Morris Motors Sports 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 in Cowley,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. The ground was built and initially owned by Morris Motors in the 1920s, under the guidance of its founder William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1954, when

played their first

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 ...

match at the ground in the 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 ...

. From 1954 to 1991, the ground hosted 32 Minor Counties Championship matches, with the final Minor Counties Championship match seeing Oxfordshire play

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 ...

. The ground has also held List-A matches. The first List-A match saw Oxfordshire play

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

1970 Gillette Cup The 1970 Gillette Cup was the eighth Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 25 April and 5 September 1970. The tournament was won by Lancashire County Cricket Club who defeated Sussex County Cricket ...

. In 1972 Oxfordshire played Durham in the

1972 Gillette Cup The 1972 Gillette Cup was the tenth Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 5 July and 2 September 1972. The tournament was won by Lancashire County Cricket Club who defeated Warwickshire County Cric ...

, with the final List-A match held on the ground between Oxfordshire and

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

in the

1975 Gillette Cup The 1975 Gillette Cup was the thirteenth Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 25 June and 6 September 1975. The tournament was won by Lancashire County Cricket Club who defeated Middlesex County C ...

. After over 50 years at the ground, Morris Motors Cricket Club were removed from it by the Morris Motors Athletic & Social Club, the custodians of the ground, shortly before the start of the 2003 season, sparking claims of racism; the social club denied this, claiming the cricket club's removal was a financial decision.

References

External links

Morris Motors Sports Ground
on CricketArchive

on

Cricinfo 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 d ...

Defunct cricket grounds in England Defunct sports venues in Oxford Sports venues completed in 1954 {{England-cricket-ground-stub