A few weeks ago Somerset fans might have been daring to dream that 2026 would finally be the year their team would turn from nearly men into County Championship winners.

With two games to go, Somerset were top of the table by four points, destiny was in their hands as they sought to win their first-ever Championship trophy.

But a second defeat of the season at the hands of Yorkshire, this time at Headingley, in their penultimate game was like a sledgehammer to the heart of fans and meant Somerset handed over control to eventual winners Warwickshire to clinch glory in the final match on Saturday.

Somerset stay as cricket's perennial runners-up for another 12 months, with this their sixth second-place finish in the Championship since 2010 as they remain one of just three counties to never lift the trophy.

While the Yorkshire defeat on 18 September sealed their fate, senior figures in the club pointed instead to their lack of ruthlessness earlier in the campaign as the moments where the trophy slipped through their fingers.

"Two weeks ago we were in a great place to win the thing that we've been trying hard to do for a very long time," captain Lewis Gregory told BBC Radio Somerset.

"But it's probably a couple of games in the middle of the year that are the defining moments.

"There were two games we were in a really good spot, probably didn't show the ruthlessness that we needed, to put us in a position where we were the only team that could win."

Somerset director of cricket Andy Hurry echoed Gregory's assessment and pointed specifically to the back-to-back defeats to Yorkshire in Taunton and Glamorgan in Cardiff in May.

Yorkshire overturned a 112 run, first-innings deficit to beat Somerset by 75 runs while in Cardiff, Glamorgan came away with a shock win by just two wickets - their first victory at home in Division One.

"There's been a number of games which we should have won, we didn't get the outcome we were looking for," Hurry said to BBC 5Live hours before Warwickshire were confirmed as champions.

"Glamorgan were incredible over in Cardiff, the resilience they showed. We put all the effort in and didn't quite get the rub of the green.

"The game here [in Taunton] against Yorkshire was another important game for us and again not quite getting that result.

"So how do we convert those games from the outcome we got this year into positive results moving forward - that's going to be a big focus for us."

Gregory said while there was a "lot of disappointment" within the squad, players would only improve from the experiences this year.

"We've got some amazingly talented cricketers in the squad and there's a lot of guys that will be better for the experience of of this year and hopefully kick on even more," he said.

Hurry too was confident the team's trajectory overall in 2026 was trending upwards, pointing to improvements in both the batting and bowling units.

"We can't get it across the line this year there's been a tremendous effort by so many people - the bowling unit have been phenomenal this year and it's been really encouraging to also see the contributions from the top six as well," Hurry said.

"There's been some real growth in how we're approaching our cricket at the moment and it's very exciting for the future of Somerset."

However, Hurry added: "But we want to win trophies and we want to win them consistently and that's really really important to us."