New backers for three-day National Counties Championship | Cluberly step in as title sponsors | Charitable element part of new agreement
Above: Flashback to 1978 and Devon’s dressing-room celebrations after drawing with Durham at Exeter to claim the Minor Counties Championship for the first time. Left to right are: Bob Harriott, Martyn Goulding, Eddie Picton, Barrie Matthews, Doug Yeabsley, Ray Tolchard (obscured), Geoff Evans, John Tolliday, Ian Roberts, Gary Wallen, John Gerrard (12th man) and Keith Benton
THE National Counties Championship will have a new title sponsor when this year’s competition gets under way tomorrow (Sunday, July 20).
Cluberly, the first savings app dedicated to sports fans, are backing the three-day competition, which was first contested 130 years ago.
The competition will be known as the NCCA Cluberly Championship with the 20 National Counties competing in four divisions – two each in the Eastern and Western Divisions – with a one-up and one-down promotion and relegation at the end of the season.
As well as providing a straightforward solution to savings and investment, Cluberly also commit to donating 50 per cent of their fees to a club, charity or school nominated by each of their clients.
“We are delighted to welcome Cluberly as the new sponsor of the NCCA Championship and we thank them for their generosity in supporting the three-day competition,” said Richard Logan, NCCA’s operations director.
“We look forward to a successful partnership which links between a historic cricket competition and a new and innovative app which can also have financial benefits for cricket clubs.”
Berkshire and Staffordshire who won the respective divisions last year, will start the season as joint champions after last September’s four-day final ended in a rain-affected draw at West Bromwich Dartmouth.
Staffordshire are the most successful county in the history of the Championship with 12 outright titles and two shared. Berkshire have won the competition outright nine times with one shared with all but three of those successes coming this century.
Devon first won the outright title in 1978 under the captaincy of Barrie Matthews. Seven more title win have followed in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2004 (joint with Bedfordshire), 2006, 2011. Devon were the first county to win four successive titles (94-97), a record since equalled by Berkshire (2016-19).
