So near yet

Kent may be alone in preserving top-flight status in the Championship since the Great Split of '99 but this year's Canterbury tale wound up a flat one. And that is if we pretend that execrable Twenty20 campaign never happened.

Again, the title was there for the grabbing; again it was dropped. Niall O'Brien's stirring first full season, Min Patel's rebirth and Darren Stevens's re-emergence as the antithesis of his dopey namesake from the TV show Bewitched meant Geraint Jones, Alex Loudon and Ed Smith were not missed overmuch, though Martin Saggers assuredly was. If the previous summer was The One Where We Got Scuppered By A Lousy Scoring System, this one may be remembered as The One Where An Ex-South Africa Coach Got Scuppered By The New One.

The summoning of Andrew Hall and Justin Kemp to an SA training camp, coinciding with a do-or-die game against Nottinghamshire, aroused considerable stamping of feet. David Fulton's obligation to gamble bred a defeat scarcely sweetened by Mark Ealham's part in the downfall. Even the coach, Graham Ford, seemingly the calmest of men, might have permitted himself the odd tut.

Fulton, who stepped down as one-day skipper after being informed he was not worth his place, will treasure the ups, notably bearding both Warwickshire and Notts in their own lairs, but will find it easier isolating the downs: an atypical collapse chasing 186 against Sussex; a penalty for a Mote pitch that defied anyone to reach 40; last-wicket stands by Warwickshire and Middlesex that cost a further 20 points.

Players of the Year Min Patel & Darren Stevens
High Kemp and O'Brien clobbering the winning runs at Guildford; Amjad Khan's Cowdreyesque forward defensive.
Low C&G quarter-final defeat by Warwickshire.