Olly Hannon‑Dalby, 6ft 7in of medium‑fast heritage craft, has just come out of training at Edgbaston. The last round of County Championship cricket is about to start and slow‑burn Warwickshire are nailed-on favourites. Hannon‑Dalby tries to pinpoint what has made the team tick this summer.

“Our bowling has massive depth,” he says. “Ethan Bamber has had an outstanding year with 60 wickets, and then Chris Woakes has been around the majority of the season. To be able to throw an English legend the ball every now and then is unbelievable – and his demeanour when he plays, how he carries himself is amazing. In fact our depth in general is great, everyone has played and contributed.”

Warwickshire, after starting the season as if they had a nail in their shoe with two wins from their first eight games, have stepped up when it mattered. With four wins from the last five matches – and the past two victories, against Essex and Glamorgan, notched up in two days – they have leapt over the 2025 champions, Nottinghamshire, and caused the usual heartbreak to Somerset.

After being ahead before the penultimate round, Somerset stumbled at Headingley last week, leaving Warwickshire 11 points clear. Win their last match, at home against the relegation-threatened Leicestershire, and they are champions. A draw with six bonus points would also get the job done.

Hannon-Dalby has more than played his part and, having spent the first four games of the summer on loan to Worcestershire, he now tops the Edgbaston averages with 27 wickets at 18.

“I’d never been on loan before. It wasn’t the way I would have designed my season but we have a really strong bowling attack and my opportunities were limited. To be able to get some overs in my legs in those early weeks of the season was brilliant and I’m really grateful to Worcestershire for taking me.

“I could have stayed at Edgbaston and played for [Warwickshire’s] second team but it is different to championship cricket. To know that I was playing, bowling well, contributing for Worcestershire, meant I was ready to hit the ground running.” And when Warwickshire recalled him, he did.

An unfancied Warwickshire last won the championship in Covid‑affected 2021, and went on to win the Bob Willis Trophy at Lord’s the same year, a match that dragged on until a properly autumnal 2 October. Hannon‑Dalby was injured for the second part of that season, supporting in the dressing room but desperate to get on the pitch.

“This time around is very exciting from a personal point of view, to be fully involved,” he says.

When this last batch of games started five weeks ago, we just wanted to give ourselves the chance to be in the hunt, and now we have destiny in our hands going into the last game.

“We’ve just got to bat and bowl and field well and if we can do all those things, well, hopefully … also, everyone is fit for the last game of the season, I’ve certainly been involved in campaigns when there are only one or two fit bowlers still standing.”

Is the body hurting after 12 matches – eight for Warwickshire, four for Worcestershire? “The season is hard, it has ebbs and flows, but by this time of year you are used to the workloads and we’ve helped ourselves by shovelling a few four-day games into two-day games and manufacturing more rest for ourselves. When you get to this stage you are in the groove a bit.”

Hannon-Dalby is able to empathise with Leicestershire – he has experience of last-round blues. On the final day of the 2022 season he was bowling at the other end (one for 40) when Liam Norwell’s nine for 63 blew away Hampshire and saved Warwickshire from relegation.

“At the end there was absolute elation but the day itself was horrific, the feeling that you were going to get relegated the entire time. The last couple of hours were pandemonium – I wouldn’t want to do that again.”

After taking 50 championship wickets in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and enjoying a fruitful 2026, Hannon‑Dalby signed a new three‑year contract this summer, which will make him a Bear as he moves into his 40s. “A brilliant club that have been very kind to me,” is how he describes Warwickshire.

His long career gives him the perspective to see how the game has been transformed, and what matters. “Cricket has changed a little bit, there are lots of offshoots, and the franchise world of course. But on a day-to-day basis, the measure of you as a cricketer is either Test cricket if you can play it, or otherwise the County Championship.

“To do well in county cricket is incredibly satisfying, and being able to win the championship is a great marker in your career. It says a lot that the great Chris Woakes could have sailed off into the sunset, but he has stayed for weeks like this.” By Sunday, we will know how the die fell.