South Downs Road 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 South Downs Road, Bowdon,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

(formerly

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

). The ground is surrounded by residential housing on all sides. The ground is used by

Bowdon Cricket Club Bowdon Cricket Club is an amateur cricket club based at South Downs Road, Bowdon in Greater Manchester. The club's first team plays in the Cheshire County Cricket League, which is one of the ECB Premier Leagues that are the highest level of th ...

. It also has facilities for

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

and squash.

History

Bowdon Cricket Club was founded in 1856 and first played at South Downs Road in 1865, having agreed to rent the ground from the 7th Earl of Stamford. The grounds pavilion was constructed in 1874, with its original facade remaining to this day.

first played at the ground in the 1910

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 ...

against Durham. However, Cheshire would not return to the ground until 1933, when they played

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

in the Minor Counties Championship, which would be the last time they would play there for 43 years. In 1939, Helen Bickham bought the ground from the 10th Earl of Stamford in memory of her brother, Ernest Bickham, and proceeded to donate it to the cricket club. Minor counties cricket returned to the ground in 1976, when Cheshire played the Somerset Second XI in the Minor Counties Championship. From 1980 to 2001, Cheshire played annually at the ground, with the final Minor Counties Championship match hosted there seeing

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 held its 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 when it was selected as a home venue for the combined Minor Counties cricket team, with the team playing

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

there in the

1984 Benson & Hedges Cup The 1984 Benson & Hedges Cup was the thirteenth edition of cricket's Benson & Hedges Cup. The competition was won by Lancashire County Cricket Club. Fixtures and results Group stage Group A Group B Group C Group D Quarter-finals ...

. Cheshire later played two List A matches there, 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 ...

against Durham and 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 ...

against

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 ...

, with both their first-class opponents winning.

Records

List A

* Highest team total: 312/7 (50 overs) by

, 1999 * Lowest team total: 107/9 (47 overs) by Cheshire v Durham, 1994 * Highest individual innings: 123 by Nigel Llong for Kent v Cheshire, 1999 * Best bowling in an innings: 5/22 by Simon Brown for Durham v Cheshire, 1994

Gallery

File:Bowdon Cricket, Hockey and Squash Club (7).JPG, View of the pavilion. File:Bowdon Cricket, Hockey and Squash Club (29).JPG, Wider view of the ground. File:Bowdon Cricket, Hockey and Squash Club (24).JPG, View of the ground looking north. File:Bowdon Cricket, Hockey and Squash Club (11).JPG, View of the ground looking east. File:Bowdon Cricket, Hockey and Squash Club (25).JPG, View of the squash club.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Bowdon Cricket, Hockey and Squash Club
South Downs Road
at CricketArchive

at

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