The County Ground in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, England was 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 ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

ground. It was the home of

Hampshire County Cricket Club Hampshire 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 Hampshire. Hampshire teams formed by earlier organisations, principal ...

from the

1885 English cricket season 1885 was the 99th season of cricket in England since the foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). It was the third in succession in which Nottinghamshire was proclaimed the champion county. Champion County * Nottinghamshire Playing record ...

until the

2000 English cricket season The 2000 cricket season was the 101st in which the County Championship has been an official competition. Surrey in first-class cricket and Gloucestershire in limited overs cricket were the dominant teams. The West Indies toured England to compet ...

. The ground also served as the home ground for

Southampton Football Club Southampton Football Club () is an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, which competes in the . Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club play in ...

from 1896 to 1898.

Background

Early Hampshire cricket teams had 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 ...

in Southampton since 1842 at the Antelope Ground, under the supervision of

Daniel Day Daniel Day may refer to: * Daniel Day (manufacturer) (1767–1848), American pioneer in woollen manufacturing * Daniel Day (cricketer) (1807–1887), English cricketer * Dapper Dan (designer) (born 1944), American fashion designer, born Daniel Day ...

. Following building speculation, the county team moved across the River Itchen to Day's Antelope Ground, although the building proposal fell through and so Hampshire returned across the river to the Antelope Ground.

, formed in September 1863, became tenants. In 1883, James Fellowes began negotiations for the lease and development of land in Northlands Road which formed part of the Hulse estate. With an agreement reached between Hampshire County Cricket Club and the estate, Hampshire played their final match at the Antelope Ground in August 1884 and moved to Northlands Road for the 1885 season.

History

Early years and football venue

The County Ground was originally leased for £160 annually, with the condition that a pavilion be built. This was done for the cost of £2,000, which had been raised. The County Ground was opened on 9 May 1885 by Elizabeth, Countess of Northesk, the wife of George Carnegie, 9th Earl of Northesk who was at the time the club president. The grand opening match was between South Hampshire and North Hampshire. The inaugural first-class match saw Hampshire play a

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

(MCC) in June 1885 side captained by the Scot John Russel; the MCC winning the match by an innings margin. Ten days later Hampshire played their first county match there with

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

as the visitors, though this too also resulted in another heavy innings defeat for Hampshire. In 1886, Hampshire lost its first-class status after years of difficult circumstances and poor results. However, Hampshire still played minor matches at the ground. The Hampshire County Ground Company was founded in 1893 and purchased the freehold of the ground from

Sir Edward Hulse Edward Hulse may refer to: *Sir Edward Hulse, 1st Baronet (c. 1682–1759) of the Hulse baronets *Sir Edward Hulse, 2nd Baronet (1714–1800) of the Hulse baronets *Sir Edward Hulse, 3rd Baronet (1744–1816), High Sheriff of Hampshire *Sir Edward ...

for £5,400. Hampshire were restored to first-class status in 1895, with the County Ground hosting its first

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 ...

match in the same year.

Southampton F.C. Southampton Football Club () is an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, which competes in the . Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club play in ...

had used the County Ground for high-profile

matches prior to 1896, including FA Cup matches and the finals of the Hampshire Senior Cup. On 26 April 1893, a team from

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...

visited the County Ground to play a friendly match against Southampton St Mary's. Even with the future founder of football in Brazil, Charles Miller playing at

outside-left Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, the "Saints" were "''outplayed fairly and squarely on every point''", losing 8–0. Despite the result, it was reported that the spectators "''thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition''" and looked forward to witnessing "''more matches of a similar character''" in future. Soon after a football stand was built next to the pavilion, with Southampton playing all their homes matches there in the

Southern Football League The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English fo ...

for two seasons. However, with the £200 per annum rent to the County Cricket Club and with crowds of up to 12,000 attending matches, it was decided by the football club that due to the financial burden of the rent and inadequate facilities that they would move the short distance to the newly constructed

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

for the 1898–99 season. The highest score during Southampton's tenureship was in a Southern League match against New Brompton on 7 November 1896, which "the Saints" won 8–3 with a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

from

Willie Naughton William A. Naughton (16 July 1870 – 23 April 1906) was a Scottish professional footballer, who played as an outside-forward for various clubs in Scotland and England in the 1880s and 1890s, including Celtic, Stoke and Southampton. Throughou ...

. In the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, Southampton defeated Swindon Town 8–2 on 2 January 1897, with

Jack Farrell John A. "Jack" Farrell (July 5, 1857 – February 9, 1914), also known as "Moose", was an American Major League Baseball player who played mainly second base in his 11 seasons. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Farrell made his major league debut ...

scoring three, and Eastville Rovers 8–1 on 11 December 1897. Developments continued afoot at the ground, with a new frontage for the main pavilion being built in 1896, with the addition a newly built ladies pavilion adjacent to it. The football stand was redeveloped in 1900 and eleven years later a new

scoreboard A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score in a game. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards in the past used ...

was erected. During this period, Hampshire had financial difficulties and it was discussed by the committee in 1904 to close the ground. The closure of the ground never materialised and in 1912 Hampshire famously defeated the touring

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) ...

, their first victory over a touring team, with

Phil Mead Charles Phillip Mead (9 March 1887 – 26 March 1958) was an English first-class cricketer. He played as a left-handed batsman for Hampshire and England between 1905 and 1936. He was born at 10 Ashton Buildings (since pulled down), second elde ...

scoring an unbeaten 160 and

Alec Kennedy Alec or Aleck is a Scottish form of the given name Alex. It may be a diminutive of the name Alexander or a given name in its own right. Notable people with the name include: People * Alec Aalto (1942–2018), Finnish diplomat *Alec Acton (1938– ...

taking match figures of 11 for 181.

Inter-war years

With first-class cricket in England suspended as a result of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, no first-class matches were held at the County Ground between August 1914 and June 1919. The touring Australians made what would become the highest team total at the ground in first-class matches, scoring 708 for 7

declared In the sport of cricket, a declaration occurs when a captain declares his team's innings closed and a forfeiture occurs when a captain chooses to forfeit an innings without batting. Declaration and forfeiture are covered in Law 15 of the ''Laws of ...

, with no less than three centuries in the Australians innings by

Warren Bardsley Warren "Curly" Bardsley (6 December 1882 – 20 January 1954) was an Australian Test cricketer. An opening batsman, Bardsley played 41 Tests between 1909 and 1926 and over 200 first-class games for New South Wales. He was Wisden's Cricketer of ...

(209), Charlie Macartney (105) and

Johnny Taylor John Taylor, Johnny Taylor or similar may refer to: Academics *John Taylor (Oxford), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, 1486–1487 *John Taylor (classical scholar) (1704–1766), English classical scholar *John Taylor (English publisher) (178 ...

(143).

1919–1939

In 1921 the touring Australians scored 708-7 declared, the highest first-class innings on the ground. The match ended in a draw. In 1930 crowds flocked to the County Ground to watch

Don Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has bee ...

complete his

1,000 runs before the end of May A batsman has scored 1,000 first-class runs before the end of May in an English cricket season on only eight occasions. In five of these occasions, the batsman reached 1,000 runs with innings played in April and May, but three scored 1,000 runs ...

, with Bradman making 191 runs in Australians first innings. During this period in the grounds history, Phil Mead was in his prime and by 1932, Mead had completed centuries against every county, finishing with a hundred against Derbyshire. In a career that spanned from 1905 to 1936, he made 138 centuries in 700 matches and heads the list of Hampshire's great runmakers. Mead played on the ground 187 times, where he scored 14,504 runs at an average of 56.42. First-class cricket was once more suspended in England during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, with bombing an ever-present threat throughout the wars early years.

1939–2000

The County Ground played host to Hampshire's 1961 and 1973 County Championship winning seasons, as well as playing host to its first List-A match in 1965, when Norfolk were the visitors in the

1965 Gillette Cup The 1965 Gillette Cup was the third Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 23 April and 4 September 1965. The tournament was won by Yorkshire, following Geoff Boycott's 146 runs in the final at Lord ...

. In 1983 the ground hosted its first

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

when

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

took on

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

in the

1983 Cricket World Cup The 1983 Cricket World Cup (officially the Prudential Cup '83) was the 3rd edition of the Cricket World Cup tournament. It was held from 9 to 25 June 1983 in England and Wales and was won by India. Eight countries participated in the event. En ...

. Australia won the match by four wickets. Cardigan Connor who took 9–38 in 1996 and

Kevan James Kevan David James (born 18 March 1961, Lambeth, London) is an English former first-class cricketer who spent most of his career with Hampshire whom he won the NatWest Trophy and Benson & Hedges Cup with in the early 1990s. He was educated at ...

took four wickets in four balls in the match against the touring

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

in the same year. In 1999 the ground played host to its final two One Day Internationals in the

1999 Cricket World Cup The 1999 Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Cricket World Cup '99) was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted primarily by England, with Scotland, Ireland, Wales ...

when

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

played the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, with the West Indies winning by seven wickets. The second match saw

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

play

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, which the Sri Lankans won by 45 runs. Hampshire sold the County Ground in May 1998 to

Berkeley Homes The Berkeley Group Holdings plc is a British property developer and house-builder based in Cobham, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The company was founded by Tony Pidg ...

for £5 million. After 115 years at the County Ground, the 2000 County Championship marked the club's last season at the County Ground. The ground's last first-class match saw

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 ...

as the visitors. The County Ground played host to three One Day International, 565 first-class matches and 211 List-A matches. For

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, Hampshire moved to the new Rose Bowl ground. The site of the County Ground is now a housing estate.

Cricket records

International

One-Day International

* Highest team total: 275/8 (50 overs) by v. , 1999 * Lowest team total: 156 (48.1 overs) by v. , 1999 * Highest individual innings: 84 by David Houghton for v. , 1983 * Best bowling in an innings: 4/46 by

Mervyn Dillon Mervyn Dillon (born 5 June 1974), is a former West Indian cricketer. He has played 38 in Tests and taken 131 wickets. He has also played 108 One Day Internationals from 1997–2004. He has the unwanted record of most ducks ever in a calendar y ...

for v. , 1999

Domestic

First-class

* Highest team total: 708/7 d by the

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 ...

, 1921 * Lowest team total: 30 by Hampshire v.

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 ...

, 1932 * Highest individual innings: 303 * by Graeme Hick for

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 ...

v. Hampshire, 1997 * Best bowling in an innings: 9-38 by Cardigan Connor for Hampshire v.

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 ...

, 1996 * Best bowling in a match: 17-119 by Walter Mead for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

v. Hampshire, 1895

List A

* Highest team total: 371/4 (60 overs) by Hampshire v.

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

, 1975 * Lowest team total: 63 (30.3 overs) by Hampshire v.

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, 1997 * Highest individual innings: 177 by

Gordon Greenidge Sir Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge (born 1 May 1951) is a Barbadian, former first-class cricketer, who represented the West Indies in Test and One-day Cricket for 17 years. Greenidge is regarded worldwide as one of the greatest and most destructive o ...

for Hampshire v. Glamorgan, 1975 * Best bowling in an innings: 7/30 by

Peter Sainsbury Peter James Sainsbury (13 June 1934 – 12 July 2014) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Hampshire from 1954 to 1976 and the Marylebone Cricket Club from 1955 to 1960. Born in Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, Sainsbury was a right-h ...

for Hampshire v.

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, 1965

References

External links

Profile on Cricinfo
{{Coord, 50, 55, 10.18, N, 1, 24, 35.95, W, type:landmark, display=title Sport in Southampton Southampton F.C. Defunct football venues in England Defunct cricket grounds in England Defunct sports venues in Hampshire Hampshire County Cricket Club Cricket grounds in Hampshire Sports venues completed in 1885 1999 Cricket World Cup stadiums 1983 Cricket World Cup stadiums