Bill Beaumont County Championship Division 2

For the top tier of the English Counties competition, see County Championship (rugby union). For the third tier of the English Counties competition, see Bill Beaumont County Championship Division 3.

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.^[1][2] Division 2 is contested for by second tier teams in the RFU County Championship. Each county draws its players from rugby union clubs from the third tier and below of the English rugby union league system (typically National League 1, National League 2 North or National League 2 South).

Bill Beaumont County Championship Division 2

Current season, competition or edition: 2019 Bill Beaumont County Championship Division 2
Sport	Rugby union
Founded	2002; 23 years ago (2002)
No. of teams	8
Country	England
Most recent champion(s)	Somerset (2022) (1st title)
Most titles	Northumberland (4)
Related competitions	Bill Beaumont Division 1 Bill Beaumont Division 2

Division 2 is split into two regional groups (north) and (south) with each team playing one or two home games and the top teams in each group meeting in the final to be held at Twickenham Stadium along with other county divisional finals. Since 2017 promotion and relegation occurs over two years as opposed to one, using a system of accumulative points from pool games to determine who goes up or down. Currently the top two sides in Division 2 over the two years (one from each regional group) go up to tier 1 while the bottom two sides (again one from each regional group) are relegated to tier 3.

Past winners

Year	Date	Winners	Score	Runner-up	Venue	Attendance/Notes
2002	2 June	Warwickshire	34 - 12	Berkshire	Twickenham Stadium, London	[3]
2003	25 May	Northumberland	27 - 8	Oxfordshire	Twickenham Stadium, London	[4]
2004	29 May	North Midlands	58 - 5	Eastern Counties	Twickenham Stadium, London	[5][6]
2005	29 May	Hertfordshire	20 - 13	North Midlands	Twickenham Stadium, London	[7][8]
2006	29 May	Cheshire	32 - 17	Middlesex	Twickenham Stadium, London	[9][10]
2007	27 May	Warwickshire	22 - 8	Somerset	Butts Park Arena, Coventry	[11][12]
2008	31 May	Northumberland	25 – 11	Cornwall	Twickenham Stadium, London	1,500[13][14]
2009	30 May	Cheshire	30 - 22	Hertfordshire	Twickenham Stadium, London	[15]
2010[n 1]	29 May	Kent	33 - 27	Warwickshire	Rectory Field, London	[16][17]
2011	28 May	Northumberland	31 - 17	North Midlands	Greensfield, Alnwick	[18][19]
2012	No Final[n 2]
2013	26 May	Northumberland	45 - 10	North Midlands	Twickenham Stadium, London	[20][21]
2014	1 June	Kent	31 - 23	Durham County	Twickenham Stadium, London	[22][23]
2015	31 May	Surrey	17 - 3	Eastern Counties	Twickenham Stadium, London	[24]
2016	29 May	East Midlands	33 - 27	Kent	Twickenham Stadium, London	[25]
2017[n 3]	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[26]
2022	4 June	Somerset	36 - 20	Staffordshire	Twickenham Stadium, London

Number of wins

• Northumberland (4)
• Cheshire (2)
• Kent (2)
• Leicestershire (2)
• Warwickshire (2)
• Durham County (1)
• East Midlands (1)
• Hertfordshire (1)
• North Midlands (1)
• Surrey (1)
• Somerset (1)

Notes

1. Changed name from County Championship Shield to County Championship Plate.
2. This season there was no Plate final for the division two teams only promotion for the top sides in each group.
3. Changed name from County Championship Plate to Bill Beaumont Division 2.