Founded in 1895 for the counties left outside the first-class game (1895)
The second tier of county cricket in England and Wales
General knowledge · Sport
Minor counties cricket
Championship founded 1895; renamed National Counties in 2020
Sport — the second tier of county cricket in England and Wales
The competition for the English and Welsh counties outside the first-class game, founded in 1895 and renamed the National Counties Championship from 2020, the old adjective having been judged to carry the wrong message. Twenty sides take part, nineteen English historic counties plus a Wales national team, in two regional divisions of ten whose winners meet in a final. Four counties have graduated from it to the first-class game, and its greatest figure is Sydney Barnes, who took 1,441 wickets for Staffordshire at 8.15 apiece while widely held to be the best bowler in the world.
How to spot them
- ▸Counties with no first-class side: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Devon, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk and the rest
- ▸Staffordshire, whose county emblem is the Stafford knot, are the most successful side
- ▸Three-day cricket that is not first-class, plus a fifty-over National Counties Trophy
- ▸Renamed in 2020; called the Unicorns Championship under sponsorship from 2014 to 2019
Key facts
Sydney Barnes took 1,441 wickets at 8.15 for Staffordshire, in two spells either side of the First World War (1904–1934)
He played only 27 Tests, taking 189 wickets, and preferred league and county cricket to the first-class game
Renamed 'National Counties' from 2020, the old adjective judged to carry the wrong message (2020)
The clubs voted for the change unanimously
Worcestershire in 1899, Northamptonshire in 1905, Glamorgan in 1921 and Durham in 1992 all left it for the first-class game
Four promotions in a century
Twenty sides in two regional divisions of ten, nineteen English counties and a Welsh national team
Divisional winners meet in a final
Durham beat Yorkshire in the 1973 Gillette Cup, the first such win over a first-class county (1973)
Nineteen years before Durham themselves became first-class
Devon took the title in 2026, after Buckinghamshire in 2025 and a shared championship in 2024 (2026)
Berkshire and Staffordshire shared the 2024 title
Quick-fire facts
- •The Minor Counties Championship was founded in 1895 and renamed the National Counties Championship from 2020
- •Twenty teams compete: nineteen English historic counties and Wales National County Cricket Club, in Western and Eastern divisions of ten
- •Staffordshire, formed on 24 November 1871, have won the title more often than any other county
- •Sydney Barnes took 1,441 wickets at an average of 8.15 for Staffordshire between 1904 and 1934
- •Bob Taylor, David Steele, Dominic Cork, Dilip Vengsarkar and Imran Tahir all appeared for Staffordshire
- •Four member counties have been promoted to first-class status: Worcestershire (1899), Northamptonshire (1905), Glamorgan (1921) and Durham (1992)
- •Sides took part in the Gillette Cup, NatWest Trophy and Benson & Hedges Cup, but were excluded from the one-day competitions after 2005
- •The limited-overs competition is the National Counties Trophy, played over fifty overs
- •Matches are three days long but are not classed as first-class
- •The 2020 season was cancelled for the pandemic, so the new name took effect properly only in 2021
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- England and Wales Cricket Board — Minor Counties vote to become National Counties from 2020
- John Wisden & Co — Wisden Cricketers' Almanack