After I credited the setter of Question 103 with a correct answer to a potentially ambiguous question, the setter of this one (I'm guessing that it's the same person, but it may not be) has fallen into the very trap that the first question managed to avoid.
As I stated in my notes to that question, the County Championship is a competition that started in 1890. Before that we had 'Champion Counties' – but these were completely unofficial and often disputed.
Surrey were indeed the first county to be declared as 'Champion County', in 1864. But this was not the County Championship; it didn't exist in those days.
Surrey were also declared as Champion County in 1872 (by one of five sources), 1886 (by one of six sources), 1887 and 1888 (both unanimously). By 1886 the title was semi–official, with an agreed points system being used (but incomplete agreement over which matches counted).
When the County Championship got going, Surrey were its first winners. So fortunately for the setter, "Surrey" was the only possible answer to this ambiguous question. It does have to be said that the ambiguity was largely avoided by the inclusion of the year; but (strictly speaking) this also made the question nonsensical.
Surrey actually won the Championship in five of its first six years: 1890–2, 1894 and 1895. They also won it seven times in a row, from 1952 to 1958.
The 2018 season saw their 19th Championship win – the first since 2002. They also shared it (with Lancashire) in 1950. They have won the Championship more times than any other county except Yorkshire, who have 32 outright wins and one shared.
© Macclesfield Quiz League 2018