Nottinghamshire cruised to the LV= Insurance Division Two title after comprehensively defeating Durham by 462 runs on day four.

The colossal margin of victory was Notts’ largest by runs in the history of the County Championship – setting yet another record in a match peppered with milestones, after the hosts made their seventh-highest total in a first innings which featured four centurions for the first time since 1928.

It fell to Academy graduate Liam Patterson-White to take the final wicket, leaving Trent Bridge abuzz as Steven Mullaney led his charges from the field.

The skipper’s raw emotion remained plain to see as he hoisted the Division Two trophy aloft in front of an appreciative members’ Pavilion.

In the event, Nottinghamshire finished 16 points clear of their nearest rivals, with Haseeb Hameed enjoying the most productive season of his career with 1,235 runs, Dane Paterson bettering his 2021 efforts in taking 56 wickets, and Patterson-White finishing as the division’s leading spinner with 41 scalps.

Earlier, as the gates of Trent Bridge were thrown open free of charge to celebrate the likely coronation of the champions, the hosts’ supremacy was immediately apparent once more.

Indeed, it took fewer than four overs for Stuart Broad to break through, a pinpoint delivery from the thudding into Scott Borthwick’s pads and being thoroughly deserving of a ‘celebrappeal’ from the England legend.

An unmistakeable feeling of inevitability persisted around this storied corner of West Bridgford as Liam Trevaskis perished to Patterson-White, the right-hander gifting the Academy graduate his 50th wicket of the season across all formats as he top-edged a sweep to Steven Mullaney in the slips.

Four deliveries later, with no further runs added, Nic Maddinson was comprehensively undone by Paterson, departing lbw for 13.

Chances came with regularity, Paterson in particular repeatedly beating the batter, but it was Broad who would strike next as Chris Benjamin found the safest hands in the parish in the form of the helmeted Matthew Montgomery at second slip.

From the next over, Ben Raine obligingly left the gate open for Patterson-White to disturb the stumps, before Montgomery smartly pouched Potts off Paterson.

The subsequent 16 deliveries seemed to take a lifetime as Jonathan Bushnell and Oliver Gibson resisted Notts’ advances, before Bushnell hit Patterson-White into the gloves of Moores to cue pandemonium.

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International cricket in 2023

Trent Bridge will host three international matches next summer, with the sole Test Match of the Women’s Ashes taking place at Nottinghamshire’s historic home, before England’s men face New Zealand and Ireland in IT20 and ODI contests respectively. 

Enter the ticketing ballot or peruse further information at trentbridge.co.uk/internationals.