Nottinghamshire saw their Division One status secured on day three of their Vitality County Championship clash with Warwickshire, as second-bottom Lancashire were unable to gather the bonus points required at New Road.
Kyle Verreynne's unbeaten century - following a second Trent Bridge ton for Freddie McCann the day before - was the highlight of an entertaining day of First-Class cricket in West Bridgford, the South Africa international making his maiden Notts hundred from 119 deliveries.
Having posted 324/6 at the end of play on day two - largely thanks to the efforts of McCann (130), Verreynne and Jack Haynes (47) - Notts set out to accrue further batting bonus points with Verreynne and Rob Lord on 76* and 12* respectively.
Lord was the one to carve out the first boundary of the day, and in doing so clinched the 50th run of the seventh-wicket partnership as he cut Olly Hannon-Dalby through the covers.
Their stand would last ten overs of the morning session before Lord was found to be lbw to Hannon-Dalby, and in response Verreynne - now closing in on his first hundred in Notts whites - stepped on the gas to send Michael Booth for 11 runs in the following over.
There weren't any nervous nineties for the wicketkeeper-batter, but he did have to wait a further four overs while Brett Hutton took the majority of the strike, the seamer clubbing three boundaries before Verreynne could pull Hannon-Dalby through mid-wicket to bring up an impressive ton.
The pair ensured Notts would pick up a fourth batting bonus point before the 110-over threshold was passed, edging the hosts closer to Division One consolidation as Lancashire looked set to fall short of their targets at New Road.
Hutton (29), Farhan Ahmed (10) and Jacob Duffy (29) all added further value to the Green and Golds' first innings while Verreynne went unbeaten in his 148-run knock, in which he tallied 19 fours and two maximums to impress the home faithful.
Rob Yates and Dan Mousley swept up the final three wickets for Warwickshire, and at 487 all out - and four bonus points better off - Notts were in the driving seat as far as the race for top tier status were concerned.
Haseeb Hameed's side then came out in the same stride with the ball, Freddie McCann taking yet another smart slip catch off the bowling of Brett Hutton to see the back of Yates before Duffy cleaned up Bears skipper Alex Davies to peg the visitors back to 6/2.
Sam Hain settled alongside Will Rhodes, however, and put on a 99-run stand before Farhan Ahmed came to the fore to clip Rhodes' off stump for 37.
Ahmed then completed a sensational double-wicket maiden two balls later, striking the pad of Dan Mousley as the teenager ran off in jubilation.
Hain took charge with the bat from thereon in, his unbeaten half-century alongside Ed Barnard (21*) enough to see Warwickshire through the rest of the day before bad light would bring the players off the field just before 5.30pm; stumps was inevitably called shortly afterwards by the umpires.
Meanwhile, at New Road, Lancashire's quick dismissal at the hands of Worcestershire was enough to confirm Nottinghamshire's place in Division One for 2025, a combination of Notts' batting points and Lancashire's absence of such being the deciding factor.
One final day of county cricket awaits on Sunday, with play due to commence at 10.30am as Nottinghamshire look to finish 2024 on a positive note.
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