2016 Bill Beaumont Cup

For the second tier of the English Counties competition, see 2016 County Championship Plate. For the third tier of the English Counties competition, see 2016 County Championship Shield.

2016 Bill Beaumont Cup (County Championship)
Countries	England
Date	7 May 2016 - 29 May 2016
Champions	Cornwall (5th title)
Runners-up	Cheshire
Relegated	Yorkshire, Surrey
Matches played	13
Attendance	13,563 (average 1,043 per match)
Highest attendance	3,125 Cornwall v Surrey (21 May 2016)
Lowest attendance	200 Surrey v Gloucestershire (4 May 2016)
Top point scorer	Jack Lavin Cheshire 49
Top try scorer	Sam Baker Gloucestershire 5
←  2015 2017  →

The 2016 Bill Beaumont Cup, also known as Bill Beaumont Cup Division One, was the 116th version of the annual, English rugby union, County Championship organized by the RFU for the top tier English counties. Each county drew its players from rugby union clubs from the third tier and below of the English rugby union league system (typically National League 1, National League 2 North or National League 2 South). The counties were divided into two regional pools with the winners of each meeting in the final held at Twickenham Stadium. New counties to the competition were the two finalists from the 2015 County Championship Plate – Surrey (winners) and Eastern Counties (runners-up) who replaced Kent and Durham who were relegated from their respective groups. ^{[1] [2] [3]} Cornwall were the defending champions. ^[4]

The two pool winners, Cheshire (north) and holders Cornwall met in the final. Cheshire had beaten 2015's runners up, Lancashire, in the pool stage, but came up short against a Cornish side managed once more by Graham Dawe who had lost his job at Plymouth Albion at the end of the season. The bulk of his team were Albion players, and they beat Cheshire, 35–13, to retain their title, with Matthew Shepherd having another good final by getting 20 of Cornwall's points including a last minute try. ^{[5] [6]} Due to changes to the County Championship format for the 2017 competition, no teams would be relegated to the second tier of the county championships for the following season. ^[7]

Competition format

The competition format is two regional group stages divided into north and south, with each team playing each other once. This means that two teams in the pool have two home games, while the other two had just one. The top side in each group goes through to the final held at Twickenham Stadium. Unlike previous seasons, due to changes to the following seasons championships there would be no relegation. ^[7]

Participating Counties and ground locations

Chester (Cheshire)

Sale (Cheshire)

Redruth (Cornwall)

Camborne (Cornwall)

Cambridge (Eastern Counties)

Bristol (Gloucestershire)

Bishop's Stortford (Hertfordshire)

St Albans (Hertfordshire)

Lytham St Annes (Lancashire)

Whitefield (Lancashire)

Sunbury-on-Thames (Surrey)

Scarborough (Yorkshire)

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Locations of the 2016 Bill Beaumont Cup county teams

County	Stadium(s)	Capacity	City/Area
Cheshire	Hare Lane Heywood Road	2,000 5,400	Chester, Cheshire Sale, Greater Manchester
Cornwall	The Recreation Ground Recreation Ground	3,500 (580 seats) 7,000 (780 seats)	Redruth, Cornwall Camborne, Cornwall
Eastern Counties	University Football Ground	1,500	Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Gloucestershire	Station Road	2,500 (400 seats)	Cribbs Causeway, Patchway, Bristol
Hertfordshire	Woollam Playing Fields Silver Leys	1,000 1,600	St Albans, Hertfordshire Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire
Lancashire	Woodlands Memorial Ground Park Lane	9,000 3,000	Lytham St Annes, Lancashire Whitefield, Greater Manchester
Surrey	Hazelwood	2,000	Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey
Yorkshire	Silver Royd	4,500 (425 seats)	Scalby, North Yorkshire

Group stage

Division 1 North

2016 Beaumont Cup Division 1 North Table
	County	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Cheshire (Q)	3	3	0	0	85	29	56	2	0	14
2	Lancashire	3	2	0	1	87	64	23	2	0	10
3	Eastern Counties	3	1	0	2	66	98	-32	1	0	5
4	Yorkshire	3	0	0	3	67	114	-47	1	0	1
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Number of matches won Difference between points for and against Total number of points for Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
Green background means the county qualified for the final. Pink background means the county were demoted to Division 2 North of the County Championship Plate for the following season. Updated: 21 May 2016 Source: "County Championships". englandrugby.com.

Round 1

7 May 2016 15:00

(BP) Cheshire	29 - 11	Eastern Counties
	Report

Hare Lane, Chester Attendance: 300 Referee: Matthew Turvey

7 May 2016 15:00

Yorkshire	27 - 40	Lancashire (BP)
	Yorkshire Lancashire

Silver Royd, Scalby Attendance: 1,896 Referee: Ben Blain

^[8]

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Round 2

14 May 2016 15:00

(BP) Cheshire	29 - 7	Yorkshire
	Report

Heywood Road, Sale Attendance: 523 Referee: Claire Hodnett

14 May 2016 15:00

(BP) Lancashire	36 - 10	Eastern Counties
	Eastern Counties Lancashire

Woodlands Memorial Ground, Lytham St Annes Attendance: 719 Referee: Will Halford

^[9]

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Round 3

21 May 2016 15:00

(BP) Eastern Counties	45 - 33	Yorkshire (BP)
	Report

University Football Ground, Cambridge Attendance: 250 Referee: Callum Howard

21 May 2016 15:00

Lancashire	11 - 27	Cheshire

Park Lane, Whitefield Attendance: 500 Referee: Jamie Leahy

^[10]

Division 1 South

2016 Beaumont Cup Division 1 South Table
	County	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Cornwall (Q)	3	3	0	0	88	56	32	2	0	14
2	Hertfordshire	3	2	0	1	69	56	13	1	0	9
3	Gloucestershire	3	1	0	2	70	78	-8	1	1	6
4	Surrey	3	0	0	3	64	101	-37	0	1	1
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Number of matches won Difference between points for and against Total number of points for Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
Green background means the county qualified for the final. Pink background means the county were en demoted to Division 2 South of the County Championship Plate for the following season. Updated: 21 May 2016 Source: "County Championships". englandrugby.com.

Round 1

7 May 2016 15:00

Cornwall	33 - 27	Gloucestershire (BP)
	Report

The Recreation Ground, Redruth Attendance: 1,850 Referee: Callum Howard

7 May 2016 15:00

(BP) Hertfordshire	31 - 28	Surrey (BP)
	Report

Woollam Playing Fields, St Albans Attendance: 490 Referee: David Clarkson

^[8]

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Round 2

14 May 2016 14:00

Surrey	22 - 38	Gloucestershire (BP)
	Report

Hazelwood, Sunbury-on-Thames Attendance: 200 Referee: Robbie Bourke

14 May 2016 15:00

Hertfordshire	15 - 23	Cornwall
	Report

Silver Leys, Bishop's Stortford Attendance: 360 Referee: Luis Caviglia

^[9]

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Round 3

21 May 2016 14:15

Gloucestershire	5 - 23	Hertfordshire
	Report

Station Road, Clifton, Bristol Attendance: 350 Referee: Neil Chivers

21 May 2016 15:00

(BP) Cornwall	32 - 14	Surrey
	Report

The Recreation Ground, Camborne Attendance: 3,125 Referee: Veryan Boscawen

^[10]

Final

29 May 2016

Cornwall	35–13	Cheshire
Try: Searle, Matavesi, Stupple, Shepherd Con: Shepherd (3) Pen: Shepherd (3)	Report	Try: Millea Con: Lavin Pen: Lavin (2)

Twickenham Stadium, London Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Jamie Leahy

15 Matthew Shepherd Plymouth Albion 14 Lewis Vinnicombe Redruth 13 Jake Murphy Plymouth Albion 12 Nielson Webber Redruth 11 Robin Wedlake Plymouth Albion 10 Billy Searle Plymouth Albion 9 Greg Goodfellow Chinnor 1 Tom Cowan-Dickie Redruth 2 Rupert Freestone Plymouth Albion 3 Craig Williams Redruth 4 Ben Hilton Cornish All Blacks 5 Tony Whittle Camborne 6 Kyle Marriott (capt) Redruth 7 Sam Matavesi Plymouth Albion 8 Herbie Stupple Plymouth Albion Replacements: 16 Richard Brown Redruth 17 Barrie-John Chapman Redruth 18 Damien Cook Camborne 19 Chris Fuca Camborne 20 Jon Dawe Redruth 22 Sam Parsons Plymouth Albion 23 Peter Joyce Redruth 24 Lewis Webb Taunton

15 Charlie Venables Macclesfield 14 Jack Leech Sandbach 13 Craig Harvey Wirral 12 Rhys Hayes Chester 11 Ali Baker Wirral 10 Jack Lavin Caldy 9 Joe Murray Wirral 1 Gavin Woods Chester 2 Paul Millea Macclesfield 3 Elliot Millar-Mills Macclesfield 4 David Marwick (capt) Macclesfield 5 Tom Sanders Caldy 6 Nyle Davidson Caldy 7 Harry Broadbent Rosslyn Park 8 Ryan Parkinson Macclesfield Replacements: 16 Benjamin Jones Caldy 17 Forbes Edward Unattached 18 Nathan Rushton Caldy 19 Timothy Oakes Sandbach 20 Chris Roddy Stourbridge 22 Nicholas Pearson Sheffield Tigers 23 Mike Craven Chester

^{[5] [6]}

Total season attendances

• Does not include final at Twickenham which is a neutral venue and involves teams from all three county divisions on the same day

County	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Cheshire	2	823	412	523	300	12%
Cornwall	2	4,975	2,488	3,125	1,850	49%
Eastern Counties	1	250	250	250	250	17%
Gloucestershire	1	350	350	350	350	14%
Hertfordshire	2	850	425	490	360	36%
Lancashire	2	1,219	610	719	500	12%
Surrey	1	200	200	200	200	10%
Yorkshire	1	1,896	1,896	1,896	1,896	42%

^{[8] [9] [10]}

Individual statistics

• Note if players are tied on tries or points the player with the lowest number of appearances will come first. Also note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included). Statistics will also include final.

Top points scorers Rank Player County Club Side Appearances Points 1 Jack Lavin Cheshire Caldy 4 49 2 Matthew Shepherd Cornwall Plymouth Albion 4 48 3 Chris Johnson Lancashire Fylde 3 32 4 Greg Lound Yorkshire Hull Ionians 3 27 5 Simon Horbeck Eastern Counties Shelford 3 26 [8] [9] [10] [5] [6]

Top try scorers Rank Player County Club Side Appearances Tries 1 Sam Baker Gloucestershire Cinderford 3 5 2 Sam Matavesi Cornwall Plymouth Albion 4 5 3 Billy Searle Cornwall Plymouth Albion 3 4 4 Jack Lavin Cheshire Caldy 4 3 5 Matthew Noble Surrey Dorking 2 2 [8] [9] [10] [5] [6]

See also

• English rugby union system
• Rugby union in England

References

1. "Super Surrey call Twickenham their home once again". Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser. 31 May 2015. Archived from the original on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
2. "RUGBY: Gloucestershire survive relegation with vital win over Kent". Gazette. 26 May 2015.
3. "Counties beaten as Durham relegated and Northumberland miss out". Chronicle Live. 24 May 2015.
4. "Cornwall win County Championship with superb win over Lancashire". West Briton. 31 May 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-06-02. Retrieved 2016-12-11.
5. "County Championship final 2016: Cornwall beat Cheshire to retain title at Twickenham". BBC Sport. 29 May 2016.
6. "Cornwall win back to back Twickenham triumphs". Plymouth Herald. 29 May 2016.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
7. "Full Men's County Championship fixture list 2016-17" (PDF). England Rugby. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
8. "Bill Beaumont Cup". The RUGBYPaper. No. 399. Rugby Paper Ltd. 8 May 2016. pp. 28–29 & 34.
9. "Bill Beaumont Cup". The RUGBYPaper. No. 400. Rugby Paper Ltd. 15 May 2016. pp. 30–31 & 36.
10. "Bill Beaumont Cup". The RUGBYPaper. No. 401. Rugby Paper Ltd. 22 May 2016. pp. 30–31 & 32.

External links

• NCA Rugby Archived 2015-07-01 at the Wayback Machine