Surrey became the first official county champions after winning nine out of fourteen games.
The official County Championship was constituted in a meeting at Lord's on 10 December 1889 which was called to enable club secretaries to determine the 1890 fixtures.
A majority were in favour of "ignoring drawn games altogether and settling the championship by wins and losses.
"[3] Under this system defeats were subtracted from victories and the county with the highest total were champions.
The new competition, which had official sanction, began in the 1890 season and initially featured Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire.