Worcestershire v Derbyshire day 4

Worcestershire 475-7 and 43-1

Derbyshire 248 and 266 (Madsen 100, Hosein 59, Milnes 36)

Worcestershire won by nine wickets

A county championship season that ended in high drama at Lord's, where Middlesex and Yorkshire engineered a last day of both farce and brilliance, ended in a fireworks display that fizzled out like the dampest of squibs at New Road.

Despite a typical innings from Wayne Madsen, who made his sixth century of the season and in doing so entered the Derbyshire cricket pantheon, there was simply not enough support. Harvey Hosein played another fine innings, finishing the season with successive scores of 52 not, 83 not, 58, 108 and 59, but Tom Milnes apart, the rest came and went with far too great a speed. The home side were left with a total that my club side could have handled and defeat came to end a chastening summer.

Madsen can hold his head high, having registered his highest-ever season tally, while Hosein has confirmed that he and Gary Wilson can play in the same side next season. Whichever takes the gloves is largely irrelevant, but both will be among the best batsmen and should take a place as a matter of course.

John Sadler said at the end that the players will have learned a lot from the season, which I am sure they will. They need to have, because they must come back to training later in the year intent on doing better next year and never repeating this experience. Young they are, but they need to improve across the board and be joined by a  clutch of senior players who offer more than some of ours did this year.

We came eighteenth of eighteen counties for a reason - the other seventeen were consistently better than us. The club board needs to sort out the coaching situation and let those currently involved know where they stand as soon as possible, so the rebuilding can commence and players know where they stand when considering joining the cause.

Supporters need that too. There have been enough talking points in recent weeks that really need clearing up so we can move on.

The worst summer in living memory? No, because it was salvaged by some encouraging one-day efforts and I have seen 49 of them now, some of them with not even that to redeem them.

I sincerely hope that my 50th next year is a whole lot better, for everyone's sake.

Season reviews will follow for championship and one-day cricket in the coming days.