The Bill Beaumont County Championship Division 2 (formerly known as County Championship Plate) is an annual rugby union competition in England between teams representing English counties. It was formed in 2002 as the County Championship Shield (a competition which is now played by tier 3 sides) - changing to Plate by 2010 and then to Bill Beaumont Division 2 by 2017.
Division 2 is split into three regional groups (Pools 1,2 and 3) with each team alternating between 2 home games and 1 away game in one championship cycle, and 1 home game and 2 away games in the next, with the top teams and the best placed runner up playing in a Semi-final, with the winners meeting in a final held at Twickenham Stadium along with other county divisional finals. Since the covid pandemic and a decline in counties entering, Promotion and Relegation have been replaced by counties opting into a preferred division, with a Level cap preventing uneven games. Division 2's Level cap is level 5 of the English rugby union system, meaning counties can only select from Regional 1 and below.
Past winners
YearDateWinnersScoreRunner-upVenueAttendance/Notes 2002 2 June Warwickshire 34 - 12 Berkshire Twickenham Stadium, London 2003 25 May Northumberland 27 - 8 Oxfordshire Twickenham Stadium, London 2004 29 May North Midlands 58 - 5 Eastern Counties Twickenham Stadium, London 2005 29 May Hertfordshire 20 - 13 North Midlands Twickenham Stadium, London 2006 29 May Cheshire 32 - 17 Middlesex Twickenham Stadium, London 2007 27 May Warwickshire 22 - 8 Somerset Butts Park Arena, Coventry 2008 31 May Northumberland 25 – 11 Cornwall Twickenham Stadium, London 1,500 2009 30 May Cheshire 30 - 22 Hertfordshire Twickenham Stadium, London 2010 29 May Kent 33 - 27 Warwickshire Rectory Field, London 2011 28 May Northumberland 31 - 17 North Midlands Greensfield, Alnwick 2012 No Final 2013 26 May Northumberland 45 - 10 North Midlands Twickenham Stadium, London 2014 1 June Kent 31 - 23 Durham County Twickenham Stadium, London 2015 31 May Surrey 17 - 3 Eastern Counties Twickenham Stadium, London 2016 29 May East Midlands 33 - 27 Kent Twickenham Stadium, London 2017 28 May Leicestershire 39 - 7 Hampshire Twickenham Stadium, London 2018 27 May Durham County 46 - 12 Warwickshire Twickenham Stadium, London 2019 8 June Leicestershire 38 - 13 Surrey Twickenham Stadium, London 2020–2021 No Competition due to COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom 2022 4 June Somerset 36 - 20 Staffordshire Twickenham Stadium, London 2023 3 June Dorset and Wilts 37 - 15 Durham Twickenham Stadium, London 2024 15 June Oxfordshire 38 - 37 Cheshire Twickenham Stadium, London 2025 22 June Cheshire 50 - 38 Devon Twickenham Stadium, London
Number of wins Northumberland (4) Cheshire (3) Kent (2) Leicestershire (2) Warwickshire (2) Durham County (1) East Midlands (1) Hertfordshire (1) North Midlands (1) Surrey (1) Somerset (1) Dorset & Wilts (1) Oxfordshire (1)
Notes
References
See also 2011_results.pdf