Essex clinched its eighth County Championship title and second in the last three years after rain played spoilsport and enforced draw in the team's final Division 1 game against Somerset at Taunton on Thursday (September 26). 

Behind Essex by 12 points before the start of the encounter, Somerset had to clinch victory in hope of winning the title but saw its opposition prevail in the end via help of no result. 

Only 72 overs were possible over the first two days before the third day was completely washed out as the outfield was deemed too wet.

Somerset batted first and was bundled out for 203 after a top-order collapse which saw only Tom Abell (45) and James Hildreth (32) go past the 20-run mark before things got better to an extent because of Roelof van der Merwe's quickfire 60 at No.10 on a difficult track. 

Samuel Cook (4/75) and Simon Harmer (5/105) delivered the stand-out spells for the visitors, who later responded miserably getting bowled out for just 141 in 68.2 overs with only Sir Alastair Cook offering resistance of note via a valiant half-century. 

Jack Leach picked up 5/32, while Van der Merwe followed his batting blitz with a spell of 4/41 for Somerset. 

Desperate to get a result its way with time running out and heavy rain around, Somerset forfeited the third innings and left itself needing 10 Essex wickets with a 63-run target on board. 

Cook, however, denied the hosts a dream end with another solid 30 before with only 10 minutes left for the day, the two teams shook hands and settled for a draw as Essex won the title by 11 points.