Division 1 GC Counties

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Nottinghamshire team Will Gee, Ian Burridge, James Death, Rachel Gee

Nottinghamshire were worthy winners of Division 1 of the GC Inter-County Championship at Cheltenham on 20-21 August, winning 10/11 matches and dropping only 7 of their 33 games over the course of the weekend. The only match they lost was against Yorkshire & Durham in the final round, but the title was in their hands by that stage, so perhaps they dropped their guard somewhat (although I'm sure Y&D will tell you otherwise).

Notts - the 2021 winners - were the strong ante-post favourites with two -4 and two -3 players (Rachel Gee, James Death, Will Gee, Ian Burridge), but the Yorkshire & Durham team (Richard Bilton, Richard M Smith, Robert Wilkinson, Callum Johnson, Stuart Smith) kept pace with them throughout the first day; both teams won all six of their matches and we looked set fair for an intriguing second day. However, things changed early on Sunday when Y&D suffered two defeats in fairly quick succession, first to Essex in Round 7 and then to Dorset in Round 9. This left Notts, who had maintained their 100% record, in an unassailable lead before the final two rounds.

In the end, Y&D were comfortably 2^nd overall with 9/11 match wins (and some bragging rights following their final round win against Notts), followed by Dorset (7/11), Northamptonshire (6/11) and Hertfordshire (6/11). Herts were placed below Northants on net games.

At the foot of the table, four teams (Essex, Glamorgan, Oxfordshire and Surrey) were battling to stay out of the relegation zone in their final few matches on Sunday. Following some tense games, it was Essex (4/11) and Surrey (3/11) who managed to stay up, leaving Oxfordshire (3/11, with the same net games as Surrey, but placed 11^th due to their match loss to Surrey) and Glamorgan (2/11) in the bottom two slots. They will join Division 2 in 2023.

The GC Inter-County Cup was presented to Nottinghamshire by Andrew Hope. Cheltenham CC and their team of helpers were warmly thanked by Ian Burridge for all their efforts before and during the event, and for their excellent hospitality.

The Divisions are back in Cheltenham (Div 1) and Sussex CCC (Div 2) for a second year in 2023 before switching in 2024.

The detailed results can be found on Croquet Scores here:

Div 1 Block: https://croquetscores.com/2022/gc/inter-county-championship-blocks/division-1

Div 2 Block: https://croquetscores.com/2022/gc/inter-county-championship-blocks/division-2

Div 1 Matches: https://croquetscores.com/2022/gc/inter-county-championship-tests/division-1

Div 2 Matches: https://croquetscores.com/2022/gc/inter-county-championship-tests/division-2