The Women's County Championship, known since 2014 as the Royal London Women’s One-Day Cup,Royal London Women’s One-Day Cup

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the Sports governing body, national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and ...

. Retrieved 2016-08-08. was a women's

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

competition organised by the

. It was the women's equivalent of the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

, although it operated as a 50-over

limited overs cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...

competition with teams organised into a number of divisions. It was introduced in 1997 to replace the

Women's Area Championship The Women's Area Championship was a women's cricket competition organised by the Women's Cricket Association that ran from 1980 until 1996. It operated as a 55-over limited overs cricket competition, with teams organised into a number of groups, ...

. The teams competing in the Championship were drawn mostly from the

historic counties of England The historic counties of England are areas that were established for administration by the Normans, in many cases based on earlier Heptarchy, kingdoms and shires created by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Celts and others. They are alternatively kn ...

, with 32 teams representing these. The Scottish national side competed in the competition since 2007, the

Wales women's national cricket team The Wales women's cricket team is the Welsh team for women's cricket. They play their home matches at various grounds across the country, including Spytty Park, Newport and Pontarddulais Park, Pontarddulais. They are captained by Lauren Parfi ...

since 2008 and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

joined in 2009.Dutch join women's championship

, 2009-01-29. Retrieved 2016-08-08. The Ireland national team played in the competition between 2009 and 2015 before withdrawing in early 2016.EXCLUSIVE: Ireland Cut Costly County Cricket
Crickether, 2016-01-12. Retrieved 2016-08-08.Ireland women to play South Africa in seven-match series
BBC Sport, 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2016-08-08. The competition was the longest established women's cricket competition in England and Wales. It operated alongside the

Women's Twenty20 Cup The Women's Twenty20 Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the Vitality Women's County T20, is a women's Twenty20 cricket competition organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board. Until the end of the 2019 season, teams were organised in tie ...

, established in 2009,England to introduce women's Twenty20 Cup

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, 2008-12-10. Retrieved 2016-08-08. and the

Women's Cricket Super League The Women's Cricket Super League (WCSL), known as the Kia Super League (KSL) for sponsorship reasons, was a semi-professional women's Twenty20 cricket competition in England and Wales operated by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The comp ...

between 2016 and 2019, a franchise league with six teams playing Twenty20 cricket.Super League: Franchise cricket gets set for launch in England
BBC Sport, 2016-07-28. Retrieved 2016-08-08.

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, won by

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, was the final season of the Championship due to a restructuring of women's cricket in England. From 2020, the only 50-over tournament was competed by regional teams, initially in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. Kent were the most successful county in the history of the Championship with eight titles, whilst

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

both won six titles.

History

The inaugural Women's County Championship took place in 1997, with 16 teams competing in three divisions. This first tournament was organised and run by the

Women's Cricket Association The Women's Cricket Association (WCA) was responsible for the running of women's cricket in England between 1926 and 1998. It was formed by a group of enthusiasts following a cricket holiday in Malvern. Forty-nine games were arranged in that first ...

, which voted to merge with the

(ECB) on 29 March 1998. As such, the ECB has administered the competition since 1998.

were the winners of five of the first six Championships, with

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

breaking their run in 1999. After this began a period that was dominated by

and

. Sussex won six titles between 2003 and 2013, including three in a row between 2003 and 2005, whilst Kent won eight titles between 2006 and 2019. Yorkshire managed one more title, in 2015, whilst

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

have won one title apiece, in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Hampshire's title came after a remarkable rise through the divisions, winning Division 3 in 2015 and Division 2 in 2017 before being crowned County Champions one year later. 2019 marked the final year of the County Championship as women's cricket in England was restructured by the ECB, paving the way for a regionalised 50-over tournament, as well as the Women's Hundred.

Structure

The Championship operated on a league structure, with varying amounts of divisions and teams over its history. The first Championship involved 16 teams split across three divisions. Gradually more teams were added over the years (and county sides replaced the regional and Second XI sides that initially competed), and in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, which had 24 participants, a second tier was added, the County Challenge Cup. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

(which had 33 teams participating) the Challenge Cup was ended and teams were placed in Divisions 1 to 5. This became four divisions in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and finally three divisions in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, a structure that continued until the Championship ended in 2019. Varying amounts of teams have participated in the Championship over the years, reaching a peak of 38 teams in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. 35 teams competed in the final season of the Championship in 2019. The teams that have participated in the tournament are:

Roll of honour

References

{{Women's County Cricket in England English domestic cricket competitions Women's cricket competitions in England Recurring sporting events established in 1997 1997 establishments in England

History

Structure

Roll of honour

See also

References