Durham sneaked the LV Division One silverware ahead of Nottinghamshire, who were strong favourites at the start of the final round of matches but lost their game at home to Hampshire - while Durham beat Kent by an innings and 71 runs at Canterbury.

Kent, battling against an odds-on likelihood of relegation, managed to take the contest into the final day thanks to a century stand between Justin Kemp and Ryan McLaren but, once the two South Africans' resistance was broken, Durham knew they were closing on victory. And when Notts' result was finally confirmed, they could begin their celebrations - having won the title by eight points.

Nottinghamshire failed in their improbable final-day bid after losing to Hampshire by 203 runs at Trent Bridge. Although Chris Read's side went into the final round of matches with a healthy 10-point advantage over Durham they failed to recover from a first-innings batting implosion on the second day.

Set a massive 442-run target in two and a half sessions to claim their second Division One crown in four years, Nottinghamshire went down swinging but Samit Patel's 77 and Bilal Shafayat's 48, together with an unbeaten 47 from Chris Read were in vain as the home side were all out for 238. Dimitri Mascarenhas and Imran Tahir claimed four wickets each for the visitors.

Mark Chilton fell just short of a century as Lancashire, who have secured their LV County Championship Division One status for next season, recorded a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Somerset at Taunton.

Somerset had gone into the game with title aspirations but those were not fulfilled.

Paul Horton (57) and Chilton (97) took the visitors close to victory but it was left to Stuart Law and Kevin Brown to see Lancashire home.

Sussex and Yorkshire escaped relegation after securing a draw at Hove as Murray Goodwin scored his sixth first-class hundred of the year.

The hosts ended on 397 for nine, a lead of 204, when stumps were called an hour before the scheduled close of play, with a positive result unlikely.