As the Essex team bus pulled into Chelmsford’s County Ground barely three hours after the weary players had officially been confirmed as champions, the scale of what they had achieved started to sink in.

Victory at Warwickshire on Thursday had put the club, only promoted to Division One last September, on the brink of a remarkable County Championship title win. However, it wasn’t confirmed until Somerset’s defeat of Lancashire at Taunton was completed shortly before midday.

Celebrations the previous night in Birmingham had gone on until the early hours and, for some, into the morning.

But for Ryan ten Doeschate the partying stopped before 10pm, Essex’s captain who had been struck down by a cold marking his team’s triumph with a Lemsip and an early night.

Still, the reception the squad received at Chelmsford, with the entire club staff marking their return alongside a few die-hard fans, was enough to bring home to everybody how special and unexpected Essex’s first Championship triumph in 25 years really was.

Nobody was prouder than Ten Doeschate, who was appointed captain last summer and, after joining Essex in 2003, had spent 11 of his 13 previous years at the club playing Division Two Championship cricket.

“It will take a few days to realise the scale of what we’ve achieved,” he said. “It’s without doubt the proudest moment of my career. This makes up for all the years of struggle and all the years of near misses. The boys deservedly celebrated long into the night. But I ducked out early because of this cold. But I raised a Lemsip for them!”

Ryan ten Doesc​hate said it was the proudest moment of his career (Getty)

Essex are a county rich on tradition and talent but short on money and resources compared to their more esteemed rivals.

Indeed, they are the only club in the top division not to host a major international this century and, apart from Somerset, whose ground is not a Test-match venue.

Yet hard work, talent and a thriving academy – eight of the team who beat Warwickshire were home-grown – have led them to an achievement some have compared to Leicester City’s Premier League title win in 2016. “This is a small club with limited resources so I don’t care how other people value it I just know what it means to me,” says Ten Doeschate. “For us it feels like a World Cup. You won’t have a better feeling than this.”

Two bowlers in Jamie Porter, who gave up a career in recruitment to chance his arm as a professional with his home county, and Simon Harmer, the South Africa spinner shrewdly signed on a Kolpak deal, have taken 127 wickets between them this season. It has, though, been a team effort, aided by the efforts of coach Chris Silverwood, who in his two years in charge has followed promotion with Essex’s first title since 1992.

Jamie Porter is one of a number of homegrown talents to thrive in the First Division (Getty Images)

“The numbers tell a story and Jamie and Simon deserve so much credit for the way they’ve run through teams,” said Ten Doeschate. “On a more tangible level Chris Silverwood has brought a far more relaxed environment and has squeezed every inch out of the squad we’ve had. That’s probably the reason why we’ve won so many games.”

Essex are still unbeaten with two matches of the season remaining and the key to their success since promotion last summer has been to not worry about the apparent gap between the divisions.

“The line we said to ourselves was we are going to make our presence felt in Division One,” says Silverwood. “That was our aim and we have gone into every game believing it is must win.

“Look at the energy they have on the field. If you can harness that then the sky’s the limit for these guys.”

Ten Doeschate adds: “Too much emphasis is placed on the gulf between the divisions. If teams come up they need to have a crack like we’ve done and just believe and fight in every session.”

Essex are still unbeaten with two matches of the season remaining (Getty)

Progress may be slowed, though, if Silverwood leaves Essex. The Yorkshireman’s success has been noted by England, who are looking for a new bowling coach after the departure of Ottis Gibson.

Silverwood, who will spend the day working with England in Bristol ahead of their ODI against West Indies on Saturday week, appears the outstanding candidate to replace Gibson.

Sources at Essex believe the 44-year-old will stay and there has been no approach as yet from England.

Silverwood says: “I’m not really going to talk about it to be honest. Today is all about Essex and the success they’ve brought back here. We’ll worry about that later.”

For now, Silverwood and Essex will concentrate on trying to emulate Middlesex’s achievement from last summer by going through the season unbeaten.