Sussex and Kent lead the way after the first round of fixtures in this season’s County Championships Veterans’ Premier Division as both counties recorded two wins and one draw to complete their three fixtures in an exciting session of play at Ashford TTC over the last weekend in November.
Reigning champions Sussex started strongest over the weekend with a 10-0 whitewash over newcomers South Yorkshire and then had two hard-fought matches as they beat Nottinghamshire 6-4 and ended with a draw against former champions Leicestershire.
Kent had two 7-3 wins over Hertfordshire and Berkshire before a thrilling draw with another former champion county in Yorkshire.
Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire are lying third and fourth after play with both on four points as Notts started with a hard-fought 6-4 win over another former champion team Yorkshire before just missing out to Sussex by the narrowest of margins, 6-4, before thumping local rivals South Yorkshire 9-1.
Leicestershire on the other hand started well enough with a 7-3 win over Berkshire before draws against Yorkshire and Sussex saw them end the weekend on four points.
Three teams are then lying a further two points adrift on two match points – Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and South Yorkshire – and it is one of the favourites Yorkshire who lead the trio of counties by virtue of a hard weekend’s work as after losing a tough battle with Nottinghamshire they were involved in draws against arch rivals Leicestershire and finishing with a draw against Kent.
Both Hertfordshire and South Yorkshire had one win each both against the luckless Berkshire who lay bottom of the pile with all on to avoid a quick return to Division One. All counties will meet up again in March at Draycott when the division will be completed.
Latest standings (results to be verified by administrator):
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Sussex | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 9 | 5 |
| Kent | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 11 | 5 |
| Nottinghamshire | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 11 | 4 |
| Leicestershire | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 13 | 4 |
| Yorkshire | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 16 | 2 |
| Hertfordshire | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 18 | 2 |
| South Yorkshire | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 22 | 2 |
| Berkshire | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 20 | 0 |