Somerset set to finish second again as County Championship heads into final round
On September 23, 2026, Somerset stood poised to finish second in the County Championship as they prepared to play Surrey at Taunton in the competition’s final round. Warwickshire, 11 points clear at the top, were due to host Leicestershire at Edgbaston while defending champions Nottinghamshire had Yorkshire scheduled at Trent Bridge.
Every English cricket season starts with an Indian spring now but they say this one will end in an Indian summer too; the forecast was described as warm and dry and presented a late blessing for the County Championship. The article noted the championship is often treated like “sporting Victoriana” by the authorities but remains a six-month slog with an avid following on scorecards, streams and local radio. The domestic calendar this year has included the Hundred, the Blast, Test series against New Zealand and Pakistan, a white-ball tour by India and the concluding Twenty20 and one-day international series against Sri Lanka.
The report placed particular emphasis on Taunton as a county-cricket focal point while noting the town’s wider sporting scene: Town play in football’s Southern League Premier Division South and the rugby union side the Titans compete in National League 2 West. It also recalled Tom Banton’s change in priorities: this time last year Banton, 27, had spoken of Test ambitions — “Winning our first County Championship, that is the main goal for me,” he said back then — and the piece records that he quit red-ball cricket this summer.
Somerset’s history of near-misses was detailed: this century they have finished as runners-up six times, and in the past decade they finished second in 2016, 2018 and 2019 and third in 2024 and 2025. The article revisited the 2010 title decider at Chester-le-Street, when Somerset were six points clear at the start of the last day and the England and Wales Cricket Board chair Giles Clarke had flown up with the trophy. They needed to take eight wickets and chase 188 in 17 overs; Dale Benkenstein batted through the afternoon and, the piece says, at Old Trafford Nottinghamshire managed the runs and wickets required and won the title on a tie-break.
The 2016 finish was also described in detail: Somerset were top of the table with a day to play when Middlesex and Yorkshire produced 10 overs of declaration bowling that left Yorkshire needing 240 off 40 overs to win the championship; Yorkshire did not achieve it, but Middlesex did. By contrast the article called this year’s campaign kinder in tone, though it flagged a tense moment at Headingley last week when Somerset had Yorkshire six wickets down and only 65 runs ahead before Dom Bess and George Hill put on 166 for the seventh wicket, after which Somerset were bowled out for 101 themselves.
Leicestershire’s recent upheaval was recorded: they lost the one-day final on Sunday and have been docked 27 points for a dodgy pitch, yet the piece suggested they could still produce a result by becoming the first side to beat Warwickshire at home this season. The combination of Leicestershire’s punishment and their one-day final defeat was presented as a complicating factor for Warwickshire’s run-in.
Somerset’s immediate assignment remains the home match against Surrey in the final round, while Warwickshire host Leicestershire at Edgbaston and Nottinghamshire play Yorkshire at Trent Bridge; those fixtures will decide whether the current standings hold or there is a final-day twist.