Ashwell Prince scored his tenth half-century of the Championship campaign in his final appearance in professional cricket, as Lancashire's four-day encounter at Essex ended in a turgid draw at Chelmsford.
The South-African maestro made 51 in his final innings for Lancashire, taking his overall tally to 1,478 runs for the Championship campaign alone. Lancashire were bowled out for 310, losing their final seven wickets for 41 runs after Prince and Luis Reece (82) shared a partnership worth 81 runs.
Essex, who have finished third in the second division for two seasons in a row, made 138/3 before the players shook hands for the draw. Lancashire were already guaranteed promotion coming into this fixture, but after they and Essex failed to reach an agreement about a contrived result, the Red Rose were unable to leapfrog Surrey at the top of Division Two.
Surrey secured the second division title after holding on for a draw at home to Northamptonshire, meaning Lancashire finished with the highest number of points of any side finishing runners-up in Division Two since the division system was put in place.
Prince and Reece resumed the final day of the 2015 season with Lancashire on 131/2. The likelihood of a contrived result was doubtful given the amount of rain delays during this fixture and so Essex and Lancashire did all they could by playing the game and giving the crowd something to watch.
Reece made his first half-century for Lancashire since August of last season against Yorkshire at Old Trafford and he went on to stake a strong case for a regular spot back at the top of the order after suffering a broken hand against Gloucestershire earlier this year.
The script was set for Prince to leave his mark in superb fashion with yet another century in a superb summer for the veteran batsman and he reached fifty in only 36 deliveries with eight boundaries. Five of these fours came in succession off the bowling of Jesse Ryder, but Prince departed for 51 - two balls after reaching fifty - when he was caught by Ravi Bopara off Graham Napier.
Prince had walked onto the field to a guard of honour and the Essex fielders made a point shaking his hand after he had been dismissed for the final time in his career. The South-African has scored more than 18,000 first-class runs in his esteemed career and his five seasons at Old Trafford will leave an irreplaceable void in the dressing room.
Reece followed Prince's example by progressing to a timely half-century in 100 balls with five fours and one six and a trademark lofted six by Steven Croft (32) took Lancashire beyond 250 for a second batting point. A maiden first-class century was on the cards for the left-handed Reece, but Jamie Porter (1-63) took his four-day tally to 50 wickets for the season when he encouraged an edge to James Foster at 269/4.
This wicket signalled a harmless but somewhat prodigious collapse from Lancashire, who suffered the loss of seven wickets for only 41 runs including that of Reece before lunch. A flurry of wickets after the interval included Phil Mustard (5) who was ran out by a direct hit from Ryder, Croft who mistimed his stroke to Napier (2-49) at mid-on against Bopara's medium pace and Jordan Clark who was stumped for eight off Aron Nijjar.
Only 20 runs were added between the departure of Reece and Clark and Lancashire's collapse continued when Nijjar (2-33) added another breakthrough to his tally, bowling Tom Bailey (5) with the score at 302/8. No further runs were added to the Lancashire total by the time Glen Chapple (8) was caught by Ryder off Bopara, who finished with figures of 3 for 40 when he bowled Simon Kerrigan for one.
Essex took a first-innings lead of 84 runs after Lancashire were all out for 310 on the final day of this match and with very little time left to conjure up a result, events at The Oval were seemingly irrelevant. That being said, Lancashire's recent reputation against Essex gave a few people hope that the Red Rose County could replicate the occasion they were able to skittle Essex for 20 all out in 2013.
And when Essex stumbled to 10/2, Lancashire would have sensed an opportunity to end their season in style, even if Surrey were within touching distance of lifting the Division Two title. Essex's leading run-scorer in four-day cricket this season, Nick Browne, was the first of two casualties when he edged to Karl Brown at second slip off James Anderson, who finished with match figures of eight wickets for 90 runs.
However, the prized scalp came when Lancashire veteran Chapple accounted for England captain Alastair Cook. Chapple needs only 15 more wickets to reach 1,000 first-class victims after Cook (6) edged to Anderson in the slip cordon, meaning that Lancashire removed the England skipper for a total of seven runs across two innings.
Much like Essex's first innings, a successful start with the ball came to a halt for Lancashire, as Tom Westley (34) and Bopara added 70 runs for the third wicket. Bailey (1-48) finished his first full season at Lancashire with 35 wickets when he trapped Westley lbw at 80/3, but this was to be the final wicket taken by the Red Rose this year, as Bopara (52*) and Ryder shared an unbeaten stand worth 53 runs.
Bopara made back-to-back fifties in the final game of the season, taking 63 balls to reach an eye-catching half-century containing five boundaries and two sixes, by which stage Lancashire had decided to throw the ball to their opening batsman Haseeb Hameed and Karl Brown. It proved to be an unsuccessful yet entirely harmless exercise, as both players were hit for six in their first and only overs before the players shook hands for the draw.
Ryder finished unbeaten on 38 from only 23 balls, as the New Zealand all-rounder hit four boundaries and two sixes, although he was very nearly left red in the face if Hameed had been able to pick a difficult swirling catch out of the sky off the bowling of Brown.
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Many thanks for all of your support this season.
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