• Surrey seal first county title since 2002 after nine straight wins • Rory Burns: ‘We’ve been building up for this ... it means a lot’

Under the inscrutable gaze of the ancient cathedral and the still-yet-green trees that line the banks of the Severn it was down to Morne Morkel to carry Surrey over the line. With a tuck off those mighty hips that have pummelled so tirelessly down his run-up over the season he nudged the bravura Dillon Pennington down to the fine-leg boundary.

And with a roar, a hug, an explosion of rapture on the balcony, an exchange of handshakes from the green caps of Worcestershire, that was the County Championship. A champagne cork went off somewhere in the crowd. A coterie of loyal Surrey fans gathered by the pavilion roaring their appreciation, and the locals clapped out a respectful applause.

Surrey win title, Yorkshire send Lancashire towards drop – as it happened Read more

It was Surrey’s first title since Adam Hollioake’s men grabbed the pennant in 2002, one also won with a bunch of local boys. It was the first time Surrey had won nine games in a row since 1957, when Peter May was captain. And it was the first title under the captain Rory Burns, county cricket’s leading runscorer and an enigma yet to be called up by England.

A game that was turned by a devastating spell of bowling by Morkel on Wednesday evening still had a few twists on a day that dawned milky-blue and startlingly bright. With Worcestershire desperately needing a win in their battle against relegation, it was a fight to the end. Mark Stoneman fell first, having won the race to 50. Yet it was Burns who looked the more complete player, whose idiosyncratic head tick, whose deep knee bend as the bowler approaches, have made no impact on his delicate touch or his ability to leave the ball.

The script seemed written for him to hit the winning runs but he was bowled by a jaffa from Pennington, Worcestershire’s teenage bundle of elastic who prospered for England in the Under-19s World Cup last winter.

Pennington had a spell of his dreams from the Diglis end. His rapid run-up, accelerating to the point of delivery, and so tall that his trousers finished quarter-mast above his ankles, kept Surrey guessing. He followed up the dismissal of Burns with the wicket of Ollie Pope and 32 still needed after the batsman had driven and cut him to the boundary in the same over before he got one that zipped through low.

When he had Tom Curran caught gloving a rapid riser through to the slips, the improbable seemed possible, but in the end Worcestershire did not have enough runs, notwithstanding Surrey’s middle-innings collapse of five for 50.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Surrey’s captain Rory Burns is soaked with beer after the county sealed their first title in 16 years. Photograph: David Davies/PA

Outside the Graeme Hick pavilion Burns, in socks and sandals, with a large bottle of Moet tucked between his feet, grinned. “I’m not sure I watched any of it,” he said. “I was sitting there looking at Instagram, having a coffee and trying to keep composed. Now we’ve got over the line I feel I can enjoy it a little bit. We’ve been building up for this for quite a while. It’s the Championship, the one everyone wants to win.

“Surrey boys winning the title for Surrey is what we want to do. I’ve been associated with the club personally since I was eight or nine. It means a lot.”

For Burns there was the added satisfaction of passing 50 again. The chatter of him filling Alastair Cook’s shoes has grown to a bellow but Burns knocked inquiries away. “I’ll keep trying to let the bat do the talking.” Has he heard from the England selectors? “There’s no indication at the minute of anything but that’s how it is.”

The director of cricket, Alec Stewart, was brought in by Surrey in 2013, a year after the tragic death of Tom Maynard, when, in his own words, “things were struggling”. He wanted time and the suits gave it to him. “Things don’t happen overnight. I wanted to be patient, and the chief exec and chairman were patient for me. You can buy it in but I didn’t want to do that.

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“It is a different club to other clubs and, if you understand it, you’ve got more chance of knowing how it should work. Then it’s about appointing good people – Graham Ford, Diva [Michael Di Venuto], people like Vikram Solanki who transitioned from player to coach, and this group of players. It’s a real shame Gareth Batty isn’t here; he’s played a massive part over the last four years. It is nice to watch this group grow together but the important thing is they’ve got to continue to grow. We don’t want this to be a one-off.”

Stewart also had words of comfort for the home side: “I hope that Worcester stay up. They also show that, if you produce your own, they fight together.”

On the balcony, on the outfield, the players made merry: there was Rikki Clarke, the human mountain range brought back by Stewart despite his age; Morkel, lanky and devastating, 50 wickets at 13.96; Stoneman, another Stewart addition who overcame doubts after his troubles with England; and Pope, the future, talent personified.

There were also the experienced Dean Elgar and Jade Dernbach, plus raw talent in Ben Foakes, Will Jacks, Tom Curran, Amar Virdi and Burns himself, the only player to make a thousand runs in the championship.

And as the crowd of little over 400 drifted away, the strains of Erasure’s A Little Respect came blasting out from their dressing room.

Respect. It is something this team deserve.