Packed season of county cricket

A BUSY season of county cricket lies ahead for Berkshire with both T20 and National Counties competitions set to start soon.

Hertfordshire will make a belated start to the defence of their National Counties T20 title when they travel to Grantham to play Lincolnshire in their opening Group Three double-header on Sunday. April 17.

Hertfordshire beat Dorset by nine wickets in the 2019 final — then the Minor Counties T20 — to lift their first trophy in 29 years but have had to wait three years to defend the title because COVID-19 forced both the 2020 and 2021 tournaments to be cancelled.

The T20 competition returns this year and will launch a busy season for the 20 National Counties which will be followed by the 50 overs National Counties Trophy and the three-day National Counties Championship.

This year the T20 Finals Day will be staged at Tring Park in Hertfordshire — the venue for last year’s National Counties Championship final — on May 22.

The National Counties Trophy will start on May 29 with the final again at Wormsley on August 28.

The championship season opens on July 3 with this season’s four-day final being staged at West Bromwich Dartmouth’s Sandwell Park ground.

Berkshire will begin their defence of the trophy, which they won by beating Cumbria in last season’s final, with a Group Two match against Devon at Henley on May 29.

Oxfordshire, who denied Berkshire a record fifth straight championship title last season, begin their attempt to retain the three-day crown with a trip to Alderley Edge to face Cheshire in their opening Division One West match from July 3 to 5.

Wales NC will stage county cricket on two new grounds, Bangor and Llandysul. Bangor’s Ty Newydd ground will be the venue for Wales’ opening T20 match against Bedfordshire on April 17 with Llandysul’s Tir Dref ground hosting the Trophy match against Wiltshire on June 19. Bangor was scheduled to stage Wales’ Championship match against Shropshire in 2020 but the competition was cancelled because of covid.

Northumberland will also break new ground by staging a match at Allendale’s Riding Haugh ground near Hexham for the first time.

Haileybury College near Hertford will also stage National Counties cricket for the first time with Hertfordshire hosting Norfolk on April 24. Lincolnshire will be the visitors for a trophy match on June 5.

Staffordshire will return to Porthill Park for the first time since 2004 for their T20 opener against Northumberland on April 17.

There will be the rare occurrence of two championship matches taking place in the same county at the same time in August when Hertfordshire host Northumberland at Hertford while 30 miles across the county Buckinghamshire use at Tring Park as a home venue for the other Eastern Division Two matches against Cambridgeshire.