James Lillywhite's Cricketers' Annual 1895

C L A S S I F I C A T I O N O F C O U N T I E S . The following scheme was approved by the Marylebone Club after consultation with the various counties , and issued October 20th, 1894 :- Cricketing counties shall be considered as belonging to the first class or not. There is no necessity for further sub-division . First -class counties are those whose matches with one another , with the M.C.C. and Ground, with the Universities , with the Australians , and such other elevens as shall be adjudged " first -class matches ," by the M.C.C. committee , are used in compilation of first -class batting and bowling averages . Thereshall be no limit to the numberof first -class counties . The М.С.С. committee maybring new counties into the list , mayremove existing ones from it , orm a ydoboth. T h elist for 1895 is as follows :- Derbyshire E s s e x Gloucestershire Hampshire K e n t Lancashire Leicestershire M i d d l e s e x Nottingham S o m e r s e t Surrey S u s s e x W a r w i c k s h i r e Yorkshire T H EC O U N T YC H A M P I O N S H I P . After the close of each cricket season , the committee of the M.C.C. shall decide the county championship . It shall be competed for by first -class counties . No county shall be eligible unless it shall have played at least eight out and homematches with other counties ; provided , that if no play can take place owing to weather , or other unavoidable cause , such match shall be reckoned as unfinished . Onepoint shall be reckoned for each win, one deducted for each loss ; unfinished games shall not be reckoned . The county which , during the season , shall have , in finished matches , obtained the greatest proportionate number of points , shall be reckoned champion county .