The County Cricket Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as The 1st Central County Ground, 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 ...

venue in

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

, East Sussex, England. The County Ground is the home of

Sussex County Cricket Club Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Sussex. Its limited overs team is called the Sussex Sharks. The c ...

, where most Sussex home matches since 1872 have been played, although many other grounds in

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 ...

have been used. Sussex CCC continue to play some of their games away from The County Ground, at either

Arundel Castle Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established during the reign of Edward the Confessor and completed by Roger de Montgomery. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War a ...

and

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

. It is one of the few county grounds to have deckchairs for spectators, in the Sussex CCC colours of blue and white, and was the first cricket ground to install permanent floodlights, for day/night cricket matches and the second ground (after

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

) to host a day/night match in England, in 1997.

Cricket history

Prior to 1872, Sussex County Cricket Club played their home matches at

Royal Brunswick Ground The Royal Brunswick Ground, also known as "C H Gausden's Ground", in Hove, Sussex was a venue for first-class cricket matches from 1848 to 1871. The ground was situated to the west of the Brunswick Town area of Hove, roughly where Third and Fo ...

. The land for the County Ground was a

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...

field until it was bought in 1871. The turf from the Royal Brunswick Ground was then brought to the County Ground, which became the home of Sussex CCC in 1872, and continues to be so. In 1872, George "Farmer" Bennett became the first batsman in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

to be given out handled ball during a match between

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 ...

and Sussex at the County Ground. In 1873, Sussex bowled

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 ...

out for 19 at Hove. In 1884–85, the public raised £4,400 towards the purchase of the ground, with the

Earl of Sheffield Baron Sheffield is a title that has been created four times: once in the Peerage of England, twice in the Peerage of Ireland, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation, as ''Baron Sheffield of Butterwick'', was in the Pe ...

contributing an additional £600. In the 20th century, the ground was used for some other cricket matches, such as a charity match in 1927 between the "

Jockeys A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual ...

" and the "Racing Press", in aid of the

Royal Sussex County Hospital The Royal Sussex County Hospital is an acute teaching hospital in Brighton, England. Together with the Princess Royal Hospital, it is administered by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. The services provided at the hospital inc ...

and the

Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital The Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital is a children's hospital located within the grounds of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on the south coast of England. It provides outpatient services, inpatient facilities, intensive care an ...

, and an annual match between local commercial travellers and grocers, nicknamed "Travellers v. Grocers"; in 1925, the match was won by the Travellers by 1 run. The ground has hosted one men's

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

; the match was part of the

1999 Cricket World Cup The 1999 Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Cricket World Cup '99) was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted primarily by England, with Scotland, Ireland, Wales ...

, and was a Group A match between South Africa and India, which South Africa won by 4 wickets. The County Ground has also hosted 2

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

The Women's Ashes The Women's Ashes is the perpetual trophy in women's international cricket series between England and Australia. The name derives from the historic precedent of the Ashes in male cricket and, until 2013, was similarly decided exclusively on the ...

in 1987 and 2005; in addition, the ground hosted two

s in the

2013 Women's Ashes The Australian women's cricket team toured England in 2013. The visitors were defending the Women's Ashes. The only Test match of the tour took place on 11–14 August at Wormsley Park, and was drawn. Three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) were pla ...

, As of 2017, 5 Women's ODIs and 4 Women's T20Is have been hosted at the ground. In 2003, The County Ground was the venue where Sussex won their first

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

title. In that match, Sussex batsman

Murray Goodwin Murray William Goodwin (born 11 December 1972) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer who played 19 Tests and 71 One Day Internationals. He was a right-handed top-order batsman, strong on the back foot, and a good cutter and puller of the ball. In ...

also scored 335 *, which was then highest score by a Sussex player in first-class cricket. The ground also saw Sussex win their third Championship title in 2007.

Non-cricket history

During the 1890s, the County Ground was also used as a

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 ...

ground for teams from the Brighton Area, including Brighton United of the Southern League (until they went bust in 1900), and Brighton Athletic of the East Sussex League. The ground was also the venue for the Sussex

lawn tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...

championship meetings in 1893 and 1899, and in 1948, the County Ground also hosted a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

match between Brighton and a

Midland Bank Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...

team. Many concerts have been held at the County Ground.

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

has played at the ground in 2006, 2011 and 2019, the ground has also hosted Madness,

Lionel Richie Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of funk band the Commodores; writing and recordi ...

(with

Shane Filan Shane Steven Filan (born 5 July 1979) is an Irish Pop music, pop singer. He is one of the two lead singers of pop vocal group Westlife, which was formed in 1998, disbanded in 2012, and regrouped in 2018. Westlife have released thirteen albums, ...

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporarily di ...

as support act),

Little Mix Little Mix are a British girl group, composed of group members Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, and Perrie Edwards. Jesy Nelson was originally part of the group before she left in 2020. After becoming the first group to win the British ver ...

Olly Murs Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television presenter. He was runner-up on the sixth series of ''The X Factor'' in 2009 and was subsequently signed to RCA Records and Sony Music in the United Kingdom, ...

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

and

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...

. As part of the

2012 Summer Olympics torch relay The 2012 Summer Olympics torch relay was run from 19 May until 27 July, prior to the London 2012 Summer Olympics. The torch bearer selection process was announced on 18 May 2011. As well as touring the United Kingdom the schedule included the t ...

, the ground hosted an official Olympic torch event. For many years, the County Ground has hosted one of the best fireworks displays within the South East, for

Guy Fawkes Night Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Fireworks Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain, involving bonfires and fireworks displays. Its history begins with the ev ...

. In 2019, the annual fireworks night sold out with over 7,500 attendees.

Gallery

Image:Sussex v Derbyshire.JPG, Sussex batting against Derbyshire on 24 April 2005 Image:Arthur Gilligan stand at Hove.JPG, The former Arthur Gilligan stand Image:Crowd leaves ground at Hove.JPG, Leaving the County Ground Image:Sussex v Nottinghamshire at Hove - geograph.org.uk - 2406201.jpg, Sussex vs Nottinghamshire in 2011 Image:The County Ground, Hove - the Pavilion - geograph.org.uk - 2406259.jpg, The Pavilion in 2011 Image:The County Ground, Hove - the lunchtime score - geograph.org.uk - 2406172.jpg, The scoreboard in 2011

Cricket history

Non-cricket history

Gallery

Notes

References

See also