Batsford Road, sometimes known as Moreton-in-Marsh Cricket Club Ground, is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

ground in

Moreton-in-Marsh Moreton-in-Marsh is a market town in the Evenlode Valley, within the Cotswolds district and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Gloucestershire, England. The town stands at the crossroads of the Fosse Way Roman road (now the A429) and the ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. The ground is located off the Batsford Road as it leaves Moreton-in-Marsh. It played host to first-class and

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

matches for

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Gloucestershire. Founded in 1870, Gloucestershire have always ...

between 1884 and 1996.

History

Moreton-in-Marsh Cricket Club was founded in 1856, with the club having played at the ground since. The land on which the ground was constructed was originally owned by

Baron Redesdale Baron Redesdale, of Redesdale in the County of Northumberland, is a title that has been created twice, both times in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was firstly created in 1802 for lawyer and politician Sir John Mitford (later Freeman-Mi ...

of the

Mitford family The Mitford family is an aristocratic English family, whose principal line had its seats at Mitford, Northumberland. Several heads of the family served as High Sheriff of Northumberland. A junior line, with seats at Newton Park, Northumberland, ...

. The ground played a role in popularising

croquet Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Its international governing body is the Wor ...

, hosting the Croquet Open Championship in 1867, which was won by the pioneer of the sport Walter Whitmore, and hosting the first all-comers meeting for the sport in 1868.

first played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

at the ground in 1884 against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, with the Gloucestershire side being captained by

W. G. Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English Amateur status in first-class cricket, amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played ...

. In 1886, Gloucestershire played

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

there, with Nottinghamshire captain

Arthur Shrewsbury Arthur Shrewsbury (11 April 1856 – 19 May 1903) was an English cricketer and rugby football administrator. He was widely rated as competing with W. G. Grace for the accolade of best batsman of the 1880s; Grace himself, when asked whom he wou ...

making an unbeaten double-century. Gloucestershire played one first-class match there a year until 1888, before returning to the ground in 1914 when they played

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

in the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

, with this match being notable for Arthur Conway's 15 wickets in the match. With the advent of List A one-day cricket, Gloucestershire returned to the ground after a 58 year absence when they played

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

in the 1972 Benson & Hedges Cup. Gloucestershire played one one-day match per season there until 1996 (with the exception of 1982 and 1995), mostly in the Sunday League. The ground originally did not have a

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

, with club members deciding to purchase a tent to serve the purpose in the year the ground opened. A pavilion was constructed in 1925, The club spent money on improving drainage, which had become a problem following heavy rain. Matches at Batsford Road were well attended, with crowds of 4,500–5,000 attending for county matches; these were helped by Gloucestershire scheduling fixtures against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

and

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, whose county headquarters were all closer to Moreton-in-Marsh than Gloucestershire's own headquarters at

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

was, therefore attracting a large number of visiting spectators. The ground also has facilities for

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

. The ground is also the subject of a painting by the artist and former Gloucestershire cricketer Jack Russell.

Records

First-class

* Highest team total: 448 all out by

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, 1885 * Lowest team total: 28 all out by

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

v Gloucestershire, 1888 * Highest individual innings: 227

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

for

v Gloucestershire, 1886 * Best bowling in an innings: 9-38 by Arthur Conway, for

v Gloucestershire, 1914 * Best bowling in a match: 15-87 by Arthur Conway, as above

List A

* Highest team total: 269 for 8 by Gloucestershire v Kent, 1988 * Lowest team total: 70 all out by Gloucestershire v

, 1972 * Highest individual innings: 121 not out by

Bill Athey Charles William Jeffrey Athey (born 27 September 1957) is a retired English first-class cricketer, who played for England, and first-class cricket for Gloucestershire, Yorkshire and Sussex; he also played a solitary one-day game for Worcesters ...

for Gloucestershire v Worcestershire, 1985 * Best bowling in an innings: 5-23 by Tim Munton, for Warwickshire v Gloucestershire, 1990

References

External links

Batsford Road, Moreton-in-Marsh
at

ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

{{Gloucestershire CCC Moreton-in-Marsh Sports venues completed in 1856 1856 establishments in England Cricket grounds in Gloucestershire Croquet clubs Gloucestershire County Cricket Club