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The Saffrons is a multi-purpose sports ground in
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the l ...
,
East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...
. The ground is home to Eastbourne Cricket Club, Eastbourne Town Football Club, Eastbourne Hockey Club and Compton Croquet Club. There is also a sand dressed astroturf pitch. The sports ground is located on the edge of
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the l ...
town centre, next to the town hall and is in easy reach of local transport links. The ground was first used in 1884.
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 ...
played some of their matches there between 1896 and 2000, and recently from 2017. The complex has: * A football pitch. * Two cricket pitches, one of which is named Larkins field. * An Astroturf Hockey pitch. * A Croquet lawn. * Sports bar and changing facilities.


Football

The Saffrons is home to
Eastbourne Town F.C. Eastbourne Town Football Club is an English football club based in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and are currently members of the and play at The Saffrons. Founded on 19 October 1881 as Devonshire Park F.C., they are founding members of the Susse ...
, who play in the Southern Combination Football League and who have played football here since 1886, when the then Devonshire Park Football Club moved grounds from their former namesake (now the venue for the
Eastbourne International The Eastbourne International is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified as a WTA 500 series on the WTA Tour and an ATP Tour 2 ...
tennis tournament). Devonshire Park Football Club changed their name to Eastbourne in 1889 and the 'Town' suffix was added in 1971. The Larkins Field End, where the clubhouse stands, was originally a wooden grandstand structure, built in the 1930s when attendances at the town club were increasing. The Town Hall side, now known as the East Terrace was asphalted at the same time. The wooden grandstand was destroyed by an arson attack in 1969. The stand was rebuilt but lost its roof in the 1987 hurricane. The current stand today, known as the Taffy Jones/Sid Mayall stand was built in 1994, 25 years after the original grandstand was destroyed. In 1946, the pitch was moved closer to the cricket ground to lay foundations for the East Terrace, which still remains today. The Meads Road side of the terrace had the covered stand built in 1962. There are wooden benches in this stand. Floodlights were installed in 1994 and during the 1990s a clubhouse, new dressing rooms and a tea bar have been built behind the stand. The West Terrace, where the team dugouts are situated once had a movable fence depending on when either the football or the cricket was playing. In recent years the cricket green was moved slightly away to allow a permanent fence and asphalt laid for spectators to stand. The main turnsite was originally built in 1914 and was destroyed by a fire in February 2004 but restored before the new season started. The ground plays host to many county cup finals at youth and intermediate level. The capacity of the football ground is 3,000, with seating for 200 spectators.


Stands

* The Sid Myall & Taffy Jones Stand previously known as the Larkins Field End, has seating for 200 spectators, also the tea bar, hot food hut and toilets. The players changing rooms are also in this stand. * East Terrace is an open air terrace running for two thirds of the pitch, the other first has a covered terrace, previously sponsored and named the Hopkins Estate agents stand. * Meads Road End sometimes known as the Bell End due to the close proximity of the Town Hall clock tower, is an open air terrace with a temporary stand borrowed from the cricket pitch for seating. * West Terrace is an open air stand. The team dugouts are situated along this stand.


Other uses

As well as being home to Eastbourne Town, the ground has been used as training ground for the
England National Football Team The England national football team has represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Engl ...
in May 1954. And between 1955 and 1957,
Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
visited
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the l ...
and trained at The Saffrons in preparation for the
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
finals against
Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East En ...
(1955) and
Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...
(1956). The Saffrons has hosted both amateur and county football events: *
Amateur Football Alliance Senior Cup The Amateur Football Alliance Senior Cup is an amateur football competition in England organised by the Amateur Football Alliance. The competition is contested by the first teams of clubs affiliated to the Alliance. {, class="wikitable sortable" s ...
: 1909–1910, 1937–38 *
Corinthian League The League of Corinth, also referred to as the Hellenic League (from Greek Ἑλληνικός ''Hellenikos'', "pertaining to Greece and Greeks"), was a confederation of Greek states created by Philip II in 338–337 BC. The League was created ...
Challenge Shield : 1951–52 *
Sussex Senior Challenge Cup The Sussex Senior Cup is an annual association football knock-out cup competition for men's football clubs in the English county of Sussex and is the county senior cup of the Sussex FA. Its official name is the Sussex Senior Challenge Cup. ...
: 1935–36


Records

The highest attendance to date was 7,378, in a FA Cup qualifying game against Hastings United on 10 October 1953.


Cricket


Eastbourne Cricket Club

The cricket ground is home to Eastbourne Cricket Club, who play in the
Sussex Cricket League The Sussex Cricket League, founded in 1971, is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in Sussex, England, and since 1999 the Premier Division has been a designated ECB Premier League The Premier League (legal name: T ...
. Formed in the 1750s, the club played at various venues in
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the l ...
, before moving to the Saffrons. The venue saw its first game of cricket played in 1884. The ground has also hosted a single Women's One Day International 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 Associat ...
and
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
in the
1973 Women's Cricket World Cup The 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup was the inaugural Women's Cricket World Cup, held in England between 20 June and 28 July 1973. It was the first tournament of its kind, held two years before the first limited overs World Cup for men in 1975. T ...
. There was once a pavilion at one end of the ground which was destroyed by fire in 1947, a replacement was built which was also damaged by fire in 1977. The ground has a capacity of 4,500.


Sussex County Cricket Club

The Saffrons hosted 226 first-class matches between 1896 and 2000. Most of these involved
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 ...
, but (especially in earlier years) a number of tour and invitational sides played here too. The inaugural first-class match at the Saffrons was played in May 1896, when South of England drew with the touring
Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) ...
. The ground hosted 32
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 ...
matches between 1970 and 2000, and one match each of Youth and Women's One-Day Internationals, as well as Sussex Second XI games. County cricket returned to the Saffrons in May 2017 when Sussex played
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...
in a
Royal London One-Day Cup The Royal London One-Day Cup is a fifty-over limited overs cricket competition for the England and Wales first-class counties. It began in 2014 as a replacement for the ECB 40 tournament, which ran from 2010 to 2013. In contrast to its 40-ov ...
match.


Records


First-class

*Highest team total: 676/8 declared by Harlequins v
West Indians A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use i ...
, 1928 *Lowest team total: 38 by
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 Englis ...
v
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
, 1950 **
Charles Knott Charles James Knott (26 November 1914 – 27 February 2003) was an English first-class cricketer. Knott was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm off-break and right-arm medium pace. Early life Knott was born in Southampton and educate ...
returned figures of 7-4-5-5 in this innings *Highest individual innings: 310 by
Harold Gimblett Harold Gimblett (19 October 1914 – 30 March 1978) was a cricketer who played for Somerset and England. He was known for his fast scoring as an opening batsman and for the much-repeated story of his debut. In a book first published in 198 ...
for
Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...
v
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 Englis ...
, 1948 **The first triple century for Somerset *Best bowling in an innings: 9-62 by
Tony Nicholson Anthony George Nicholson (25 June 1938 – 4 November 1985) was an English first-class cricketer, active 1962 to 1975, who played for Yorkshire as a right arm medium pace bowler and was a member of the club's five County Championship-winnin ...
for
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 ...
v
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 Englis ...
, 1967 *Best bowling in a match: 14-84 by
Hugh Trumble Hugh Trumble (19 May 1867 – 14 August 1938) was an Australian cricketer who played 32  Test matches as a bowling all-rounder between 1890 and 1904. He captained the Australian team in two Tests, winning both. Trumble took 141 wi ...
for
Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) ...
v England XI, 1902


List A

*Highest team total: 262 (48.3 overs) by
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 Englis ...
v
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...
, 1993 *Lowest team total: 63 (37.4 overs) by
Minor Counties East 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 ...
v
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 Englis ...
, 1978Same match. *Highest individual innings: 109 by Roger Knight for
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 Englis ...
v
Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire ...
, 1976 *Best bowling in an innings: 5-19 by
Michael Buss Michael John Buss (born 4 June 1955) is the President of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. He was appointed to that position on 18 July 2016, having previously been a Judge of the Supreme Court. Education Buss was ...
for
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 Englis ...
v
Minor Counties East 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 ...
, 1978


Hockey

Eastbourne Hockey Club have a sand dressed artificial grass pitch behind the Football Ground. Originally built in 1964, it was refurbished in 2015. Eastbourne Hockey Club currently have a men's team and a ladies team, as well as a veterans team and a junior team. * Eastbourne Hockey Club Men competing in The South Hockey League Premier - Division 2 * Eastbourne Hockey Club Ladies competing in the South Clubs Women's Hockey League - Division 3B


Rugby

Eastbourne Rugby Club played their home games here between 1892 and 1934 using both the football pitch and the field behind, known as Larkins Field. The first recorded game was in December 1892 against
Brighton Football Club Brighton Football Club was an Australian rules football club which played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). The club was based in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton, and was nicknamed the Penguins. After suffering financial hardship t ...
. The rugby club used the Saffrons Number 1 pitch on Wednesdays, where Eastbourne Town currently play their games, and other games on Larkins Field, behind the hockey pitch. In the 1894–95 season, the rugby club used "The New Inn", now called Bibendum, the opposite side of the road as their Headquarters and dressing rooms. In 1934 the rugby club moved to their present home in
Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...
. Larkins Field is now a spare cricket pitch for local teams in the area.


References


External links


The Saffrons Sports Ground

Eastbourne Town Football Club

Eastbourne Cricket Club


from CricketArchive

from CricketArchive

from Nomad Online {{DEFAULTSORT:Saffrons, The Eastbourne Town F.C. Sport in Eastbourne Cricket grounds in East Sussex Sports venues completed in 1884 Sports venues in East Sussex Buildings and structures in Eastbourne Football venues in England