Countries | England |
---|---|
Administrator | ECB |
Format | One Day |
First edition | 2020 |
Latest edition | 2024 |
Tournament format | Round robin |
Number of teams | 5 |
Current champion | Middlesex (1st title) |
Most successful | Surrey (2 titles) |
Website | Women's London Championship |
The Women's London Championship (WLC) [1] is an English women's cricket competition. It was created in 2020 following the introduction of the regional Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy as the highest domestic competition in women's One Day cricket. [2] The competition features the women's county cricket teams from the Home Counties. [3]
Originally the Women's County Championship was the highest 50 over competition in English women's cricket. However, the tournament ended in 2019 to make way for a regionalised 50-over tournament and The Hundred. [2] [4] This decision was not popular with some of the county teams who felt that the new competition had removed their representation in the top flight of women's cricket. [3] The Women's London Championship was created as a county replacement. [2] The first season in 2020 featured the Home Counties of Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Essex. Though it was endorsed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), it was viewed as a breakaway tournament due to a negative perception of the ECB's way of administering women's cricket by reducing the number of teams from counties to regions. [3] The counties also engaged in a running competition as a warmup. [5] The matches would be played at county outgrounds such as Kent playing at the Nevill Ground, Royal Tunbridge Wells and Middlesex playing at Mill Hill School, London. [6] The inaugural competition was won by Surrey. [2]
For the 2021 season, it was announced that Sussex would be joining the competition. [2] The South East Stars and Sunrisers regional teams agreed to release their contracted players to represent their counties in the Women's London Championship. [2] Kent won the 2021 tournament, winning three of their four matches, with defending champions Surrey in second place. [7] Surrey regained their title in 2022, winning three of their four matches (with the other match cancelled). [8] Essex won their first title in 2023, winning all four of their matches. [9] Middlesex won their first title in 2024, winning all of their matches. [10]
Team | First | Titles |
---|---|---|
Essex | 2020 | 1 |
Kent | 2020 | 1 |
Middlesex | 2020 | 1 |
Surrey | 2020 | 2 |
Sussex | 2021 | 0 |
The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Vitality County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as a two-league system. The tournament is contested by eighteen clubs representing the historic counties of England and Wales. The reigning champions are Surrey.
The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom.
The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually ever since.
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in England, and has been played since the 16th century. Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lord's, developed the modern rules of play and conduct. The sport is administered by the England and Wales Cricket Board and represented at an international level by the England men's team and England women's team. At a domestic level, teams are organised by county, competing in tournaments such as the County Championship, Metro Bank One-Day Cup, T20 Blast and the Women's Twenty20 Cup. Recent developments include the introduction of a regional structure for women's cricket and the establishment of The Hundred for both men's and women's cricket. Recreational matches are organised on a regional basis, with the top level being the ECB Premier Leagues.
The Kent Women cricket team is the women's representative cricket team for the English county of Kent. They play their home matches at County Cricket Ground, Beckenham, as well as the St Lawrence Ground and Polo Farm, both in Canterbury. They are captained by Megan Belt and are coached by David Hathrill. They are the most successful side in both the Women's County Championship and Women's Twenty20 Cup, with 8 and 3 titles respectively. They are partnered with the regional side South East Stars.
The Women's County Championship, known since 2014 as the Royal London Women's One-Day Cup, 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 Sussex Women's cricket team is the women's representative cricket team for the English historic county of Sussex. They play their home games at various grounds across the county, including Brighton Aldridge Community Academy Sports Ground and the County Cricket Ground, Hove. They are captained by Georgia Adams. They have won 6 Women's County Championships and 2 Women's Twenty20 Cups in their history. They are partnered with the regional side Southern Vipers.
The Surrey Women's cricket team is the women's representative cricket team for the English historic county of Surrey. They play their home games at various grounds across the county, including Reed's School Ground, Cobham, as well as The Oval and Woodbridge Road, Guildford. They are captained by Amy Gordon and coached by Jonathan Batty. In 2019, Surrey played in Division One of the final season of the Women's County Championship, and have since played in the Women's Twenty20 Cup. They are partnered with the regional side South East Stars.
The Middlesex Women's cricket team is the women's representative cricket team for the English historic county of Middlesex. They play their home games at various grounds, most commonly at Mill Hill School, and are captained by Saskia Horley. They won Division 2 of the Women's County Championship in 2019 and won the Women's Twenty20 Cup in 2018. They are partnered with the regional side Sunrisers.
The Essex Women's cricket team is the women's representative cricket team for the English historic county of Essex. They play their home games at various grounds across the county, including Toby Howe Cricket Ground, Billericay and Garon Park, Southend-on-Sea. They are captained by Kelly Castle. In 2019, they played in Division Two of the final season of the Women's County Championship, and have since played in the Women's Twenty20 Cup. They are partnered with the regional side Sunrisers.
The One-Day Cup is a fifty-over limited overs cricket competition for the England and Wales first-class counties. It began in 2014 as a replacement for the ECB 40 tournament, which ran from 2010 to 2013. It is currently known as the "Metro Bank One Day Cup". In contrast to its 40-over predecessor, the number of overs per innings was set at 50 to bring the competition in line with One-Day Internationals.
The 2016 cricket season was the 117th in which the County Championship has been an official competition. The season began in March with a round of university matches, and continued until the conclusion of a round of County Championship matches in late September. Three major men's domestic competitions were contested: the 2016 County Championship, the 2016 Royal London One-Day Cup and the 2016 NatWest t20 Blast. Women's domestic cricket saw the launch of the Women's Cricket Super League, a new franchise competition, and the contesting of the Women's County Championship and Women's Twenty20 Cup.
The 2017 English cricket season was the 118th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. The season, which began on 28 March and ended on 29 September, featured two global one-day competitions played in England and Wales, the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup. England Women's team won the World Cup, defeating India in the final at Lord's. Pakistan beat India in the Champions Trophy final.
The 2020 Bob Willis Trophy was a first-class cricket tournament held in the 2020 English cricket season, and the inaugural edition of the Bob Willis Trophy. It was separate from the County Championship, which was not held in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The eighteen county cricket teams were split into three regional groups of six, with the two group winners with the most points advancing to a final held at Lord's. The maximum number of overs bowled in a day was reduced from 96 to 90, and the team's first innings could be no longer than 120 overs.
The 2020 Vitality Blast was the eighteenth edition of the T20 Blast currently known as the Vitality Blast, a professional Twenty20 cricket league being played in England and Wales. run by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which was branded as the Vitality Blast due to the tournament's sponsorship deal. On 12 August 2020, following a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ECB confirmed the fixtures for the tournament.
The 2021 County Championship was the 121st cricket County Championship season in England and Wales. For the first phase of the tournament, the teams were split into three groups of six, with each side playing ten matches. The top two teams from each group progressed into Division One for the second phase of the competition, with the other teams progressing to Divisions Two and Three. The team that finished top of Division One became the county champions; and the top two teams from Division One contested a five-day match at Lord's for the Bob Willis Trophy. On 17 December 2020, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed all the fixtures for the tournament. After completion of the group stage on 14 July 2021, the ECB confirmed the fixtures for the division stage on 22 July 2021.
The Women's Twenty20 Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the Vitality Women's County T20, is a women's Twenty20 cricket competition organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board. Until the end of the 2019 season, teams were organised in tiered divisions, with a national winner; since, teams have been organised into regional groups.
The 2011 Women's Twenty20 Cup was the 3rd cricket Women's Twenty20 Cup tournament. It took place in August and September, with 35 teams taking part: 33 county teams plus Wales and the Netherlands. Kent Women won the Twenty20 Cup, beating Berkshire Women in the final, achieving their first T20 title. The tournament ran alongside the 50-over 2011 Women's County Championship.
The 2021 Women's Twenty20 Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the 2021 Vitality Women's County T20, was the 12th cricket Women's Twenty20 Cup tournament, taking place in April and May, with 36 teams taking part: 34 county teams plus Scotland and Wales. There was no overall winner, with Hertfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, Kent, Gloucestershire and Somerset winning their respective regions.
The 2024 ECB Women's County One-Day was an English women's cricket 50-over domestic competition. It took place between April and July 2024, with 35 teams taking part, organised into four regional groups. It was the first nationally-organised 50-over women's county competition since the 2019 Women's County Championship, and ran alongside the Women's Twenty20 Cup.