Nottinghamshire win the English County Finals

Nottinghamshire are the new English Women's County Champions, winning the title for the first time - with a match in hand.

The county triumphed when they won their fourth match of the week at County Finals and Buckinghamshire did them the favour of defeating challengers Lancashire. The team spent anxious moments in front of the scoreboard checking and rechecking points before erupting into cheers. Their captain Kathryn Horberry beamed broadly as she said: "It's absolutely fantastic!"

This is Nottinghamshire's first appearance at County Finals since 2000 - when Kathryn, an eight times county champion, was in the team. Her players have invited her to tee it up in tomorrow's final match against Essex but she has declined "I don't want headlines saying county captain loses 8/7," she laughed. She's also determined that her team goes all out for their fifth win of the week. "We will definitely be trying, we want to beat everyone," she said.

Today, Nottinghamshire played Gloucestershire in a crunch match. If the South West champions had won it would have made the final day's play wide open – and they challenged strongly. But Nottinghamshire stayed firmly on their winning streak and came through with a scoreline of 5½-3½. They shared the morning foursomes and lost the top two singles to Alex Saunders and international Bethan Popel, who beat par, but their remaining four players all won their points.

Detailed results available on the County Finals page.