When can we expect these? Think we got them mid/late Nov last year for 2024.

It was 23 November last year so I assume similar this year.

Durham are holding a breakfast morning for members on 26 November because that is when the 2025 fixtures will be announced. Members can talk with players and coaches about the fixtures - a nice idea.

The T20 fixtures are out on Thursday followed by Championship and ODC on Tuesday 26th.

According to The Cricketer, efforts have been made in the 2025 T20 fixtures to decrease the number of occasions where counties are playing Blast matches on back-to-back days. Last year, the Bears kicking off their T20 season with an evening match in Durham followed by a match at Edgbaston the next afternoon was a particularly egregious example of this.

https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/4171567/vitality-blast-mens-competition-fixtures-2025

Am I the only one saddened by the fact that the name that appears on the list doesn't include our proper name, but only by a nickname which isn't unique to us as it's shared by others including Chicago, Bristol etc?

c2aw wrote:

https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/4171567/vitality-blast-mens-competition-fixtures-2025

Am I the only one saddened by the fact that the name that appears on the list doesn't include our proper name, but only by a nickname which isn't unique to us as it's shared by others including Chicago, Bristol etc?

Agreed I think it is an awful look- I picked up on it yesterday with the women's knockout fixtures being announced.
It's also clear from that schedule with the 100 to follow in August that there will hardly be any county championship cricket in the summer again!

GerryShedd wrote:

According to The Cricketer, efforts have been made in the 2025 T20 fixtures to decrease the number of occasions where counties are playing Blast matches on back-to-back days. Last year, the Bears kicking off their T20 season with an evening match in Durham followed by a match at Edgbaston the next afternoon was a particularly egregious example of this.

Oh dear, it's happening again twice to us as far as I can see.

Regarding the name, the BBC takes the "glass half full" approach by saying:
"One significant change is that the team based at Edgbaston are listed just as the Bears, suggesting that the name Warwickshire might be used in T20 again after 11 seasons playing under the Birmingham Bears banner."

Personally I prefer us being listed as just “Bears” rather than “Birmingham Bears”, but I would obviously prefer “Warwickshire” to either of those!

Can't find any start times for these games?

c2aw wrote:

https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/4171567/vitality-blast-mens-competition-fixtures-2025

Am I the only one saddened by the fact that the name that appears on the list doesn't include our proper name, but only by a nickname which isn't unique to us as it's shared by others including Chicago, Bristol etc?

It appears they have quietly dropped Birmingham but I won't rest until Warwickshire is fully reinstated to our name.

Well said all.

The only team in world sport not playing under its own name!

Not even clever from a branding perspective!

Scarborough!

Yes Scarborough is about the only hint of excitement in the rest of the fixtures, even if it is only a one day game.
For those of us who live south of Bristol, there are no CC visits to Southampton or Taunton. Just a one dayer against Somerset. So the closest the Bears will come to me is, er, Edgbaston.

As a Bears fan who lives in the Solihull area I'm extremely grateful for us having no trip to Southampton, absolute nightmare from here. Shame no Taunton in CC, I've been loads though personally. Lancashire away at Liverpool is a lovely one, looking forward to Hove, Scarborough will be a treat, cant wait for that. 3 games at Rugby School again is a shame though.

I don't get why we play Somerset at home on 22 June in the championship but I can't find a reverse fixture. Not on the ECB site or Somerset's site.

Same with Durham and Yorkshire. Why do we play some twice, but not everyone?

c2aw wrote:

I don't get why we play Somerset at home on 22 June in the championship but I can't find a reverse fixture. Not on the ECB site or Somerset's site.

Same with Durham and Yorkshire. Why do we play some twice, but not everyone?

Been like that for a few seasons now. Was it the 16.4 nonsense that caused it? 9 teams playing 14 games makes home and away impossible!!! It's called ECB Logic

LeicesterExile wrote:

c2aw wrote:

I don't get why we play Somerset at home on 22 June in the championship but I can't find a reverse fixture. Not on the ECB site or Somerset's site.

Same with Durham and Yorkshire. Why do we play some twice, but not everyone?

Been like that for a few seasons now. Was it the 16.4 nonsense that caused it? 9 teams playing 14 games makes home and away impossible!!! It's called ECB Logic

I've just looked back at my old downloaded fixtures sheets. Wow. I've never noticed before.

Does anyone know on what basis the decision is made to play a team once or twice? Is there a formula or is it random?

It's seeded. So we get the fixtures arranged that match up Somerset's set of fixtures last season as we finished 7th in 2024 as Somerset did in 2023.

So

We get to play top seed Surrey twice but second seed Hampshire only once in 2025. Notts are our partner seed - as they finished 8th - get to play Surrey only once but Hampshire twice

And so on...

We play Somerset (seeded 3) once but Essex (4) twice whereas Notts have it the other way around

We play Durham (5) once but Worcestershire (6) twice

We play our partner seed Notts (8) twice

We play Sussex (9) twice but Yorkshire (10th seed) once. Notts get the opposite to what we get

All teams play their partner seed twice and have three fixtures against the other set of partner seeds to make it as fair as is possible