Fixtures for 2023 season for the men’s county domestic competitions have today been confirmed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
The men’s LV= Insurance County Championship will kick off the domestic season on April 6, with 14 fixtures per county as the format remains unchanged.
And Middlesex will start their Division One campaign at home against Essex.
Across Division One and Division Two, each county will play 14 home and away fixtures with two teams relegated and two teams promoted.
The first round of matches run over the Easter weekend, with all 18 first-class counties in action.
Surrey begin their title defence at Emirates Old Trafford – the venue at which they lifted the trophy last season.
The opening seven rounds are played from Thursday-Sunday on successive weeks and each county has a week off for rest and recovery during the first five rounds of the season.
A round of fixtures will be played in the week before the 1st LV= Insurance Men’s Ashes Test and five rounds of fixtures will be played in June and July, with the final round of fixtures beginning on September 26.
The Vitality Blast will remain the same format as 2022 and each county will play 14 group-stage matches, with the top four in each group progressing to the quarter-finals.
Friday night is Vitality Blast night with 48 games taking place across six consecutive Friday nights.
And Finals Day – once again a sell-out – remains one of the stand-out days in the domestic cricket calendar and this year will be played on July 15, and won’t clash with England Men’s white-ball fixtures.
The One-Day Cup group stage will be played alongside The Hundred, beginning on August 1, and all 18 first-class counties will play against a National County in warm-up games on July 30.
Sussex and Somerset will play a further game each on August 1.
Out grounds have become a feature of the One-Day Cup and this will continue with eight outgrounds so far set to host One-Day Cup fixtures.
The final will once again be played at Trent Bridge, on Saturday September 16.
MIDDLESEX
County Championship Div 1
April 6: Essex (h)
April 13: Northamptonshire (a)
April 20: Nottinghamshire (h)
April 27: Kent (h)
May 11: Surrey (a)
May 18: Somerset (h)
June 25: Hampshire (a)
July 10: Northamptonshire (h)
July 19: Surrey (h)
July 25: Warwickshire (a)
September 3: Essex (a)
September 10: Lancashire (a)
September 19: Warwickshire (h)
September 26: Nottinghamshire (a)
Vitality Blast
May 25: Surrey (h)
May 26: Hampshire (a)
May 29: Gloucestershire (h)
May 31: Glamorgan (h)
June 2: Somerset (a)
June 4: Gloucestershire (a)
June 6: Hampshire (h)
June 8: Sussex (h)
June 16: Kent (h)
June 18: Essex (h)
June 22: Surrey (a)
June 23: Kent (a)
June 30: Essex (a)
July 2: Glamorgan (a)
One-Day Cup
August 1: Hampshire (a)
August 5: Surrey (h)
August 11: Essex (a)
August 13: Kent (a)
August 15: Notts (h)
August 18: Leicestershire (a)
August 20: Lancashire (h)
August 22: Yorkshire (h)
Other matches
July 30: Berkshire (a)
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