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Nottinghamshire have been promoted to Division One of the County Championship after securing the draw they required against Sussex to seal a top-two spot.

Despite missing out on the Division Two title, promotion completed an excellent season for Notts, who won both domestic limited-overs trophies this summer.

Sussex led by 88 runs on first innings and batted all day for 229-7, with captain Luke Wells scoring 103.

Only Kumar Sangakkara (1,491) scored more runs than Wells (1,292) this term.

His fourth Championship hundred of the season was the highlight of the final day at Hove, which proved to be a fitting finale for retiring Nottinghamshire captain Chris Read.

The former England wicketkeeper, 39, scored his 26th first-class century on Wednesday, in what was his last innings as a professional.

Notts appeared near certainties to go up for several weeks, but successive defeats by eventual champions Worcestershire and their other main promotion challengers Northamptonshire took the Division Two promotion race into the season's final round of fixtures.

Northants' 20-point victory over Leicestershire was not enough for them to overhaul either of the top two, with Notts' 12 points enough to guarantee second place.

Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores told Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio Nottingham: "What a season. For the first time for a long time we can sit back and enjoy some of the achievements.

"It's been a brilliant season. Credit to everybody on and off the field. We had to scramble over the line. We saw an unbelievable moment when Chris Read went to his hundred. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

"And credit to Billy Root - one of your younger players, It's been a theme for the season that when we needed to find something, somebody found it.

"It's been a team effort. We identified areas we wanted to get better and the lads have been consistent at that. We couldn't guarantee we would win games but we could guarantee that we would put a shift in. The players have put the club first and have backed each other."