COUNTY CLASSIFICATION.
A SPECIAL MEETING of county secretaries, called together by Yorkshire to discuss the subject of county classification, was held in the Pavilion at Lord’s on Tuesday, the 1st of May, 1894. Mr. H. Perkins occupied the chair, and there were present—Mr. M. J. Ellison and Lord Hawke (Yorkshire), Messrs. W. E. Denison and C. W. Wright (Notts), Mr. A. J. Webbe (Middlesex), Mr. F. Marchant and Mr. A. J. Lancaster (Kent), Mr. C. W. Alcock (Surrey), Messrs. W. Newham and W. L. Murdoch (Sussex), Messrs. H. Murray-Anderdon and S. M. J. Woods (Somerset), Messrs. H. W. Bainbridge and W. E. Ansell (Warwickshire), Mr. W. Barclay-Delacombe (Derbyshire), Messrs. T. Burdett and G. W. Hillyard (Leicestershire), Dr. Russell Bencraft (Hampshire), and Messrs. C. E. Green and O. R. Borradaile (Essex). The meeting was a private one, but the following details were officially communicated to the Press:—
The original proposition by Mr. Ellison, on behalf of Yorkshire, “That for the purpose of classification there should be no distinction drawn between counties who play out and home three-day matches with not less than six other counties,” was seconded by Mr. Hillyard, and then withdrawn in favour of the following amendment:—Proposed by Mr. Denison and seconded by Mr. Murray-Anderdon, “That the M.C.C. be requested to consider and advise upon the whole question of classification of counties.” This was carried unanimously.
It was also made known that, as the result of a meeting of the various captains of the first-class counties, Lord Hawke had sent in the following resolution signed by himself and Messrs. J. Shuter (Surrey), S. M. J. Woods (Somerset), J. A. Dixon (Notts), F. Marchant (Kent), W. L. Murdoch (Sussex), A. J. Webbe (Middlesex), A. N. Hornby (Lancashire), and W. G. Grace (Gloucestershire):—“That the matches played by the following four counties, Derbyshire, Essex, Leicestershire, and Warwickshire, against the counties at present styled first-class, and also against one another and against the M.C.C., should be regarded as first-class matches, and the records of the players engaged in these matches shall be included in the list of first-class averages.” Lord Hawke’s resolution was afterwards formally ratified by the committee of the Marylebone Club.
On the 20th of October the Committee of the M.C.C., to whom, as stated above, the whole question of the classification of counties had been referred, made public the following scheme:—
Lord’s Ground, N.W., October, 1894.
The Committee of M.C.C. having, at the request of the leading counties, prepared a scheme for regulating the county championship, and that scheme having met with the approval of counties concerned, the contest for the championship will in future be regulated by it. The scheme as finally approved is as follows:—
CLASSIFICATION OF COUNTIES.
Cricketing counties shall be considered as belonging to first-class or not. There is no necessity for further sub-division.
First-class counties are those whose matches, with one another, with 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.