# 2013 Bill Beaumont Cup

The 2013 Bill Beaumont Cup, also known as Bill Beaumont Cup Division One, was the 113th version of the annual, English rugby union, County Championship organized by the RFU for the top tier English counties. Each county drew 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 South or National League 2 North). The counties were divided into two regional pools with the winners of each pool meeting in the final held at Twickenham Stadium. New counties to the competition included Durham County (north) and Kent (south) who won their respective groups in the 2012 County Championship Plate. Hertfordshire were the defending champions.
The northern group was won by last year's runners up, Lancashire, who booked a place in their fifth successive final in what was a very close group, edging Cheshire and Yorkshire by virtue of a superior bonus points record. They were joined by southern group winners, Cornwall, who were appearing in their first Twickenham final since 1999. Cornwall had perhaps an easier route through to the final, winning all three games, but looked very impressive in their six try demolition of last year's winners, Hertfordshire, in their final pool game to book their place. Both promoted counties, Durham County and Kent, were relegated to the 2014 County Championship Plate.
Over 10,000 Cornish fans made the journey to Twickenham but were unable to help their team to victory as Lancashire emerged victorious by defeating Cornwall, 35 - 26, in what was an exciting game. Lancashire's Nick Royle had an excellent tournament by finishing top try scorer with 5 including 1 in the final, while Cornwall's Paul Thirlby was the tournament's top scorer with 47 points.

## Competition format

The competition format was two regional group stages divided into north and south, with each team playing each other once. This meant that two teams in the pool had two home games, while the other two had just one. The top side in each group went through to the final held at Twickenham Stadium on 26 May 2013.

## Participating Counties and ground locations

| County | Stadium(s) | Capacity | City/Area |
| Cheshire | Priory Park | 1,000 | Macclesfield, Cheshire |
| Cornwall | Recreation Ground | 7,000 (780 seats) | Camborne, Cornwall |
| Durham County | New Friarage Eastwood Gardens | N/A N/A | Hartlepool, County Durham Gateshead, Tyne and Wear |
| Gloucestershire | Dockham Road | 2,500 | Cinderford, Gloucestershire |
| Hertfordshire | Highfields | N/A | Ware, Hertfordshire |
| Kent | Jack Williams Ground Priestfields | N/A N/A | Aylesford, Kent Rochester, Kent |
| Lancashire | Woodlands Memorial Ground | 9,000 | Lytham St Annes, Lancashire |
| Yorkshire | Wagon Lane Silver Royd | 4,000 1,950 (322 seats) | Bingley, West Yorkshire Scalby, North Yorkshire |

## Group stage
### Division 1 North

2013 Beaumont Cup Division 1 North Table :
| | County | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points For | Points Against | Points Difference | Try Bonus | Losing Bonus | Points |
| 1 | Lancashire (Q) | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 88 | 74 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 11 |
| 2 | Cheshire | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 66 | 63 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| 3 | Yorkshire | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 66 | 55 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 4 | Durham County (R) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 63 | 91 | -28 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Number of matches won Difference between points for and against Total number of points for Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled |||||||||||||||
| Green background means the county qualified for the final. Pink background means the county were demoted to Division 2 North of the County Championship Plate for the following season. Updated: 18 May 2013 Source: "County Championships". englandrugby.com. |||||||||||||||

#### Round 1

* 4 May 2013 15:00
| (BP) Durham County | 29 - 40 | Lancashire (BP) |
| | Report | |
* New Friarage, Hartlepool Attendance: 310 Referee: Marcus Caton
* 4 May 2013 15:00
| Yorkshire | 21 - 15 | Cheshire (BP) |
* Wagon Lane, Bingley Attendance: 295 Referee: Will Halford

#### Round 2

* 11 May 2013 15:00
| (2BP) Durham County | 29 - 31 | Cheshire (BP) |
* Eastwood Gardens, Gateshead Attendance: 194 Referee: Graham Dickens
* 11 May 2013 15:00
| (BP) Lancashire | 35 - 25 | Yorkshire |
* Woodlands Memorial Ground, Lytham St Annes Attendance: 740 Referee: Wayne Falla

#### Round 3

* 18 May 2013 15:00
| Cheshire | 20 - 13 | Lancashire (BP) |
* Priory Park, Macclesfield Attendance: 479 Referee: Andrew Jackson
* 18 May 2013 15:00
| Yorkshire | 20 - 5 | Durham County |
| | Report | |
* Silver Royd, Scalby Attendance: 1,100 Referee: Andrew Rawson

### Division 1 South

2013 Beaumont Cup Division 1 South Table :
| | County | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points For | Points Against | Points Difference | Try Bonus | Losing Bonus | Points |
| 1 | Cornwall (Q) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 88 | 65 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| 2 | Hertfordshire | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 135 | 89 | 46 | 3 | 0 | 11 |
| 3 | Gloucestershire | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 77 | 100 | -23 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| 4 | Kent (R) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 63 | 109 | -46 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Number of matches won Difference between points for and against Total number of points for Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled |||||||||||||||
| Green background means the county qualified for the final. Pink background means the county were demoted to Division 2 South of the County Championship Plate for the following season. Updated: 18 May 2013 Source: "County Championships". englandrugby.com. |||||||||||||||

#### Round 1

* 4 May 2013 15:00
| (BP) Gloucestershire | 19 - 24 | Cornwall |
| | Report | |
* Dockham Road, Cinderford Attendance: 407 Referee: Rowan Kitt
* 4 May 2013 15:00
| Kent | 26 - 50 | Hertfordshire (BP) |
* Jack Williams Ground, Aylesford Attendance: 305 Referee: Richard Kelly

#### Round 2

* 11 May 2013 15:00
| (BP) Hertfordshire | 56 - 22 | Gloucestershire (BP) |
| | Report | |
* Highfields, Ware Attendance: 426 Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys
* 11 May 2013 15:00
| (BP) Kent | 17 - 23 | Cornwall |
| | Report | |
* Priestfields, Rochester Attendance: 700 Referee: Tom Davis

#### Round 3

* 18 May 2013 15:00
| (BP) Cornwall | 41 - 29 | Hertfordshire (BP) |
| | Report | |
* Recreation Ground, Camborne Attendance: 2,215 Referee: Nick Williams
* 18 May 2013 15:00
| (BP) Gloucestershire | 36 - 20 | Kent |
| | Report | |
* Dockham Road, Cinderford Attendance: 175 Referee: Phillip Davis

## Final

* 26 May 2013 15:15
| Lancashire | 35–26 | Cornwall |
| Try: Royle (2), Moon, Rath Con: Johnson (3) Pen: Johnson (2) Drop: Johnson | Report | Try: Webber, Penalty try, Vinnicombe Con: Thirlby Pen: Thirlby (3) |
* Twickenham Stadium, London Attendance: 20,000 Referee: Wayne Falla
| 15 | Sean Taylor | Preston Grasshoppers |
| 14 | Nick Royle | Vale of Lune |
| 13 | Chris Briers | Fylde |
| 12 | Jack Ward | Preston Grasshoppers |
| 11 | Ben Rath | Fylde |
| 10 | Chris Johnson (capt) | Fylde |
| 9 | Steve Collins | Sedgley Park |
| 1 | Dan Birchall | Fylde |
| 2 | Jon Matthews | Otley |
| 3 | Simon Griffiths | Fylde |
| 4 | Paul Arnold | Fylde |
| 5 | Louis McGowan (capt) | Sedgley Park |
| 6 | Jon Nugent | Stade Dijon |
| 7 | Steve McGinnis | Fylde |
| 8 | Dominic Moon | Preston Grasshoppers |
| Replacements: ||
| 16 | Pete Altham | Preston Grasshoppers |
| 17 | Gareth Gore | Preston Grasshoppers |
| 18 | Phil Mills | Preston Grasshoppers |
| 19 | Evan Stewart | Fylde |
| 20 | Phil Baines | Preston Grasshoppers |
| 21 | Tom Webb | Fylde |
| 22 | Grant Eddlestone | Sedgley Park |
| 15 | Jake Murphy | Cornish All Blacks |
| 14 | Richard Bright | Cornish All Blacks |
| 13 | Steve Johns | Coventry |
| 12 | Nielson Webber | Cornish All Blacks |
| 11 | Tom Notman | Redruth |
| 10 | Paul Thirlby | Redruth |
| 9 | Greg Goodfellow | Redruth |
| 1 | Darren Jacques | Redruth |
| 2 | Richard Brown | Redruth |
| 3 | Craig Williams | Redruth |
| 4 | Damien Cook | Redruth |
| 5 | Ben Hilton (capt) | Cornish All Blacks |
| 6 | Chris Fuca | Redruth |
| 7 | Sam Hocking | Plymouth Albion |
| 8 | Ashley Lawton | Camborne |
| Replacements: ||
| 16 | Neal Turner | Redruth |
| 17 | Jon Drew | Redruth |
| 18 | Luke Collins | Redruth |
| 19 | Tom Rawlings | Cornish All Blacks |
| 20 | Matthew Shepherd | St Austell |
| 21 | Steve Perry | Unattached |
| 22 | Lewis Vinnicombe | Redruth |

## Total season attendances

* Does not include final at Twickenham which is a neutral venue and involves teams from all three county divisions on the same day
| County | Home Games | Total | Average | Highest | Lowest | % Capacity |
| Cheshire | 1 | 479 | 479 | 479 | 479 | 48% |
| Cornwall | 1 | 2,215 | 2,215 | 2,215 | 2,215 | 32% |
| Durham County | 2 | 504 | 252 | 310 | 194 | |
| Gloucestershire | 2 | 582 | 291 | 407 | 175 | 12% |
| Hertfordshire | 1 | 426 | 426 | 426 | 426 | |
| Kent | 2 | 1,005 | 503 | 700 | 305 | |
| Lancashire | 1 | 740 | 740 | 740 | 740 | 8% |
| Yorkshire | 2 | 1,395 | 698 | 1,100 | 295 | 32% |

## Individual statistics

* Note if players are tied on tries or points the player with the lowest number of appearances will come first. Also note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included). Statistics will also include final.