The Women's County Championship, known since 2014 as the Royal London Women's One-Day Cup,Royal London Women’s One-Day Cup, England and Wales Cricket Board. Retrieved 8 August 2016. was a women's cricket competition organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board. It was the women's equivalent of the County Championship, although it operated as a 50-over limited overs cricket competition with teams organised into a number of divisions. It was introduced in 1997 to replace the Women's Area Championship.
The teams competing in the Championship were drawn mostly from the historic counties of England, with 32 teams representing these. The Scottish national team competed in the competition since 2007, the Wales women's national cricket team since 2008 and the Netherlands joined in 2009.Dutch join women's championship, England and Wales Cricket Board, 29 January 2009. Retrieved 8 August 2016. The Ireland national team played in the competition between 2009 and 2015 before withdrawing in early 2016.EXCLUSIVE: Ireland Cut Costly County Cricket, Crickether, 12 January 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.Ireland women to play South Africa in seven-match series, BBC Sport, 13 January 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
The competition was the longest established women's cricket competition in England and Wales. It operated alongside the Women's Twenty20 Cup, established in 2009,England to introduce women's Twenty20 Cup, CricInfo, 10 December 2008. Retrieved 8 August 2016. and the Women's Cricket Super League between 2016 and 2019, a franchise league with six teams playing Twenty20 cricket.Super League: Franchise cricket gets set for launch in England, BBC Sport, 28 July 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
2019, won by Kent, was the final season of the Championship due to a restructuring of women's cricket in England. From 2020, the only 50-over tournament was competed by regional teams, initially in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. Kent were the most successful county in the history of the Championship with eight titles, whilst Sussex and Yorkshire both won six titles.
History The inaugural Women's County Championship took place in 1997, with 16 teams competing in three divisions. This first tournament was organised and run by the Women's Cricket Association, which voted to merge with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on 29 March 1998. As such, the ECB has administered the competition since 1998.
Yorkshire were the winners of five of the first six Championships, with East Midlands breaking their run in 1999. After this began a period that was dominated by Sussex and Kent. Sussex won six titles between 2003 and 2013, including three in a row between 2003 and 2005, whilst Kent won eight titles between 2006 and 2019. Yorkshire managed one more title, in 2015, whilst Lancashire and Hampshire have won one title apiece, in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Hampshire's title came after a remarkable rise through the divisions, winning Division 3 in 2015 and Division 2 in 2017 before being crowned County Champions one year later.
2019 marked the final year of the County Championship as women's cricket in England was restructured by the ECB, paving the way for a regionalised 50-over tournament, as well as the Women's Hundred. A similar tournament, but with no national winner, was introduced ahead of the 2024 season, in the form of the ECB Women's County One-Day.
Structure The Championship operated on a league structure, with varying amounts of divisions and teams over its history. The first Championship involved 16 teams split across three divisions. Gradually more teams were added over the years (and county teams replaced the regional and Second XI teams that initially competed), and in 2004, which had 24 participants, a second tier was added, the County Challenge Cup. In 2008 (which had 33 teams participating) the Challenge Cup was ended and teams were placed in Divisions 1 to 5. This became four divisions in 2012 and finally three divisions in 2017, a structure that continued until the Championship ended in 2019.
Varying amounts of teams have participated in the Championship over the years, reaching a peak of 38 teams in 2015. 35 teams competed in the final season of the Championship in 2019. The teams that have participated in the tournament are:
+ Team First Last Berkshire 2000 2019 Buckinghamshire 2010 2019 Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire 2010 2019 Cheshire 1998 2016 Cornwall 2005 2019 Cumbria 2001 2019 Derbyshire 1997 2019 Devon 2005 2019 Dorset 2005 2019 Durham 2001 2019 East Anglia 1997 2000 East Midlands 1997 1999 Essex 2001 2019 Gloucestershire 2007 2019 Hampshire 1997 2019 Hertfordshire 2001 2019 Ireland 2009 2015 Kent 1997 2019 Lancashire 1998 2019 Lancashire and Cheshire 1997 1997 Leicestershire and Rutland 2004 2019 Lincolnshire 2015 2019 Middlesex 1997 2019 Netherlands 2009 2019 Norfolk 2002 2019 Northamptonshire 2001 2019 Northumberland 1998 2019 Nottinghamshire 2000 2019 Oxfordshire 2007 2019 Scotland 2007 2019 Shropshire 2008 2018 Somerset 2000 2019 Staffordshire 2000 2019 Suffolk 2007 2019 Surrey 1997 2019 Surrey Second XI 1997 2000 Sussex 1997 2019 Sussex Second XI 1997 2000 Thames Valley 1997 1999 Wales 2004 2019 Warwickshire 2001 2019 Wiltshire 2001 2019 West 1997 1999 West Midlands 1997 1999 Worcestershire 2004 2019 Yorkshire 1997 2019 Yorkshire Second XI 1997 2000
Roll of honour Year Champions Runners-up Leading run-scorer Leading wicket-taker Refs 1997 Yorkshire West Midlands Jane Smit (East Midlands) 429 Helen Pack (West Midlands) 11 1998 Yorkshire Surrey Charlotte Edwards (East Anglia) 394 Sarah Clarke (Surrey Second XI) 12 1999 East Midlands Yorkshire Jane Smit (East Midlands) 335 Janet Tedstone (Yorkshire Second XI); Dawn Holden (East Midlands); Beth Morgan (Middlesex) 13 2000 Yorkshire Nottinghamshire Charlotte Edwards (Kent) 374 Nicky Myers (Nottinghamshire) 13 2001 Yorkshire Berkshire Arran Brindle (Lancashire) 274 Yvonne Craven (Berkshire); Susanne White (Lancashire) 13 2002 Yorkshire Berkshire Charlotte Edwards (Kent) 233 Vicky Borman (Hertfordshire) 14 2003 Sussex Nottinghamshire Taryn Keir (Warwickshire) 303 Lynne Spooner (Derbyshire) 12 2004 Sussex Kent Charlotte Edwards (Kent) 308 Heather Booth (Berkshire) 12 2005 Sussex Kent Charlotte Edwards (Kent) 302 Judith Turner (Berkshire); Dawn Prestidge (Cheshire) 10 2006 Kent Sussex Jenny Gunn (Nottinghamshire) 356 Charlotte Edwards (Kent) 12 2007 Kent Sussex Emily Drumm (Kent) 222 Lynsey Askew (Kent) 13 2008 Sussex Kent Heather Knight (Devon) 390 Isabelle Westbury (Somerset); Hannah Courtnell (Essex); Charlotte Anneveld (Kent) 12 2009 Kent Sussex Heather Knight (Devon) 622 Charlotte Anneveld (Kent) 24 2010 Sussex Kent Lydia Greenway (Kent) 628 Danielle Wyatt (Staffordshire) 24 2011 Kent Sussex Charlotte Edwards (Kent) 541 Jane Riddell (Durham) 28 2012 Kent Essex Sarah Taylor (Sussex) 345 Isobelle Watson (Warwickshire) 18 2013 Sussex Yorkshire Heather Knight (Berkshire) 604 Jenny Withers (Somerset) 20 2014 Kent Surrey Charlotte Edwards (Kent) 491 Jo Gardner (Northamptonshire) 19 2015 Yorkshire Kent Charlotte Taylor (Hampshire) 422 Sarah Clarke (Surrey) 23 2016 Kent Sussex Kirstie White (Surrey) 337 Samantha Betts (Hampshire) 18 2017 Lancashire Yorkshire Suzie Bates (Hampshire) 494 Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire) 27 2018 Hampshire Yorkshire Suzie Bates (Hampshire) 358 Kirstie Gordon (Nottinghamshire) 23 2019 Kent Yorkshire Sophia Dunkley (Middlesex) 451 Katie Thompson (Yor); Natalie Rowbottom (Lin); Rebecca Silk (Dev); Beth Langston (Yor) 15
See also Women's Area Championship Super Fours Women's Twenty20 Cup Women's Cricket Super League Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy
References