no such burden.

If the other two are Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, the Bears are the Novak Djokovic, coming up quietly on the rails to potentially spoil the party.

Ex-England bowler Chris Woakes led them to a thrilling one-wicket triumph over Sussex last month and they have dominated their past two matches, winning both by an innings as they go in search of a ninth Championship and first since the three-conference Covid season of 2021.

The Edgbaston side needed little more than 150 overs to take those 40 wickets, with their seam attack, led by Ethan Bamber, firing on all cylinders, a fact acknowledged by captain Ed Barnard.

"It was nice to get some rewards, I think I've bowled well all year and we've got a great attack with a great spinner, we're in a fortunate place at the moment," he said.

"It feels really exciting. We're trying not to think about it too much and obviously there are two massive games to go."