County Championship 2026 Fixtures: Full Season Guide

The county championship 2026 fixtures run from Friday 3 April to Sunday 27 September, across sixteen scheduled rounds, with every county playing fourteen four-day matches. Division One holds ten counties and Division Two eight, exactly as in 2025, after counties voted down a proposal to cut the programme to thirteen games. That gives 126 first-class matches in all — seventy in the top flight, fifty-six in the second. The season is not evenly spread: seven rounds are crammed into April and the first half of May, a short midsummer block follows in June, and then the competition disappears entirely for the T20 Blast and The Hundred before returning on Thursday 20 August for a six-round run to the finish.

If you are planning a day out, that shape is the single most useful thing to know. Championship cricket in this country is a spring and autumn game with a June cameo, and the weather you get in Round 3 at Chester-le-Street bears no resemblance to the weather in Round 12 at Taunton.

How the 2026 season is blocked out

The schedule divides into three distinct chunks. Understanding them saves you searching for a fixture in a month when nobody is playing.

Block	Rounds	Window	What is going on
Spring	1–7	Fri 3 April – Fri 15 May	Seven rounds in six weeks, seaming pitches, low scores
Midsummer	8–10	Sun 7 June – Fri 19 June	A short return, including a standalone Round 8
Autumn	11–16	Thu 20 August – Thu 24 September	Six rounds that decide the title and both relegation places

Round 8 is the oddity — a single fixture on Sunday 7 June, Surrey against Hampshire at the Kia Oval, rather than a full programme. Everything else runs as a conventional round with matches beginning on the same day, usually a Friday in the spring and a Thursday in the autumn.

Because each county plays fourteen matches across sixteen rounds, every side sits out two rounds. Those byes are not distributed evenly, so it is entirely normal for your county to have a fortnight without a Championship game while three of their rivals play twice. When you are reading a points table in early September, always check the played column before you panic.

Start times, ticketing and what a day actually costs

Championship days normally begin at 11:00 BST, with 96 overs scheduled and close at around 18:00 or when the overs run out. Late-September rounds and any match with a genuine light problem often move to a 10:30 start; the county's own site is the only reliable source for that on the morning of a match, and it does change at short notice.

Members get in free — that is what membership is for, and at most counties an annual membership costs roughly what four or five Championship day tickets would. Non-members can generally pay on the gate for a Championship day, which is one of the few things in British sport you can still do without booking. Prices vary by county and by ground, so check with the club rather than trusting a figure you read on a forum; several counties also let under-16s in free with a paying adult, and a handful admit them free full stop.

Do not expect the ticketing pattern of a Test or a Hundred fixture. There is no general sale date, no queue, no dynamic pricing. Turn up at Wantage Road on a Tuesday in April and there will be a gate, a person at the gate, and space in the car park.

Every county and where they play

There are eighteen first-class counties, and the county championship 2026 fixtures are played at their headquarters plus a scattering of out-grounds. Ground sponsor names change every couple of years; the traditional name in brackets is what locals and taxi drivers actually use.

County	Division	Home ground	City / town	Nearest station
Derbyshire	Two	Incora County Ground	Derby	Derby
Durham	Two	Seat Unique Riverside	Chester-le-Street, County Durham	Chester-le-Street
Essex	One	Cloudfm County Ground	Chelmsford	Chelmsford
Glamorgan	One	Sophia Gardens	Cardiff	Cardiff Central
Gloucestershire	Two	Seat Unique Stadium (Nevil Road)	Bristol	Bristol Parkway / Temple Meads
Hampshire	One	Utilita Bowl	West End, Southampton	Hedge End (shuttle)
Kent	Two	Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence	Canterbury	Canterbury East / West
Lancashire	Two	Emirates Old Trafford	Manchester	Old Trafford (Metrolink)
Leicestershire	One	Uptonsteel County Ground (Grace Road)	Leicester	Leicester
Middlesex	Two	Lord's	St John's Wood, London	St John's Wood
Northamptonshire	Two	The County Ground (Wantage Road)	Northampton	Northampton
Nottinghamshire	One	Trent Bridge	West Bridgford, Nottingham	Nottingham
Somerset	One	Cooper Associates County Ground	Taunton	Taunton
Surrey	One	The Kia Oval	Kennington, London	Oval / Vauxhall
Sussex	One	The Central County Ground	Hove	Hove
Warwickshire	One	Edgbaston	Birmingham	Birmingham New Street
Worcestershire	Two	New Road	Worcester	Worcester Foregate Street
Yorkshire	One	Headingley	Leeds	Headingley / Burley Park

Middlesex are the awkward case. Lord's belongs to MCC, not to the county, so Middlesex play a chunk of their home Championship programme at Lord's and take the rest to Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood or to Radlett in Hertfordshire, depending on the year and on what else is booked into St John's Wood. Always check the venue line on a Middlesex fixture rather than assuming Lord's.

Out-grounds worth building a day around

The festival tradition is thinner than it was, but it has not died. Lancashire take Championship cricket to Southport in May and Blackpool in June in 2026 — Emirates Old Trafford is a fine stadium and Stanley Park is a fine day out, and they are not remotely the same experience. Sussex still play at Eastbourne in some seasons, Kent at Tunbridge Wells when the rhododendrons behave, Yorkshire at Scarborough for the North Marine Road festival, and Gloucestershire at Cheltenham College. Northamptonshire, Essex and Somerset have all used secondary venues in recent seasons.

Out-ground fixtures sell out far more often than headquarters matches, temporary seating is limited, and parking is usually residential and awkward. If a festival week is the day you want, treat it as the one Championship fixture worth booking in advance and take the train.

Following the fixtures if you cannot get there

Every county streams its home Championship matches free, with commentary, through the ECB's video platform and the county's own site and app. That has been the arrangement for several seasons now and it is the single biggest change to how the competition is consumed. BBC local radio carries ball-by-ball commentary for its county — Radio Nottingham for Trent Bridge, Radio Leeds for Headingley, and so on — and those streams are on BBC Sounds. Our guide to watching county cricket in the UK sets out the options in more detail, alongside the wider UK viewing picture for the international summer.

For scores, the ECB's own tables and Cricinfo's scorecards update live. Confirm anything time-sensitive — a start time, a venue switch, a washed-out rearrangement — with the county rather than a third-party listing, because the listings lag.

Where the fixtures sat in mid-August 2026

After the June block, with eight matches played by every county, the standings looked like this. Treat it as a snapshot from the start of the autumn run, not a final table — six rounds remained, and points deductions had already reshaped the picture.

Division One	Pld	Pts		Division Two	Pld	Pts
Nottinghamshire	8	116		Durham	8	149
Somerset	8	111		Kent	8	117
Warwickshire	8	111		Northamptonshire	8	115
Glamorgan	8	107		Middlesex	8	99
Sussex	8	105		Derbyshire	8	99
Essex	8	105		Worcestershire	8	95
Surrey	8	91		Lancashire	8	81
Yorkshire	8	89		Gloucestershire	8	38
Hampshire	8	72
Leicestershire	8	72

Several counties were carrying deductions at that point, which is why raw points and matches won do not always line up. The live table on the ECB site is the authority; check it before you draw conclusions about who is going down.

Why the calendar looks the way it does

The gap from late June to late August is not an accident and it is not popular. It exists because the T20 Blast group stage and then The Hundred occupy high summer, and the ECB will not run its flagship first-class competition against its flagship crowd-pullers. The consequence is a first-class season played largely in conditions that reward seam bowling and punish batters — which is precisely the criticism made by everyone who wants England's Test batters prepared for flat pitches abroad.

Counties have argued about this for a decade. The 2026 vote to keep fourteen games rather than move to thirteen was the latest round of that argument, and it will not be the last. The County Championship explained guide goes into the history of the format changes, and English domestic cricket structure shows how the Championship sits alongside the T20 Blast, the One-Day Cup and The Hundred.

Frequently asked questions

When do the County Championship 2026 fixtures start and finish?

The season opened on Friday 3 April and the final round begins on Thursday 24 September, finishing on Sunday 27 September. Sixteen rounds are scheduled in total.

How many games does each county play in 2026?

Fourteen four-day matches each, in both divisions. Division One's ten counties produce seventy matches and Division Two's eight produce fifty-six, for 126 in all. Every county has two bye rounds.

Why is there no County Championship cricket in July?

July belongs to the T20 Blast and The Hundred. The Championship pauses after the June block and returns on 20 August. It is the most criticised feature of the English calendar and the reason so much four-day cricket is played in cold, seam-friendly conditions.

What time does a County Championship day start?

Usually 11:00 BST, with 96 overs scheduled. Late-season rounds often begin at 10:30 to get the overs in before the light goes. Check the county's site on the morning of the match.

Do I need to buy tickets in advance for county cricket?

For a normal Championship day at a county's headquarters, no — you can pay on the gate. Festival weeks at out-grounds such as Scarborough, Cheltenham or Blackpool are the exception and do sell out.

Where can I watch the fixtures for free?

Counties stream all home Championship matches free with commentary via the ECB platform and their own apps, and BBC local radio covers its county ball by ball on BBC Sounds.

Planning the rest of the season

If you are picking one Championship day out of the county championship 2026 fixtures, take the autumn block. Rounds 11 to 16 carry the title, both promotion places and both relegation places, the crowds are bigger than in April, and the cricket has consequences. For who is fighting for what, read our guides to the Division One 2026 line-up and the Division Two 2026 line-up, and to the promotion and relegation rules that decide it.

More on the wider English game sits in the England cricket hub, the cricket in England section, our grounds guide and the story of how the England team got here. For the fixture that still empties the county grounds of their best players, see The Ashes.