Orleton 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

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

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 ...

. The ground was established in 1891, when

played a non first-class match against

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 ...

. It is now home to

Wellington Cricket Club Wellington Cricket Club is an amateur cricket club in Wellington, near Telford in Shropshire. Their 1st XI play in the Birmingham and District Premier League Premier Division, which they won in 2003 and 2004. The side was relegated to Division 1 a ...

whose first team are in the Shropshire Premier League. Peter Byram was groundsman who since his death has been replaced by Steven Gough. The 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 played on the ground was in 1965 between Shropshire and

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

. From 1965 to 2001 the ground hosted 36 Minor Counties matches, with the last being against Shropshire and

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 ...

. In 1979, the ground hosted its only first-class match to date between a combined

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

team and the touring

India national cricket team The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India or the Men in Blue, represents India in men's international cricket. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a List of International Cricket Cou ...

. The first

List-A 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 ...

match played on the ground came in the

1974 Gillette Cup The 1974 Gillette Cup was the twelfth Gillette Cup, an English limited overs county cricket tournament. It was held between 29 June and 7 September 1974. The tournament was won by Kent County Cricket Club who defeated Lancashire County Cricket C ...

between Shropshire and

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 ...

. From 1974 to 1999, the ground eight five List-A matches, the last of which came in the

1999 NatWest Trophy The 1999 NatWest Trophy was the 19th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 4 May and 29 August 1999. The tournament was won by Gloucestershire who defeated Somerset by 50 runs in the fin ...

between Shropshire and the

Hampshire Cricket Board The Hampshire Cricket Board (HCB) was formed in 1996 and is the governing body for all recreational cricket in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Hampshire. Following a restructuring in January 2010, the HCB now operates as a li ...

. The ground has also played host to two international matches. Firstly in the

1979 ICC Trophy The 1979 ICC Trophy was a limited overs cricket tournament held in England between 22 May and 21 June 1979. It was the inaugural ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, with matches between the 15 participating teams played over 60 overs a side and w ...

between

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

and again between the same sides in the

1986 ICC Trophy The 1986 ICC Trophy was a limited-overs cricket tournament held in England between 11 June and 7 July 1986. It was the third ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, and as with the previous two tournaments, games between the 16 participating teams pla ...

.ICC Trophy Matches played on Orleton Park
/ref> In local domestic cricket, Orleton Park is the home ground of Wellington Cricket Club who play in the

Birmingham and District Premier League The Birmingham & District Premier Cricket League is the oldest club cricket league in the United Kingdom, formed in 1888. It was the first England and Wales Cricket Board, ECB ECB Premier Leagues, Premier League, being designated such in 1998, a ...

References

External links

Orleton Park
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 ...

* * https://wellington.play-cricket.com/website/player_stats_widget/batting_stats/2534057 {{Shropshire CCC Cricket grounds in Shropshire Sports venues completed in 1891 Sport in Telford Wellington, Shropshire