Durham have secured promotion back to Division One of the County Championship, seven years after they were relegated as punishment for financial mismanagement.

The runaway Division Two leaders are not in action in the ongoing round of the Championship, but such is their lead over the teams below them, promotion as champions is all but a mathematical certainty with two games remaining.

Leicestershire’s dismissal for just 108 in their first innings at Hove, giving them zero batting points, means they cannot catch Durham. Worcestershire, who also don’t have a game this week, are 44 points behind in second, with Durham needing just five more points to be assured of the title.

The goal of returning to Division One has been achieved in head coach Ryan Campbell’s first season in charge – he said in April that his target for Durham was “to be the best team in England” – and ends a run of disappointment for the county system’s most-northerly side.

Durham were demoted to the second tier in 2016, despite finishing fourth in Division One, with the ECB imposing a 48-point penalty in return for a £3.8 million bailout.

This season, they have won six out of 12 games, losing just once, to go clear at the top of Division Two. They currently have the leading run-scorer in either division in Alex Lees (1281), as well as Division Two’s joint-leading wicket-takers, Matthew Potts and Ben Raine (51 each).