Frizzell Women's County Championship provides festival of women's cricket in Cambridge

England's elite players will rejoin their counties this week for the Frizzell Women's County Championship which starts on Saturday July 26 in Cambridge.

The competition lasts five days, with 18 counties competing in one-day matches in three divisions, across a range of university pitches in Cambridge.

The Frizzell Women's County Championship holders, Yorkshire, return to defend their title whilst the other first division teams - Kent, Sussex, Berkshire, Nottinghamshire and Surrey - seek to end Yorkshire's decade-long domination.

England captain Clare Connor will lead Sussex and admits the Championship provides the perfect preparation for the forthcoming npower Women's Test Series and NatWest Women's Series against South Africa.

"With five matches in five days, the competition will be intense but it provides a showcase for women's domestic cricket in England and gives England players a genuine opportunity to find form ahead of the international games," she said.

Connor will then see the international opposition as the Frizzell Women's Champions play South Africa women on Thursday August 1 in the tourists' first warm-up game at Fenner's.

Division One will witness some tantalising individual duals as England team-mates face each other. Two young bowling sensations of the England team, Isa Guha (Berkshire) and Laura Spragg (Yorkshire), will have a chance to bowl at England's prolific batters, Charlotte Edwards (Kent) and Claire Taylor (Berkshire).

Potential Championship batting star: Lydia Greenway Photo © ECB

Tuesday July 29 will see Lydia Greenway and Charlotte Edwards - the strongest batting pair in the competition - face the world-class Yorkshire bowling attack which includes Clare Taylor, selected for England last month for the 12th consecutive year.

The Frizzell Women's County Championship welcomes Cheshire to Division Three following their success in the Emerging County Championship last year. One team is relegated and promoted from each Division, with the last placed team in Division Three reverting to the Emerging County Championship next year.

The introduction of Durham and Cheshire to the competition, plus the three additional teams competing in the Emerging Counties Championship reflects the significant growth of the women's game at county level in the past three years, with the greatest rise at U13 level where 22 counties now run a total of 87 U13 teams.

Division One: Berkshire, Kent, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex, Yorkshire
Division Two: Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, Middlesex, Somerset, Staffordshire
Division Three: Cheshire, Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire