The 2013 County Championship is almost upon us.

Hertfordshire open their Bill Beaumont Cup defence with a visit to Kent, who have been promoted from Division Two South.
Their strong squad which won the title for the first time last year will be looking to repeat their Twickenham success, when they beat Lancashire, who themselves were looking for a fourth consecutive title.

The elongated winter has seen a backlog of fixtures accross the National Leagues, with the 4 May seeing an almost full programme of fixtures clashing with the first weekend of the Bill Beaumont Cup fixtures, while 11 May sees a further five league fixtures rescheduled.

The importance of the County Championship will be diminished even further as a result of this, and with four Yorkshire sides in action on 11 May, it will be interesting to see what squad is prepared for the White Rose visit to Fylde for their clash against old enemies Lancashire.

For followers of the traditional county game, the month of May will whet the appetite, so here's to another great competition.

This Sunday sees a repeat of last years' County Championship final match, as defending champions Lancashire take on Hertfordshire once more.

The southern side qualified at the expense of a Gloucestershire side who beat them by a two point margin last Saturday, but the bonus points earned over the course of the three match group games earned them their place at Twickenham.

Lancashire meanwhile were made to sweat, as Cheshire took them almost to the wire at Broughton Park. In the end, a 36-29 win saw them through, and they now aim to become the first county since Gloucestershire in the 1960s to win the tournament four years on the trot.

Hertfordshire, coached by Paul Turner, have been bolstered this season by the inclusion of Saracens squad players, including Joel Tomkins, who made the switch from Super League to Premiership in November 2011, after his signing from Wigan Warriors.

Another Saracens player who will be more familiar to the Red rose side is Petrus du Plessis. 'Para' won a Bill Beaumont Cup winners medal in 2009 as a prop in the Lancashire side who swept aside Gloucestershire, before his move to the Vicarage Road club.

Lancashire will be without their squad captain Louis McGowan, who missed the Cheshire game thanks to a ruptured appendix. As well as missing out on Twickenham this weekend, McGowan misses out on the England Counties tour to Africa next month. the lock played for the Counties side earlier this season at Preston against the Irreland Club XV, scoring the opening try of the game.

The game kicks off at 11am on Sunday, as the precursor to England v Barbarians, which is then followed by the County Championship Shield Final, between Surrey and Leicestershire.

Yesterday's first round fixtures threw up some interesting results, not least in the North Division One.

A late Jack Moorhouse try at Macclesfield saw Cheshire send Yorkshire home with an opening defeat, while reigning champions Lancashire left it late to defeat a Northumberland side who were up for the fight, and were looking good for their lead, until two late scores by the home side.

In the South Division One, last season's beaten finalists Hertfordshire overcame North Midlands convincingly, while the traditional southern giants of Cornwall and Gloucestershire met at Redruth, with the home side edging out Gloucestershire.

In the Shield competition, Staffordshire managed a win over Notts, Lincs & Derbys, salvaging some pride after last week's heavy defeat to Cumbria in Pool One.

Leicestershire recorded their second win on the bounce, winning convincingly at home to Buckinghamshire, while East Midlands are left propping up Pool Two after their defeat at Essex.

It is all to play for in Pool Three, as Berkshire overcame Oxfordshire, while in Pool Four, both Middlesex and Surrey won their second games, beating Sussex and Hampshire respectively.

Previews of the next round of games will appear during the week. In the meantime, I hope that you enjoy coming to the site, and that you will return to keep up with the latest news.

Please feel free to use the Comments page to let me have any news of interest for your county side.

Cheers
Peter

Well, it is the night before the first round of games in this year's Bill Beaumont Cup, and team news is being posted online. Some counties are easier to find information on than others, but as soon as the whistle goes tomorrow round the grounds, it will be all about who can get the ball rolling on the road to Twickenham on the 27th May.

I managed to grab a quick chat with Hertfordshire's head coach Paul Turner today, to get his thoughts on the rise of rugby in the county, following their appearance in the final last year, and the National League Two South title-winning campaign of Old Albanians.

You can read that here.

So who will be top dogs tomorrow? Can the newcomers to the Division One groups, North Midlands and Northumberland make their mark in what are traditionally tough groups to stay in?

Get along to see your county play, and support the players who put their heart and soul into the game throughout the year, week in, week out.

Enjoy your rugby, wherever it may be.

Round one of the Shield has been played, and this Saturday sees the first games in the Bill Beaumont Cup.

Looking at the problems encountered by Staffordshire for their game at Cumbria, county selectors are very much up against it in terms of getting the players they need for the tournament. Not only are players mentally and physically drained after the end of their club season, often the start of the competition clashes with rearranged league fixtures.

So it proved with Staffs. Only being able to take 17 players to Workington as a result of losing Stoke players who had to play a rearranged league fxture, meant that the squad were on a hiding to nothing before kick-off, and so it proved.

A 76-3 loss was the outcome - the side will need to regroup before this Saturday's match at Longton against Notts, Lincs, and Derbys.

On to the Bill Beaumont Cup - reigning champions Lancashire begin their defence against Northumberland at Vale of Lune on Saturday - the last time these sides met in Lancashire was in 2009, when the Red Rose county demolished North by 11 tries to two in a 80-12 romp.

Lancashire head coach Mark Nelson is cautious as always before a BB Cup campaign, wanting to ensure his side remain in Division One. These groups are always so tight, and any one of either Lancashire, Yorkshire, or Cheshire could go to the final from the north - Northumberland, in the first year back in the top-flight, may find it too much of an ask.

The other fixture sees Cheshire host Yorkshire at Macclesfield. The home side will be missing their Caldy contingent, due to their National League Two play-off fixture, while Yorkshire can count on players from Championship sides Leeds, Rotherham and Doncaster for the tournament.

The southern Division One group features last year's surprise beaten finalists Hertfordshire taking on North Midlands at Old Albanians, home of coach James Shanahan. The other fixture is Cornwall v Gloucestershire at Redruth, the venue of Hertfordshire's first ever victory over Cornwall last year, as they marched to Twickenham.

Results of all this weekend's fixtures and reactions will be posted as they come in.

Hi. I've set up this website as part of a university project.

I'm coming to the end of a Sports Journalism degree course at the University of Central Lancashire, am a follower of club rugby, and a reporter on National League one fixtures for The Rugby Paper.

Many of the players that I have seen over the course of the 2011/12 season will be taking part in this season's County Championship, and playing for a place in the England Counties squad to visit Africa this summer.

I have followed Lancashire's hat-trick of Bill Beaumont title wins from 2009-2011, reporting live from Twickenham last year for the Lancashire website.

The County Championship is one of the great rugby traditions, and having seen forum posts on Rolling Maul, I know that there must be a great deal more rugby followers who also have an interest in their county's fortunes each season.

Trying to keep abreast of the county results, and relevant information is difficult, and anyone who has used the RFU's results section knows how difficult it is to see every result in the one easy to use website - well hopefully here it is!

As well as being the place to see all the results, as a bit of a history geek as well, I'm going to use the site to archive material relating to the history of the Championship - therefore if anyone has any interesting information that they would be willing to share, please use the Contact page to get in touch.

The site has to be up and running fully by the 11th May for the project to be marked, and I am under instructions from the university that it should remain 'as is' until it is marked, so I would ask you to be patient initially if you don't see updated results from then for a few days or so.

In the meantime though, I hope that you will enjoy what you see, and spread the word.

Cheers
Peter