County Championship While this was going on, representatives of the eight leading county clubs held a private meeting to discuss the method by which the county championship should in future be decided. The new competition began in the 1890 season and at first involved just the eight leading clubs: Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire. Subsequently, the championship has been expanded to 18 clubs by the additions at various times of Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Glamorgan, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. It is difficult to know when the concept of a county championship originated. While early matches were
County Championship Shield divided roughly on geographic terms into two pools and play each other once either home or away, with the top teams in each pool progressing to the final. There is no formal promotion and relegation between the County Championship Shield and the higher competition for the County Championship (Bill Beaumont Cup) and County Championship Plate but Surrey moved up into the higher competition from the 2014-15 season after winning the Shield three times in succession and the 2014-15 champions, Leicestershire, have moved up to County Championship Plate level from the 2015-16 season. 2011_results.pdf County Championship Shield The County Championship Shield