Second Class Counties Match List
The aim of this project is, in time, to produce a comprehensive list of all matches considered to be representative second class county matches.
Minor County Championship matches not between two first-class county second elevens would automatically be classified.
Other matches of two or more days duration should be considered, but opponents of a minor county must be of "sufficient" quality for the match to be accepted.
We need volunteers to help research these matches - on-line, in books, in newspapers.
We also need people to help in looking at matches and determining their classification.
We have added the first pass of 1894, 1895 and 1896 - taken from CricketArchive - but more research is needed on these seasons too.
If you think that you can help please contact us before you start - we don't want too much duplication of effort.
Follow this spreadsheet link to see the spreadsheet we used to create the 1895 list.
Criteria: The following are some of the things that others have said they used when ranking matches for individual counties. It is not meant to be an exclusive list, but a set of general guidelines.
- Who captained the team – normal captain or not.
- Is team made up of regular first team players.
- What did local newspaper give as the team name - Wiltshire between 1950-70 played many matches which their opponents classed as just Wiltshire but newspapers sometimes showed as Wiltshire Club and Ground.
- How did the county handbook, where available, designate the match.
- Look at 'Gentlemen of XXX' matches - often full county sides without the professionals
- Match against club or named team - look at how strong the team was - number of first-class players, for example