HAMPSHIRE have achieved their highest position in the County Championship for 11 years, finishing third  despite rain wiping out the final three days of the season.

They finished six points clear of Kent after bowling them out for 147 on day one at Canterbury before the county’s final match of the season ended as a damp squib, when the fourth and final day was abandoned without a ball bowled.

Umpires Ben Debenham and Ian Gould, who had abandoned days two and three due to rain, had little option but to do the same. With the outfield sodden they called the game off just after 9.30am.

It was a similar story at Edgbaston, where Yorkshire needed to beat Warwickshire, so Hampshire’s draw means they took the £88,000 cheque as third-placed finishers.

 

 

Hampshire batsman Tom Alsop said: “It’s been a really good season, we got to a final and challenged in all three formats.”

Kent’s head coach Matt Walker said: “It was all set up to be an exciting game, so it’s a great shame it’s had to end this way.

“We were coming into this off the back of two wins at Trent Bridge and Headingley, having set out stall out to win three out of three but sadly the weather had other ideas.

“To finish third would have been a really big statement for us and to finish behind two really good sides in Essex and Somerset. Not to be given the chance to do that by rain is really frustrating.

“We’ve played a day of cricket here and that’s about it, so there’s a feeling that the season has just drifted out, which is a shame for both these sets of players.”