Essex County Cricket Club can look back on 2009 with pride and satisfaction.

It was the year they finally earned their place back among county cricket’s big guns, by winning promotion to LV County Championship division one.

Mark Pettini’s side had sunk to depressing depths in four-day cricket during recent years, but now they can look forward to facing the likes of Somerset, Durham and Nottinghamshire in 2010.

The two-division system has taken time in forming a gulf between those in the top tier and the clubs in division two.

However, the divide is now clear enough to know Essex will have to improve on their performances of 2009 – even though they finished second in the table, behind winners Kent.

For half of the campaign Essex were no-hopers, who dipped as low as second-bottom, meaning they were ranked 17th out of the 18 counties in the country.

It was a sad sight for the county, which was celebrating the 30th anniversary of its greatest ever season – they won both the county championship and Benson and Hedges Cup in 1979, also marking the first silverware in the club’s history.

The club’s batting was shorn of England regulars Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara and the only glimmer of success appeared to be in the Friends Provident Trophy, with Essex reaching the quarter-final stage.

Then an extraordinary run of results in the second half of the season catapulted them into the promotion frame.

Essex had won three and drawn two of their previous five championship matches going into the final game of the season against Derbyshire.

Set 358 to win from 65 overs after Derbyshire, with nothing to play for apart from a third-placed finish, decided to surprisingly declare on the final day, Essex produced one of the most thrilling run chases seen in modern cricket.

Dutchman Ryan ten Doeschate smashed an incredible 108 not out from just 59 balls and put on 156 with skipper Pettini (85) to take Essex home with five overs to spare.

It was Pettini who struck the winning runs to fittingly send his team back to division one after a six-year absence.

The successful run chase was a reflection on how far Essex’s batting improved during the second half of the season.

Their first innings performances were the worst in the land during the opening months as batting bonus points proved scarce.

Then South African batsman Hashim Amla arrived as overseas replacement for Danish Kaneria and it all clicked into place.

He only played three championship matches, but scored 410 runs at an average of more than 100.

And his hunger for runs seemed to galvanise the likes of Pettini, Matt Walker and James Foster, who were all just short of 1,000 runs.

On the bowling front, there was an over-reliance on leg-spinner Kaneria, who took 75 championship wickets, but it is hard to complain about the tactic of letting him bowl non-stop from one end when it succeeded in taking Essex to their Holy Grail.

While Kaneria skipped in from one end, the seam quartet of David Masters, Graham Napier, Chris Wright and ten Doeschate did the bulk of the work from the other.

Masters took 45 wickets at an average of 26, but Essex’s main concern for 2010 will be where the wickets are going to come from if Kaneria is unavailable for parts of the summer – as expected – due to international commitments with Pakistan.

Essex have been seeking a strike bowler to add some fire to their seam attack and tried to sign former England star Matthew Hoggard, only to be turned down in favour of division two side Leicestershire, where he was offered the captaincy.

If they are forced to be without Kaneria, the only front-line spinner in their ranks will be Tim Phillips, who is yet to prove capable of staying in contention for a full season, despite being on the staff for nigh on a decade.

Essex’s batting should stand up to the test of facing division one bowling, which will include the pick of the overseas players in English cricket. Bopara’s fall from grace within the England set-up means he is likely to be available for selection in county cricket. His own personal loss is Essex’s gain.

Should Essex bring Amla back when Kaneria is away, they will not be short of runs, as long as Pettini, Walker, Foster, ten Doeschate and Napier produce the kind of middle-lower order batting they are capable of.

Napier in particular will be trying to impress the England selectors in the one-day competitions.

It will be a big step up for young Tom Westley, but big things are expected of the top-order batsman, who can also bowl off-spin.

Varun Chopra’s descent into four-day mediocrity saw him depart for Warwickshire, who offered him a longer contract.

A talented player, Chopra never fulfilled his potential and it will be interesting to see how many of Essex’s players are able to step up to the mark against the finest players in the country when the season begins in April.