Champion County

The Champion County in English cricket is a team that was proclaimed as the unofficial county championship winner in any season before 1890, the official County Championship having been constituted in December 1889. The strict use of the term "Champion County" in this sense contrasts with "County Champions", which refers to a team that won the official title since 1890.

The Champion County was not proclaimed in every season up to 1889 because in many cases there were not enough matches or there was simply no clear candidate. The concept has been utilised "ad hoc" and has relied on sufficient interest being shown.

Origin

It is difficult to know when the concept originated. Rowland Bowen states in his history that earliest usage of the term "County Championship" occurred in 1837 re a match between Kent and Nottinghamshire Rowland Bowen, "Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development", Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970] . That may be so re the actual terminology but closer examination of the sources does indicate a much earlier expression of the idea .

The earliest known inter-county match was in 1709 between Kent and Surrey but match results are unknown until the 1720s. The first time a source refers to the superiority of one county is in respect of a match between Edward Stead's XI and Sir William Gage's XI at Penshurst Park in August 1728. Stead's XI won by an unknown margin although Gage's XI "needed just 7 (more?) in their second innings" H T Waghorn, "The Dawn of Cricket", Electric Press, 1906] . The source says that the game could be called Kent v Sussex as the players were reported "as 11 of each county". Sir William Gage was a Sussex landowner and Mr Stead was a resident of Maidstone in Kent. Evidently Mr Stead's Kent team also won two games earlier that season against the Duke of Richmond's XI (also representative of Sussex). The source states that (Stead's victory over Sir William Gage's XI) "was the third time this summer that the Kent men have been too expert for those of Sussex" . This clearly implies that Kent was considered to be the champion county at that time [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/cricket/histories/champions.html Champion counties from 1728] ] .

In 1729, Sir William Gage’s Sussex team defeated Kent on 5 September and Waghorn has recorded: "The latter got (within three) in one hand, as the former did in two hands, so the Kentish men threw it up". This may have been the earliest known innings victory. The report goes on to say that Thomas Waymark "turned the scale of victory, which for some years past has been generally on the Kentish side" .

That statement indicates that inter-county matches had been played for many years previously and that there was keen rivalry with each team seeking ascendancy: i.e., in effect as champions .

Development

Inter-county cricket was popular throughout the 18th century although the best team, such as Kent in the 1740s or Hampshire in the days of the famous Hambledon Club, was usually acknowledged as such by being matched against All-England. There were a number of contemporary allusions to the best county including some in verse, such as one by a Kent supporter who celebrated a victory by Kent over Hampshire in terms of (we shall) "bring down the pride of the Hambledon Club" .

Analysis of 18th century matches has identified a potential champion in most seasons from 1728 to 1796. Inter-county cricket ceased after 1796 due to the worsening war situation and did not recommence until 1825 .

The 18th century champions include London, which for this purpose is treated as a county; Slindon (as Sussex); Dartford (as Kent); and the Hambledon Club (as Hampshire). Interestingly, two titles (in 1785 and 1794) are awarded to Berkshire, which no longer has first-class status .

Using the same sort of "reverse analysis", it has been possible to compile a list of potential champions for the 1825 to 1863 seasons. This work was originally carried out in the 1960s by Rowland Bowen when he was the editor of the "Cricket Quarterly" periodical [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/NATIONAL/ENG/CHAMPIONSHIP/CC_WINNERS_1825-1863.html Champion Counties 1825-1863] ] . Bowen has recorded that Sussex was publicly acknowledged as the "best county" in the 1827 season when they played against All-England in the roundarm trial matches, although their involvement in these matches had more to do with the fact that Sussex was the prime mover in the roundarm revolution .

The 1825-1863 list spans the era of county club formation. So, when Sussex "claimed" the title in 1826 and 1827, it was the same loose association based on the Brighton club that was successful in 1792 as above. But the Sussex claims from 1845 were by Sussex CCC. A similar situation exists re Kent CCC and Surrey CCC. Nottinghamshire had no claim to a title until 1852 so all of its victories have been as Nottinghamshire CCC, the club having been founded in 1841 .

As the game spread, more counties came into contention and by the mid-1860s, the contenders included Cambridgeshire CCC, Hampshire CCC, Lancashire CCC, Middlesex CCC and Yorkshire CCC. About this time, the press began to advocate some form of league system and various journals and individuals, including W G Grace, began publishing their views about who was the champion. Newspapers began to print tables of inter-county results and then proclaimed a champion on the basis of their chosen criteria. As Derek Birley describes, the papers did not use standard criteria and so there are several seasons in which the title must be considered "shared", as there is no universally recognised winner. With no consistency of approach, the issue inevitably led to argument, counter-arguments and confusion until the matter was taken in hand at the meeting of club secretaries in December 1889 where the official championship was constituted Derek Birley, "A Social History of English Cricket", Aurum, 1999] .

An important year was 1873, when player qualification rules came into force, requiring players to choose at the start of each season whether they would play for the county of their birth or their county of residence. Before this, it was quite common for a player to play for both counties during the course of a single season. Three meetings were held, and at the last of these - held at The Oval on 9 June, 1873 - the following rules were decided on:

* "That no cricketer, whether amateur or professional, shall play for more than one county during the same season."
* "Every cricketer born in one county and residing in another shall be free to choose at the commencement of each season for which of those counties he will play, and shall, during that season, play for the one county only."
* "A cricketer shall be qualified to play for the county in which he is residing and has resided for the previous two years: or a cricketer may elect to play for the county in which his family home is, so long as it remains open to him as an occasional residence."
* "That should any question arise as to the residential qualification, the same shall be left to the decision of the Marylebone Cricket Club" [Christopher Martin-Jenkins, "The Wisden Book of County Cricket", Queen Anne Press, 1981, ISBN 0362 00545 1, p. 17.] .

Unofficial county champions

All "titles" before 1890 are strictly unofficial and are based on (a) contemporary claims made by or on behalf of a particular team and recorded at the time; (b) "reverse analysis" performed by a historian who was trying to establish the best team in a given season by reference to the known fixtures and results .

1728-1824

There were no county clubs in this period but all the southern counties had some kind of loose organisation, although it was often centered on a particular town or parish club. Where a local club was deemed to be representative of the county the relationship is indicated by the name of the club in brackets after the name of the county .

References