A few weeks ago Somerset fans might have been daring to dream that 2026 would finally be the year their team would turn from nearly men into County Championship winners.

With two games to go, Somerset were top of the table by four points. Destiny was in their hands as they sought to win their first-ever Championship trophy.

But a second defeat of the season at the hands of Yorkshire, this time at Headingley, in their penultimate game was like a sledgehammer to the heart of fans and meant Somerset handed over control to eventual winners Warwickshire to clinch glory in the final match on Saturday.

Somerset stay as cricket’s perennial runners-up for another 12 months, with this their sixth second-place finish in the Championship since 2010 as they remain one of just three counties to never lift the trophy.

While the Yorkshire defeat on 18 September sealed their fate, senior figures in the club pointed instead to a lack of ruthlessness earlier in the campaign when citing the moments where the trophy slipped through their fingers.

“Two weeks ago we were in a great place to win the thing that we’ve been trying hard to do for a very long time,” captain Lewis Gregory told BBC Radio Somerset.

“But it’s probably a couple of games in the middle of the year that are the defining moments.

“There were two games we were in a really good spot – probably didn’t show the ruthlessness that we needed, to put us in a position where we were the only team that could win.”