Pears draw with Lancs to seal best finish since 1997

Joe Leach finished 30 not out on his final first-class appearance

Vitality County Championship Division One, Visit Worcestershire New Road (day four)

Worcestershire 180: Waite 60; Phillip 5-65 & 223-9: van Beek 44; Phillip 4-77

Lancashire 177: Wells 38, Balderson 38; Waite 3-38

Worcestershire (11 pts) drew with Lancashire (10 pts)

Match scorecard

Worcestershire secured their best County Championship finish in 27 years as their final Division One game of the season with relegated Lancashire ended in a draw.

On the day Joe Leach made his final appearance for the club, the 11 points the Pears picked up enabled them to finish sixth in the table - three points ahead of Midlands neighbours Warwickshire and 28 points clear of the drop.

The hosts batted for the best part of two sessions to recover from 78-6 and reach 223-9 before bad weather called a halt, with Anderson Phillip (4-77) and Tom Bailey (3-54) taking 15 wickets in the match between them.

It is Worcestershire's best campaign since finishing third in the old one-tier Championship structure in 1997 - and their highest since the competition was split into two divisions - in 2000.

The Pears, who have been promoted a record seven times, have only once previously stayed up - by four points in 2011, the year Lancashire won the title.

Since then, Lancashire have now been relegated four times - the latest of them having been sealed a day earlier when they failed to secure a single batting point.

The final day of the longest-ever spanning Championship season began with seven games still in progress. But, on the penultimate day of September, given the weather forecast, the first-ever Sunday climax to a campaign was never likely to bring anything over than early finishes everywhere.

So it proved at Worcester, where hands shaken at 15:30 BST, with still 41 overs left to be bowled.

After facing just one over the night before without scoring, the Pears suffered a stuttering start on the final morning of the season.

Phillip struck twice in his first two overs as he had Jake Libby caught and bowled, then Kashif Ali caught behind.

Gareth Roderick was then run out by a direct hit from Will Williams at cover, before Bailey struck twice in the same over, trapping Lancashire old boy Rob Jones and then clean bowling home captain Brett D'Oliveira third ball for five.

Ethan Brookes then departed, lbw to Williams, to then trigger a slightly early lunch on 78-6.

But any hope Lancashire had of salvaging some lost pride with an afternoon victory were soon snuffed out as the Pears, leading by only 81 at the start of the second session, battened down the hatches.

After going to lunch on 23, Adam Hose moved his score on to 41, while Matthew Waite added to an already impressive match with 37.

Logan van Beek, who had made 48 in the first innings, added a further 44, mostly in the company of Leach, who made a grand but tearful entry to Dolly Parton's 'Jolene'.

It is the song sung by supporters so many times whenever the popular Leach has taken many of his 469 wickets during the 137 first-class matches he has played for the Pears. But time, and injuries, have finally taken their toll and he retires at the age of 33.

Worcestershire head coach Alan Richardson told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

“I know the boys in the changing room have worked extremely hard since we got promoted to try and achieve something like this. And I'm extremely proud to be part of it.

“We know it hasn’t happened very often in our history in terms of being promoted. We’ve also been relegated a lot. But it is a small step towards trying to push as far as we can as a group and see where we can get to.

“The talk back in April was about the effort everyone would have to put in. The wickets have been spread far and wide and the batters have contributed all the way down the order, none more so than in this game."

Lancashire head coach Dale Benkenstein told BBC Radio Lancashire:

“In four-day cricket there is so much time in the game that, if you’ve got any weaknesses they are going to be found, especially in Division One.

"In four-day cricket, we have definitely got a lot of work to do and probably didn’t realise we were going to be in this position coming into the job.

“But we’ve got a task ahead, and that’s sport. Sometimes you need to go down to find your feet and everyone to regroup a bit and have a bit of breathing space and find confidence and balance.

“It hasn’t been the easiest season but that is the nature of county cricket and it’s a tough job as a head coach.”