County cricket

Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales.

Inter-county cricket was popular throughout the 18th century, although the best teams, such as Kent in the 1740s or Hampshire in the days of the famous Hambledon Club, were usually acknowledged as such by being matched against All-England.

The most successful county teams were Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex.

One of the best county teams in the late 18th century was Berkshire, which no longer has first-class status.

The exception to this was the 1919 season, when there was an experiment with two-day matches played over longer hours, up to nine o'clock in the evening in mid-summer.

There are no representative teams carrying the names of the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland which are both covered by Cumbria.

The 18 English county sides are divided randomly into two groups of nine with each team playing each other once.

The competition, previously sponsored by Royal London, replaced the Yorkshire Bank 40 over League.