The Royal London One-Day Cup is a fifty-over limited overs cricket competition for the England and Wales first-class counties. It began in 2014 as a replacement for the ECB 40 tournament, which ran from 2010 to 2013. In contrast to its 40-over predecessor, the number of overs per innings was set at 50 to bring the competition in line with One-Day Internationals. The 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participating teams and format The competition begins with a round-robin tournament featuring two groups of nine. The groups were organised geographically with a North group and a South group until 2021, when the groups were decided by a draw. As of 2017, the top three teams in each group progress to the knock-out stage of the competition. The final was held at Lord's until 2020, when it was moved to Trent Bridge. Predecessors The Royal London One-Day Cup is the latest in a line of limited over competitions in county cricket. Sunday League The "John Player League" was launched in 1969, as the second one-day competition in England and Wales alongside the Gillette Cup (launched in 1963). The 17 counties of the time played each other in a league format on Sunday afternoons throughout the season. These matches were concise enough to be shown on television, with BBC2 broadcasting one match each week in full until the 1980s, and then as part of the Sunday Grandstand multi-sport programme. For close finishes for the title, cameras appeared at the grounds where the contenders for the title were competing and the trophy presentation to the victorious team would be on film. Refuge Assurance replaced John Player as the sponsor of the competition in 1987 and then in 1988 started an end-of-season play-off competition known as the Refuge Assurance Cup. The top four teams of the season qualified for this competition, with the first-placed team playing the fourth and the second-placed team playing the third, and the winners of these matches meeting in a final at a neutral venue. This competition lasted until 1991. On Friday 5 July 1991, Somerset played Lancashire at Taunton in the first Sunday League match not to be played on a Sunday. The Sunday League was not sponsored in 1992, the year Durham made its debut, but in 1993 AXA Equity and Law became the sponsor. The matches this season were 50 overs per innings. The