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This job I hate. Whoever I pick in a County XI will upset somebody and I'm sure they will let me know.

It is a difficult job when you factor in how many games each player played, on what surfaces and what sort of form their respective sides were in.

I have little opportunity to watch Division Two cricket, so that had to be taken into account. This was the XI I first drew up. Can I stick with it?

1) Marcus Trescothick (Somerset): He's about the only one I think I can get away with without anyone coming back at me. More than 1,600 runs with six hundreds. Moving along now...

2) Michael Carberry (Hampshire): Played in only nine games because of his but look at his three hundreds and the team's turn-around in form after his return, which roughly coincides with that amazing late run they embarked on. I acknowledge it was more the Hampshire middle order and bowling, rather than the top order which didn't fire early in the season. Carberry also has a presence in the field and I don't think there is a better opener, aside from Trescothick, turning out in the county game.

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Congratulations Lancashire. Writing the morning after they won the Championship, I'm thinking back to what took place at the end of .

Malcolm Lorimer, the club chaplain and historian, was bursting with pride and happiness. As he and I were standing on the Somerset ground surrounded by supporters, players and coaches celebrating he said: "Those 77 years are tangible". He was right. 

As the Blackpool and Bolton lads Steven Croft and Karl Brown saw them home, the players did all the expected things - singing,  jumping and hugging one another.

It was done with smiling faces but the eyes told a different story. One of shock.

Some were tearful, such as director of cricket Mike Watkinson and Gary Keedy. Several of them had tasted defeat and misery too often before and came across as dignified winners from whom the millstone was lifted.

Glen Chapple is a greatly talented all-round cricketer. He is also one of the hardest working. His performance in that final match with such a serious hamstring injury is beyond the understanding of an sidelines observer like myself.

Much is rightly made of the young nature of the side but that collective who have come through the ranks of the second XI together needed the experience of the skipper, along with Keedy, Saj Mahmood, Mark Chilton and, on occasions, James Anderson.

Sri Lankan Farveez Maharoof made himself a popular signing. Kyle Hogg showed us what we've missed through injury and was able to perform on surfaces and grounds which better suited him.

Stephen Moore is one very talented batsman who scored vital runs, none more so than in the last two weeks of the campaign.

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It was more than just a joke from a colleague last week to drily quip that with fewer than two weeks to go before the end of the season it was far too early to be thinking about who can win the County Championship.

You save that sort of punditry until the last day of the competition.

It could be and, for no other reason than a gut feeling, I think it will be.

They're certainly missing something when it comes to the big one-day knock-out games, and with some key players suffering from injury and a lack of form, added to losing players to England, they fell away at an important time over the last month.

But a , and with Worcestershire to play at home in the final week, they are still right there with a chance.

What pleases me most about their performances is the fact that they have rallied since last season. A third title in four years would be something special.

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