Written by Dr. Andrew Hignell: 1st XI scorer & Heritage and Education Co-ordinator at Glamorgan County Cricket Club

Glamorgan secured promotion yesterday into Division One of the Rothesay County Championship for the 2026 season. They claimed enough bonus points in their rain-ravaged draw at Derby to give them a significant lead over the teams in third, fourth and fifth place in the Division Two table, meaning they cannot leapfrog above the Welsh county during the final round of matches next week.

Glamorgan had to prevent Derbyshire from winning the contest last night and had to pin their hopes on both Middlesex and Gloucestershire not securing enough bonus points, so that the promotion race wouldn’t go into the final week of the season.

However, the significant loss of playing time at Derby – more than the total in all of the Welsh county’s previous twelve games this season – the resultant draw against Derbyshire, Middlesex’s draw at Old Trafford, and Gloucestershire – despite beating Northants in a gripping final hour at Bristol – not securing enough batting or bowling points in their first innings, means that Glamorgan have now secured the second, and highly coveted, promotion spot.

The team are now set to play in the top tier of the premier first-class competition for the first time since exactly twenty years ago on 18 September 2005 when the Glamorgan side, led back then by Robert Croft, were defeated by Hampshire at Sophia Gardens by 75 runs – one of fourteen defeats from their sixteen matches that summer.

Since 2005, the Welsh county have played a total of 284 matches in Division Two of the County Championship, winning 61, tying a dramatic contest with Gloucestershire at Cheltenham in 2024, besides drawing 124 games and losing a further 98 contests.

During this period, Glamorgan’s best position in the Division Two table was third place, which they achieved in 2010, despite having gone into the final match of that season, in second place in the table. On that occasion, they were pipped at the post on the final afternoon by Worcestershire, a side who Glamorgan had comprehensively defeated both at home and away in their tally of seven wins that season.

Thankfully, there will be no such dramas during the final contest of the 2025 season as Glamorgan go into the match against Lancashire at Sophia Gardens knowing that they cannot be overtaken.

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