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
1911 County Championship 1911 County Championship The 1911 County Championship was the twenty-second officially organised running of the County Championship, and ran from 4 May to 5 September 1911. Warwickshire County Cricket Club won their first championship title. Somerset finished bottom of the table, winning only one match all season. Tom Hayward topping the batting charts, scoring 1,963 runs for Surrey at an average of 50.33, though C. B. Fry scored his 1,299 runs at a far superior average of 76.41. Lancashire's Harry Dean took the most wickets, accumulating 175 at an average of 17.52. The championship adopted a new method of scoring