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Features | 22 Jul 2021

The Royal London Cup explained

The Royal London Cup is back! Here's everything you need to know ahead of the tournament.

WHEN DOES THE ROYAL LONDON CUP START?

The tournament begins today, Thursday 22nd July. Sussex Sharks' first match is against Lancashire at Sedbergh School on Friday 23rd July, with the team's first home game against Durham at The 1st Central County Ground on Sunday 25th July. Sussex's full fixtures are available here.

WHAT IS THE FORMAT THIS SUMMER?

The 18 First-Class counties have been randomly drawn into two groups of nine teams.

Each county will play eight group-stage matches – four at home and four away – with the top three counties in each group progressing to the knockout stages.

The format for the knockout stages are:

Quarter-finals – Saturday 14th August (hosted by second-placed counties)

Group A Second-placed county v Group B Third-placed county

Group B Second-placed county v Group A Third-placed county

Semi-finals – Tuesday 17th August (hosted by group winners)

Group A winner v Quarter-final winner

Group B winner v Quarter-final winner

The winners of the semi-final progress to the Royal London Cup final at Trent Bridge on Thursday 19th August.

WHICH COUNTIES ARE IN EACH GROUP?

Group A: Essex, Worcestershire, Sussex, Middlesex, Kent, Durham, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Lancashire.

Group B: Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Glamorgan, Yorkshire, Surrey, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Somerset.

The groups for the Royal London Cup were randomly drawn. The order that they were drawn appears in the above list and has determined the home and away ties.

Example: The first team in the Group will play at home to the second, third, fourth and fifth teams drawn, and away to sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth. This continues – another example is the team drawn seventh; this team will play at home to teams drawn eighth, ninth, first, second, and away to teams drawn third, fourth, fifth, sixth.