Northamptonshire celebrate promotion to County Championship Division One Promotion came courtesy of Essex's failure to take maximum batting points during their match against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl which ended their last chance of going up at Northants" expense. Only an Essex victory with maximum bonus points coupled with defeat for Northants at Worcester would have put Essex level on points and earned them promotion by virtue of winning more games. But when Monty Panesar was caught by Jimmy Adams off Matt Coles to bowl Essex out for 207 in their first innings, that remote prospect became an impossibility. Northants, who were in the field when they heard the news from Southampton, said that the manner of their promotion had left them with a sense of anti-climax but had not diminished their pride in their achievements during a season in which they also won the Friends Life T20. "We're still playing this game and celebrating halfway through is a bit weird, but we're very happy," the batsman Alex Wakely said. It's the most surreal feeling I've ever had in a cricket game. All we wanted to do was to go off and have a beer, but realised we've got to carry on. We can't celebrate too hard because we've still got a game to win, but it's an amazing feeling. Northants began the day on 103 for four but lost their last six wickets for 99 as Worcestershire's crafty Alan Richardson took five for 70 and Moeen Ali, celebrating his call-up to England's performace squad this week, chipped in with three for 30. Worcestershire ended the day's play 116 runs ahead on 155 for three with Ali unbeaten on 40. At the Ageas Bowl, Coles, the pace bowler on loan from Kent, took six for 71 to force Essex to follow on after Adam Wheater, who left Chelmsford for Hampshire during the winter, had scored a run-a-ball 122 in the home side's 456. At Canterbury Robert Key hit 15 fours and a six on his way to a boisterous 134 as Kent replied to Lancashire's first innings of 284 with 260 before the visitors closed 99 ahead with all 10 second-innings wickets remaining.