County Championship

The County Championship is a first-class cricket competition in England and Wales, established in 1890 and organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board. It is described as the world's oldest domestic cricket tournament. It is contested by 18 clubs, representing 17 of the historic counties of England and one from Wales, and its reigning champions are Warwickshire. The official championship was constituted on 16 December 1889, when secretaries of the major clubs met at Lord's to settle the next season's fixtures while representatives of the eight leading counties privately worked out how teams would be ranked. It began in 1890 with only eight clubs: Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire. It later grew to 18 clubs as Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Glamorgan, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Warwickshire and Worcestershire joined. Before 1890 an unofficial title existed, claimed by or on behalf of a club through popular or press acclaim, and the earliest known inter-county match was played in 1709 between Kent and Surrey. Counties without first-class status compete in the National Counties Cricket Championship.