Barring an unlikely Essex win at Derby today, Northamptonshire will return to the first division of the LV County Championship next season for the first time since 2004.

Victory, by a crushing margin in what was one of the most one-sided matches of the season, was wrapped up an hour after lunch yesterday when Leicestershire were bundled out by David Lucas, who returned outstanding figures of seven for 45 to finish with 60 first-class victims for the campaign. Leicestershire’s failure to gain the five points they needed to overhaul Middlesex meant that the Midlands county suffer the ignominy of a first wooden spoon since 1962.

When Johan van der Wath uprooted Harry Gurney’s off stump to win the match, claiming his 50th championship wicket of the season, there were no scenes of wild rejoicing from his team-mates. Instead, they had to be content with belting out the team song from the pavilion balcony, much to the delight of a few hundred members that congregated on the outfield below.

Nicky Boje, the Northamptonshire captain, admitted he was wary of Essex’s ability to talk opposing captains into favourable run-chases. Middlesex’s Eoin Morgan, most notably, was conned into setting Essex 241 in 45 overs at Lord’s last month, a target that was comfortably reached.

“Essex are good negotiators, so they will definitely try and negotiate something with Derby,” Boje said, before adding that Chris Rogers would get a call from Northamptonshire last night.

Boje will doubtless hope that the Derbyshire captain, once a Northamptonshire player, will do his old county something of a favour. Factoring into his considerations could be the fact there is no prize money for third place in division two as well as the likelihood that Rogers would rather face Essex than Northamptonshire next season.

If Northamptonshire are promoted, Boje is confident that the club will not suffer the same fate that befell them in their previous seasons in division one, 2001 and 2004, when they were relegated both years. “I think we would be competitive but we must keep the squad we’ve got,” he said. “We’ve had two batsmen make 1,000 runs this year and two bowlers take 50 plus wickets, so the seam department is strong. David Sales will be back, and there’s rumours we’ll sign another batsman.” Mal Loye may be that man, the club having given 28 days of notice to Lancashire last month that they want to talk to him.

Monty Panesar, who was not selected for this match, is understood to be the target of three counties. “Monty’s still a key player for Northamptonshire and England,” Boje added. “Everyone goes through a tough time at some point and he’s in the middle of that, but hopefully he can get out of it as soon as possible. A guy like Monty relies quite a lot on his own confidence. You could see he’s lacking it. If a spinner’s confidence goes, he’s always under a bit of pressure. A lot of people have asked him to change, and he’s found it difficult to, but he’s trying.”

Panesar’s bowling was not missed yesterday with Lucas in such good form. Swinging the ball off a full length and a consistent line, he was too much of a handful for most of Leicestershire’s young side.

James Benning, given some width, swashbuckled his way to 72 off 64 balls with 13 fours while James Taylor underlined his tenacity with an unbeaten 30 in 43 overs at the crease.

Northamptonshire: First Innings 600 for 8 dec (R A White 193, A J Hall 159, N Boje 90 not out, M H Wessels 65)

Leicestershire: First Innings 218 (P A Nixon 52; A J Hall 4 for 41)

Second Innings
P A Nixon c O’Brien b Lucas 8
*M A G Boyce c O’Brien b Lucas 12
A J Harris c O’Brien b Lucas 4
G P Smith lbw b Lucas 9
J J Cobb b Van der Wath 1
J W A Taylor not out 30
†T J New b Lucas 0
J G E Benning c Lucas b Boje 72
C W Henderson b Lucas 42
W A White c Wessels b Lucas 0
H F Gurney b Van der Wath 0
Extras (lb 6, nb 2) 8
Total (56.4 overs)186

Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-30, 3-31, 4-40, 5-44, 6-45, 7-151, 8-183, 9-183.

Bowling: Van der Wath 17.4-2-78-2; Lucas 16-4-45-7; Hall 9-4-22-0; Boje 11-5-10-1; Daggett 3-0-25-0.

Umpires: N J Llong and G Sharp.