The Memorial Ground (also known as Finchampstead Park) 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 Finchampstead,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

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 ...

. The ground is located at the northern end of the village and is part of a wider sporting complex.

History

Appearing on maps as early as 1930,

first played there against

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

in the 1982

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

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 ...

was first played at the ground in the

1988 NatWest Trophy The 1988 NatWest Trophy was the 8th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 22 June and 3 September 1988. The tournament was won by Middlesex who defeated Worcestershire by 3 wickets in t ...

when Berkshire played

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 their first-class opponents winning by 10 wickets. The ground was a venue for the 1993 Women's World Cup, hosting a single match between

England Women The England women's cricket team represents England and Wales in international women's cricket. Since 1998, they have been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by the Women's Cricket Association ...

and India Women, which England won by 3 runs. A second List A match was played there the following year in the

1994 NatWest Trophy The 1994 NatWest Trophy was the 14th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 21 June and 3 September 1994. The tournament was won by Worcestershire County Cricket Club who defeated Warwick ...

with

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 ...

as the visitors. With the exception of 1985, one Minor Counties Championship match was played there annually from Berkshire's first match there, with the ground also hosting its first MCCA Knockout Trophy match in 1997 when Berkshire played

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. Two further List A matches were later played there, with Berkshire losing to Durham in the

2000 NatWest Trophy The 2000 NatWest Trophy was the 20th and last NatWest Trophy before being renamed as the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy for the 2001 season. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 2 May and 26 August 200 ...

and defeating

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

by 4 wickets. Six further MCCA Knockout Trophy matches have been played there, the last of which came in 2006 between Berkshire and

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, while the arrangement of hosting one Minor Counties Championship match annually continues.

Finchampstead Cricket Club Finchampstead is a village and civil parish in the Wokingham Borough in the shire of Berkshire, England. Its northern extremity is south of Wokingham, west of Bracknell, south-east of Reading, and west of Central London. It is an affluent ar ...

use the ground as their home venue. It also has

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 ...

and hockey playing facilities, with Hellenic League members

Finchampstead F.C. Finchampstead Football Club is a football club based in Finchampstead, Berkshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Memorial Park. History The club was established in 1952 after the creation of Memorial Park allowed a fo ...

playing there.

Records

List A

* Highest team total: 384/6 (60 overs) by

, 1994 * Lowest team total: 97 all out (28.5 overs) by Berkshire v Durham, 2000 * Highest individual innings: 136 * by

Carl Hooper Carl Llewelyn Hooper (born 15 December 1966) is a former Guyanese cricketer who captained the West Indies in Tests and ODIs. An all-rounder, he was a right-handed batsman and off-spin bowler, who came to prominence in the late 1980s in a side ...

for Kent v Berkshire, 1994 * Best bowling in an innings: 5/87 by

Philip Oxley Philip John Oxley (born 7 April 1965) is a former English cricketer. Oxley was a right-handed Batsman (cricket), batsman who bowled right-arm off break. He was born at Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Berkshire. Oxley made his Minor Counties Cha ...

for Berkshire v Kent, 1994

References

External links

Memorial Ground
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 ...

Memorial Ground
at CricketArchive {{Berkshire CCC Berkshire County Cricket Club Cricket grounds in Berkshire

History

Records

List A

See also

References

External links