 | |
| Countries | England and Wales |
|---|---|
| Administrator | England and Wales Cricket Board |
| Format | List A cricket |
| First edition | 1963 |
| Latest edition | 2009 |
| Number of teams | 20 |
| Current champion | Hampshire |
| Most successful | Lancashire(7 titles) |
TheFriends Provident Trophy was aone-day cricket competition in the British Isles.
It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteenfirst-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams fromScotland andIreland.Lancashire won the title a record seven times.
The competition was previously known as theGillette Cup (1963–1980), theNatWest Trophy (1981–2000), and theC&G Trophy (2000–2006). For a short period following the 2006 season, the competition was known as theECB One-Day Trophy because no sponsors were forthcoming whenCheltenham and Gloucester decided to end their association with the competition after the 2006 season. The tournament, along with thePro40 forty-overs competition, was replaced by theECB 40 competition from the 2010 season.
It was the first top-levelone-day competition to be introduced in English and Welsh cricket, amid concern about falling attendances atCounty Championship matches in the early 1960s.
The competition was based on the Midlands Counties Knockout Cup experiment of 1962, whenDerbyshire,Leicestershire,Northamptonshire andNottinghamshire played one-innings-a-side matches which each lasted one day. The MCC decided to hold a limited-overs competition (65 overs-a-side) the following year for all first-class counties, sponsored by American safety razor companyGillette. The original title was "The First Class Knock Out Competition for the Gillette Cup".[1]
The first match (which was also retrospectively identified as the firstList A cricket match after that designation was developed), was a Preliminary Round match on 1 May 1963 atOld Trafford, Manchester withLancashire facingLeicestershire. The match ended up lasting two days due to rain.Peter Marner scored the first century andBrian Statham was the first bowler to take 5 wickets in a match.
Sussex were the first winners of the Gillette Cup, beatingWorcestershire in the final atLord's.Norman Gifford was the first "Man of the Match" for a final.
In the inaugural season, the matches were 65overs per side, with a bowler bowling a maximum of 15 overs.[citation needed] In 1964, this was reduced to 60 overs with a bowler bowling a maximum of 13.[citation needed] For the 1966 competition until 1998, the maximum was 12.[citation needed]
Minor Counties teams first competed in the 1964 season. The competition has been seen as a cricketing version of football'sFA Cup (it being said that "theB&H was always theLeague Cup final to the Gillette/NatWest'sFA Cup"),[2] with Minor Counties,Ireland andScotland playing against the First Class Counties in the first round. Most of the time, the established teams beat the part-timers, but very occasionally, favored teams would lose. Between 1963 and 2005, there were 15 upsets, including:Durham (at that time still a minor county), the first in 1973, versusYorkshire;Hertfordshire, on two occasions, beatingEssex in 1976 and winning a bowl-out versusDerbyshire in 1991; andHerefordshire overcoming aMiddlesex side featuringAndrew Strauss in 2001.[3] However, the majority of the time, the first round was an opportunity for county sides to put up very high scores against or easily bowl out Minor Counties opposition.
One of the most famous matches in the competition was the 1971 Gillette Cup semi-final atOld Trafford, withDavid Hughes ofLancashire coming out to bat at 8:45 pm (before any floodlights) and scoring 24 in one over to beatGloucestershire. That Lancashire team won the tournament three seasons in a row from 1970 to 1972.[citation needed]
In June 1973, Durham became the first minor county to defeat a first-class county in the competition, when they beat Yorkshire by six wickets in round one. They then became the first minor county to defeat two first class counties, when they defeated Derbyshire at the same stage in 1985. This was the catalyst for the successful campaign that saw Durham gain first-class status in 1991.[citation needed]
In 1981, theNational Westminster Bank took over the sponsorship of the competition from Gillette. That year's final finished in a tie, with both sides scoring 235.Derbyshire claimed the trophy fromNorthamptonshire by losing fewer wickets (Derbyshire 6 to Northants 9).[citation needed]
Other last-ball finishes in the final occurred in 1984 whenMiddlesex beatKent,[citation needed] in 1985 whenEssex beatNottinghamshire,[4] and in 1993 whenWarwickshire beatSussex.[citation needed] There was a notable finish too in 1987 whenNottinghamshire's unlikely victory overNorthamptonshire was engineered byRichard Hadlee in his last season with the county.[citation needed]
The tournament was always the more prestigious of the two "full length" one-day cup competitions.[citation needed] The other was theBenson & Hedges Cup, which was abolished in 2002 and replaced with theTwenty20 Cup. At a time when county cricketers' exposure on television was limited, the final of the Gillette Cup/NatWest Bank Trophy was a relatively high-profile opportunity for some to make a case for national selection, especially as it often fell in early September, just before the announcement of anEngland winter tour party. Thus strong performances byRoland Butcher in the 1980 final,[5] andGeoff Cook in 1981, may have assisted their subsequent selection andTest debuts.[citation needed] The strong performances of then young cricketersAngus Fraser andMark Ramprakash forMiddlesex in 1988 certainly raised their profiles.[6] Conversely, surprise was expressed in 1990 whenPhillip DeFreitas was initially overlooked for selection for the winterAshes series, it being suggested at the time that he "surely booked his place on England's winter tour of Australia with an astonishing eight-over opening burst, which reducedNorthants to an unbelievable 39 for five" in the final.[7]
Other notable individual performances included a brisk out-of-character century byGeoff Boycott in the 1965 final, and the domination of the 1979 final by theWest Indies pairViv Richards andJoel Garner, who helpedSomerset to their first major trophy a few months after helping West Indies to win theWorld Cup, also atLord's.[8] Another West Indies international,Alvin Kallicharran, completed the first double century in the tournament in 1984, in a tie in which he remarkably also took six wickets.[9]
The necessity of aiming to complete a scheduled 120 overs in a day (130 when the tournament began) necessitated some early starts. End of season early-morning conditions by the time of the final often favoured the team fielding first, who usually triumphed in the 1980s and 1990s. A rare exception occurred in 1996, whenLancashire bowlersGlen Chapple andPeter Martin triggered a remarkable collapse byEssex.[10]
In 1999, the number of overs was cut to 50 per side to give English and Welsh cricketers more experience of playing matches the same length asOne Day Internationals.[citation needed] In line with One Day International cricket, teams played in coloured clothing from 2005.[citation needed]
The competition was revised into aleague format from 2006. The eighteen English and Welsh first-class sides, plus Scotland and Ireland, were split into two groups of ten by geographical location known as the North and South Conferences. Matches were 50 overs per side, gaining two points for a win, one point for ano result and no points for a loss. Once the league positions were decided, the top teams from each Conference competed for the trophy in a final atLord's. In the 2007 season this involved a semi-final knock-out stage, the winner in each conference playing the runners-up in the other.
The league structure was revised in 2008 as the twenty teams were split into four groups of five. Each team plays the other in the group home once and away once, with the top 2 counties in the group going into the quarter-finals.[11]
The competition was played in the first half of the cricket season with the final taking place in August. The other main domestic one-day competition, theNatwest Pro40 League (formerly "Sunday League"), was latterly played during the second half of the season.
In August 2009, the ECB announced that from 2010 there would be one 40-overs per innings tournament replacing both thePro40 and the Friends Provident Trophy. This along with theEnglish County Championship and theFriends Provident t20 (a revised form of the Twenty20 Cup), would be English cricket's three domestic competitions.[12]
Gillette Cup
| Year | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Result | Runner-up | |
| 1963 Details 65 overs max | Sussex 168 (60.2 overs) | Sussex won by 14 runs[1] | Worcestershire 154 (63.2 overs) |
| 1964 Details 60 overs max | Sussex 131 for 2 (41.2 overs) | Sussex won by 8 wickets[2] | Warwickshire 127 (48 overs) |
| 1965 Details 60 overs max | Yorkshire 317 for 4 (60 overs) | Yorkshire won by 175 runs[3] | Surrey 142 (40.4 overs) |
| 1966 Details 60 overs max | Warwickshire 159 for 5 (56.4 overs) | Warwickshire won by 5 wickets[4] | Worcestershire 155 for 8 (60 overs) |
| 1967 Details 60 overs max | Kent 193 (59.4 overs) | Kent won by 32 runs[5] | Somerset 161 (54.5 overs) |
| 1968 Details 60 overs max | Warwickshire 215 for 6 (57 overs) | Warwickshire won by 4 wickets[6] | Sussex 214 for 7 (60 overs) |
| 1969 Details 60 overs max | Yorkshire 219 for 8 (60 overs) | Yorkshire won by 69 runs[7] | Derbyshire 150 (54.4 overs) |
| 1970 Details 60 overs max | Lancashire 185 for 4 (55.1 overs) | Lancashire won by 6 wickets[8] | Sussex 184 for 9 (60 overs) |
| 1971 Details 60 overs max | Lancashire 224 for 7 (60 overs) | Lancashire won by 24 runs[9] | Kent 200 (56.2 overs) |
| 1972 Details 60 overs max | Lancashire 235 for 6 (56.4 overs) | Lancashire won by 4 wickets[10] | Warwickshire 234 for 9 (60 overs) |
| 1973 Details 60 overs max | Gloucestershire 248 for 8 (60 overs) | Gloucestershire won by 40 runs[11] | Sussex 208 (56.5 overs) |
| 1974 Details 60 overs max | Kent 122 for 6 (46.5 overs) | Kent won by 4 wickets[12] | Lancashire 118 (60 overs) |
| 1975 Details 60 overs max | Lancashire 182 for 3 (57 overs) | Lancashire won by 7 wickets[13] | Middlesex 180 for 8 (60 overs) |
| 1976 Details 60 overs max | Northamptonshire 199 for 6 (58.1 overs) | Northamptonshire won by 4 wickets[14] | Lancashire 195 for 7 (60 overs) |
| 1977 Details 60 overs max | Middlesex 178 for 5 (55.4 overs) | Middlesex won by 5 wickets[15] | Glamorgan 177 for 9 (60 overs) |
| 1978 Details 60 overs max | Sussex 211 for 5 (53.1 overs) | Sussex won by 5 wickets[16] | Somerset 207 for 7 (60 overs) |
| 1979 Details 60 overs max | Somerset 269 for 8 (60 overs) | Somerset won by 45 runs[17] | Northamptonshire 224 (56.3 overs) |
| 1980 Details 60 overs max | Middlesex 202 for 3 (53.5 overs) | Middlesex won by 7 wickets[18] | Surrey 201 (60 overs) |
NatWest Trophy
| Year | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Result | Runner-up | |
| 1981 Details 60 overs max | Derbyshire 235 for 6 (60 overs) | Match tied[19] Derbyshire won having lost fewer wickets | Northamptonshire 235 for 9 (60 overs) |
| 1982 Details 60 overs max | Surrey 159 for 1 (33.4 overs) | Surrey won by 9 wickets[20] | Warwickshire 158 (57.2 overs) |
| 1983 Details 60 overs max | Somerset 193 for 9 (60 overs) | Somerset won by 24 runs[21] | Kent 169 (47.1 overs) |
| 1984 Details 60 overs max | Middlesex 236 for 6 (60 overs) | Middlesex won by 4 wickets[22] | Kent 232 for 6 (60 overs) |
| 1985 Details 60 overs max | Essex 280 for 2 (60 overs) | Essex won by 1 run[23] | Nottinghamshire 279 for 5 (60 overs) |
| 1986 Details 60 overs max | Sussex 243 for 3 (58.2 overs) | Sussex won by 7 wickets[24] | Lancashire 242 for 8 (60 overs) |
| 1987 Details 60 overs max | Nottinghamshire 231 for 7 (49.3 overs) | Nottinghamshire won by 3 wickets[25] Reserve day used; match reduced to 50 overs per innings | Northamptonshire 228 for 3 (50 overs) |
| 1988 Details 60 overs max | Middlesex 162 for 7 (55.3 overs) | Middlesex won by 3 wickets[26] | Worcestershire 161 for 9 (60 overs) |
| 1989 Details 60 overs max | Warwickshire 211 for 6 (59.4 overs) | Warwickshire won by 4 wickets[27] | Middlesex 210 for 5 (60 overs) |
| 1990 Details 60 overs max | Lancashire 173 for 3 (45.4 overs) | Lancashire won by 7 wickets[28] | Northamptonshire 171 (60 overs) |
| 1991 Details 60 overs max | Hampshire 243 for 6 (59.4 overs) | Hampshire won by 4 wickets[29] | Surrey 240 for 5 (60 overs) |
| 1992 Details 60 overs max | Northamptonshire 211 for 2 (49.4 overs) | Northamptonshire won by 8 wickets[30] | Leicestershire 208 for 7 (60 overs) |
| 1993 Details 60 overs max | Warwickshire 322 for 5 (60 overs) | Warwickshire won by 5 wickets[31] | Sussex 321 for 6 (60 overs) |
| 1994 Details 60 overs max | Worcestershire 227 for 2 (49.1 overs) | Worcestershire won by 8 wickets[32] | Warwickshire 223 for 9 (60 overs) |
| 1995 Details 60 overs max | Warwickshire 203 for 6 (58.5 overs) | Warwickshire won by 4 wickets[33] | Northamptonshire 200 (59.5 overs) |
| 1996 Details 60 overs max | Lancashire 186 (60 overs) | Lancashire won by 129 runs[34] | Essex 57 (27.2 overs) |
| 1997 Details 60 overs max | Essex 171 for 1 (26.3 overs) | Essex won by 9 wickets[35] | Warwickshire 170 (60 overs) |
| 1998 Details 60 overs max | Lancashire 109 for 1 (30.2 overs) | Lancashire won by 9 wickets[36] | Derbyshire 108 (36.4 overs) |
| 1999 Details 50 overs max | Gloucestershire 230 for 8 (50 overs) | Gloucestershire won by 50 runs[37] | Somerset 180 (45.1 overs) |
| 2000 Details 50 overs max | Gloucestershire 122 for 3 (29.4 overs) | Gloucestershire won by 22 runs (D/L method)[38] Rain stopped play after 29.4 overs; Gloucestershire target revised to 101. | Warwickshire 205 for 7 (50 overs) |
C&G Trophy
| Year | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Result | Runner-up | |
| 2001 Details 50 overs max | Somerset 271 for 5 (50 overs) | Somerset won by 41 runs[39] | Leicestershire 230 (45.4 overs) |
| 2002 Details 50 overs max | Yorkshire 260 for 4 (48 overs) | Yorkshire won by 6 wickets[40] | Somerset 256 for 8 (50 overs) |
| 2003 Details 50 overs max | Gloucestershire 150 for 3 (20.3 overs) | Gloucestershire won by 7 wickets[41] | Worcestershire 149 (46.3 overs) |
| 2004 Details 50 overs max | Gloucestershire 237 for 2 (43.5 overs) | Gloucestershire won by 8 wickets[42] | Worcestershire 236 for 9 (50 overs) |
| 2005 Details 50 overs max | Hampshire 290 (50 overs) | Hampshire won by 18 runs[43] | Warwickshire 272 (49.2 overs) |
| 2006 Details 50 overs max | Sussex 172 (47.1 overs) | Sussex won by 15 runs[44] | Lancashire 157 (47.2 overs) |
Friends Provident Trophy
| Year | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Result | Runner-up | |
| 2007 Details 50 overs max | Durham 312/5 (50 overs) | Durham won by 125 runs[45] Rain stopped play after 32.2 overs; Reserve day used | Hampshire 187 (41 overs) |
| 2008 Details 50 overs max | Essex 218/5 (48.5 overs) | Essex won by 5 wickets[46] | Kent 214 (50 overs) |
| 2009 Details 50 overs max | Hampshire 221/4 (40.3 overs) | Hampshire won by 6 wickets[47] | Sussex 219/9 (50 overs) |
First class counties with no wins:Glamorgan andLeicestershire
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