County Rivalries

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

I relatively recently had a post asking about the lack of a County of Origin match similar to State of Origin in Aus and it got me thinking in addition to Yorkshire vs Lancashire which exists in cricket as well

What other county rivalries are there?

So far I have gathered the following exist sort of:

Cornwall - Devon

Norfolk - Suffolk

Northumberland - Durham

Nottinghamshire - Derbyshire

Gloucestershire - Somerset

Leicestershire - Northamptonshire

Bedfordshire - Hertfordshire

Are there any others?

 

[Winston Smith]

Cornwall and Devon used to compete for the County of Origin I believe.

[Gerrumonside ref]

Middlesex and Surrey?

[Shadow]

You could go further and look at The ancient kingdoms

we hate those Mercians us Wessex folk do

Edited March 21, 2025 by Shadow

[Cumbrian Fanatic]

Not saying that we have a chip on our shoulder but....

Cumbria v Everyone else

[Nearenough]

rutland really hates the isle of wight. ferocious rivalry there

[Shadow]

5 hours ago, Nearenough said:

rutland really hates the isle of wight. ferocious rivalry there

I don’t know what people have against the isle of wight

i find six fingers on a woman attractive 

[tonyXIII]

Whitby and Scarborough ('cod heads' and 'algerinos' respectively) have a bit of rivalry. Mostly friendly, but serious in sport!

Edited March 21, 2025 by tonyXIII

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

While I refuse to recognise the post 1974 new counties 

Greater Manchester - Merseyside could be one

West Yorkshire - South Yorkshire

In terms of the counties I recognise in the entirety of boundaries pre 1965

Essex - Kent?

 

[Lucy_1873]

Norfolk - Suffolk is a fun little rivalry

[Wolford6]

In county cricket, there is fierce rivalry between the Bears (Warwickshire) and the Pears (Worcestershire).

I don't think it exists any more, but, when I was young, there was bad blood between Glamorgan and Sussex

[Derwent]

On 21/03/2025 at 07:58, Cumbrian Fanatic said:

Not saying that we have a chip on our shoulder but....

Cumbria v Everyone else

That’s right, the rest of them are a bunch of soft southern #####….

Edited March 30, 2025 by Derwent

[17 stone giant]

8 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

I don't think it exists any more, but, when I was young, there was bad blood between Glamorgan and Sussex

What was that about?

[Wolford6]

(I think) a spat arose between the teams about a decision not to make a challenging declaration ... in order  to engineer a result in a county championship game. This was a standard device when all county games were only 3 days.

Next time they played, one side or the other batted for the best part of 2 days. That might have been 1968, when brothers Alan and Eiffion Jones put on 230 for the third wicket. Alan was awarded a belated England cap and, in another era, Eiffion might have got one. He was great keeper.

Edited March 31, 2025 by Wolford6

[Griff]

On 21/03/2025 at 07:58, Cumbrian Fanatic said:

Not saying that we have a chip on our shoulder but....

Cumbria v Everyone else

Neither is a county, of course.

[Griff]

6 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

(I think) a spat arose between the teams about a decision not to make a challenging declaration ... in order  to engineer a result in a county championship game. This was a standard device when all county games were only 3 days.

Next time they played, one side or the other batted for the best part of 2 days. That might have been 1968, when brothers Alan and Eiffion Jones put on 230 for the third wicket. Alan was awarded a belated England cap and, in another era, Eiffion might have got one. He was great keeper.

I remember Eifion.

[Eddie]

Norfolk v Suffolk is bigger than most people from outside the Ancient Kingdom of East Anglia realise. 

[JonM]

4 hours ago, Eddie said:

Norfolk v Suffolk is bigger than most people from outside the Ancient Kingdom of East Anglia realise. 

The old farm derby is certainly bigger than anything Lancashire v Yorkshire can manage. I remember banners being displayed on 30-40 of the roads leading into Norfolk after one Norwich v Ipswich football match - people had obviously climbed up onto bridges and so on to do it.

[Eddie]

57 minutes ago, JonM said:

The old farm derby is certainly bigger than anything Lancashire v Yorkshire can manage. I remember banners being displayed on 30-40 of the roads leading into Norfolk after one Norwich v Ipswich football match - people had obviously climbed up onto bridges and so on to do it.

Weirdly it’s never referred to as the Old Farm Derby here, though I quite like it. 

[Wolford6]

2 hours ago, JonM said:

The old farm derby is certainly bigger than anything Lancashire v Yorkshire can manage.

I don't think so.

I'm not a great football fan but Manchester United v Leeds next season will be box-office viewing.

[JonM]

44 minutes ago, Wolford6 said:

I don't think so.

I'm not a great football fan but Manchester United v Leeds next season will be box-office viewing.

Not remotely county based though.

But yes, watching that relegation battle will be exciting  

[gingerjon]

15 hours ago, JonM said:

Not remotely county based though.

But yes, watching that relegation battle will be exciting  

Coming from a Man U supporting family, there is nothing about it that connects to “counties” on the red side. Maybe there is for Leeds who always seem keen to be Yorkshire’s side in a way that there isn’t a Lancashire equivalent.

[Eddie]

On 03/04/2025 at 18:26, Wolford6 said:

I don't think so.

I'm not a great football fan but Manchester United v Leeds next season will be box-office viewing.

Relegation six pointer. 

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

What about Cumberland vs Westmoreland? Or has county allegiances all now transferred to Cumbria?