How Glamorgan went from also-rans to promotion

Glamorgan have one final Championship game to play in 2025 at home to Lancashire

Glamorgan will have the delights of top-tier Championship cricket for the first time in 21 years next season after sealing promotion with a match to spare.

Even if the county structure is changed to the unfathomable two groups of six in the first layer, Glamorgan are still going up.

So, with little personnel change in the squad from the 2024 season, which saw them finish sixth out of eight teams in Division Two, how has coach Richard Dawson overseen success after being hastily appointed in January?

BBC Sport Wales examines the key factors.

First innings runs

Easier said than done but more key performances with the bat have come in the first innings of matches this season.

Whereas Glamorgan have proved adept in the past at getting out of trouble, this year they have avoided getting into it in the first place. That is, after the first three games, when they were shot out quickly on two occasions and forced to follow on in the other, leaving it looking like a long season ahead.

There may have been the odd long day with the ball for Glamorgan supporters to endure, but thankfully there have not been short days with the bat for the bulk of the season.

Colin Ingram, Kiran Carlson and Sam Northeast have been consistent in the top order and provided the platform for success. Their contributions, together with Chris Cooke holding the lower half together, have been as invaluable as ever.

Asa proves an ace

Asa Tribe made a promising start to first-team life at the end of 2024 but was not in the side in April.

The bespectacled Cardiff Met student's response was to score so many second-team runs that Glamorgan could not leave him out of the first team. They made sure he was a regular fixture in all formats after that, peaking with an epic 206 at Northampton.

A solid basic technique added to striking power, plus athleticism in the field, has led to speculation about higher honours for the Jersey product who still loves playing for the island of his birth.

Ben brings balance

Another 21-year-old student, Ben Kellaway, brings crucial balance to the side as a credible batting force, capable of going higher than his current number six and offering a front-line spin option.

The Chepstow product may have caught wider attention through his novelty of occasional ambidextrous bowling, but his numbers with bat and ball stack up very firmly indeed.

He top-scored in Glamorgan's first two wins, against Kent and Northamptonshire, before pausing briefly to knock off his Cardiff University final exams.

Kellaway also made a success of his belated Welsh Fire entrance and had a brief visit to an England training camp, with Lions honours surely on the way.

Spin to win

The strangest signing of the summer was Australian spinner Matt Kuhnemann, who dropped in for one match when Kellaway was glued to his studies.

It seemed the professional equivalent of Marnus Labuschagne being asked to bring a mate along for a Sunday friendly.

But Kuhnemann duly spun Glamorgan to victory over Middlesex with six wickets in the second innings, before vanishing to carry drinks for Australia again. It worked.

Meanwhile, Mason Crane - injured then not selected for a while - turned in a career-best six-wicket haul to decide the match at Old Trafford, while Kellaway claimed a decent haul of 25 wickets.

Just don't mention the early loan experiment with England spinner Shoaib Bashir, despite his efforts.

More than the sum of their parts

Glamorgan supporters have been concerned about their team's bowling potency for several seasons but the seam attack has mostly come together well enough, with Sri Lankan Asitha Fernando providing the extra pace that may also help the others' efforts.

Timm van der Gugten and James Harris have been willing workhorses, Andy Gorvin has been seen as a home specialist, proving effective with his medium pace, while Ned Leonard has chipped in and Zain ul Hassan has provided economical support.

In short, they found a way and ended nearly 21 years of life in the second tier.