Specsavers County Championship Division 1 - day 4
Surrey 433 & 146-4 beat Somerset 269 & 306 by 6 wkts

SOMERSET go into next week's County Championship finale 13 points adrift of Division 1 safety after defeat to Surrey - and therefore must defeat Middlesex next week to stay up.

Somerset resumed on 113-4 at the Oval, and progressed comfortably until Tom Abell was caught by Rory Burns off Rikki Clarke to leave his side 132-5.

Steve Davies continued his excellent form against his previous club, however, combining well with Peter Trego to take the visitors into the lead, only for the Somerset wicketkeeper to fall for 52 at 198-6, with Clarke claiming the catch off Gareth Batty.

Trego and Craig Overton reached 200-6 at lunch, only for Overton to fall for 10, trapped lbw by Stuart Meaker, leaving the away side 234-7.

Trego - having been dropped at slip off Dernbach when on 36 - had secured his half-century, but then departed for 68, bowled by Ryan Patel, with Somerset still short of 250.

Spin twins Dom Bess and Jack Leach secured the second batting point, and after Leach departed for 15 (caught by Clarke off Batty), Bess and Tim Groenewald secured a third point.

Bess fell for a fine 35 (caught behind off Clarke), meaning Somerset were all out for 306 and Surrey needed 143 runs to win.

Meaker ended the innings with 3-65 off 18 overs and Batty 3-84 off 25 for the hosts.

In reply, Burns and Mark Stoneman began fluently, only for both to fall in quick succession - Burns (13) caught by Groenewald off Overton, and Stoneman (24) snared behind by Davies off Groenewald - to leave their side 39-2.

But Patel and Kumar Sangakkara (fresh off his 157 in the first innings) carried the score upwards, before Patel departed for 17, clean bowled by Bess, at 73-3.

Bess also removed Sangakkara, for 35 (ending a wonderful spell for the Sri Lankan at the Oval), but Chris Foakes (42no) and Ollie Pope (13no) finished the job for a six-wicket win.

There were mixed results elsewhere, from a Somerset perspective.

After Middlesex beat Lancashire yesterday, fellow relegation-threatened Yorkshire looked in dire straits at 96-7 against already-doomed Warwickshire, but an eighth-wicket partnership of 78 between Steven Patterson and Matthew Fisher helped them win by two wickets, putting good distance between them and Somerset.

However, an unexpected bonus came from the Ageas Bowl, where after bowling champions Essex out for 76 in their first innings, Hampshire were skittled for 76 themselves in their second innings, giving Essex the win by 108 runs.

With Somerset picking up four points from their loss to Surrey, they are 13 points adrift of third-bottom Hampshire going into the final round of fixtures next week.

They are also 16 points behind Middlesex, the team they host at the County Ground from Monday.

So it will end just as we suspected it might: Somerset must beat Middlesex, who pipped them to the Division 1 title last season, and match them for bonus points, in order to survive.