The Dewsbury and Savile Ground 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 ...

ground located in

Savile Town Savile Town is a suburb of Dewsbury, Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, lying just to the south of the River Calder. It consists of late Victorian housing, which varies between long terraces, semi-detached and detached housing. The mills ...

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It hosted 53 first class matches between 1867 and 1933.First-Class Matches played on Dewsbury and Savile Ground
Cricket Archive The first fixture 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 ...

play

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

while

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 ...

were the visitors in the final game held there. Yorkshire twice played the touring Australians at the ground and, in its earliest days, several first class 'All England' fixtures were held. Yorkshire twice passed 500, scoring 562 against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

in 1903 and 507 for 8 declared 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 ...

in 1925. Yorkshire bowled

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_ ...

out for 48 at the ground in 1900 and dismissed

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

for 51 in 1894. Three double centuries were recorded, two by

Herbert Sutcliffe Herbert Sutcliffe (24 November 1894 – 22 January 1978) was an English professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Apart from one match in 1945, his first-class career spanned the period between the tw ...

(213 v Somerset in 1924 and 206 v Warwickshire the following year) while Crowther Charlesworth scored 206 for Warwickshire in 1914.

Billy Williams Billy Leo Williams (born June 15, 1938) is a former left fielder and coach in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played from 1959 to 1976, almost entirely for the Chicago Cubs. A six-time All-Star, Williams was named the 1961 National League (NL) ...

took 9 for 29 for Yorkshire against

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 1919 and

Tom Emmett Thomas Emmett (3 September 1841 – 29 June 1904) was an English cricket bowler in the late 1860s, the 1870s and the early 1880s. Cricket career Born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, Emmett first joined Yorkshire when almost 25 as a pro ...

9 for 34 against

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 ...

in 1868. Bertram Harold Smithson, the father of Yorkshire and England cricketer

Gerald Smithson Gerald Arthur Smithson (1 November 1926 – 6 September 1970) was an English cricketer who played in two Test cricket, Tests for England national cricket team, England in 1947–48. He was born at Spofforth, North Yorkshire, Spofforth, West Rid ...

, was cricket professional and head groundsman for Dewsbury & Savile CC in the early 1930s. The ground was abandoned in the 1990s after the incumbent club, Dewsbury & Savile CC, could not afford to renovate the classic pre-war pavilion to modern standards. The local council refused financial aid without a guarantee that the club, ground and adjoining football field could be used for the wider community. As a private club, Dewsbury refused. The ground reverted to the council. Dewsbury merged with Whitley Lower CC to become Hopton Mills CC. The ground ceased to be a cricket ground and became a general recreation ground. The pavilion was demolished.

References

{{coord, 53, 41, 01.86, N, 1, 38, 01.94, W, type:landmark, display=title Defunct cricket grounds in England Cricket grounds in West Yorkshire Sport in Dewsbury Defunct sports venues in West Yorkshire Sports venues completed in 1867 1867 establishments in England