The County 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 str ...

ground in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. The ground, located along Station Road, was situated close to Stoke-on-Trent railway station.

History

The first recorded match on the ground was in 1885, when Staffordshire played

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in a non first-class match.

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 officia ...

was first played there in 1886, when an England XI played the touring

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, with the Australian

George Giffen George Giffen (27 March 1859 – 29 November 1927) was a cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. An all-rounder who batted in the middle order and often opened the bowling with medium-paced off-spin, Giffen captained Australia ...

taking the first two

five wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Taki ...

s to be taken there. Two years later in 1888, the fixture was repeated, resulting in victory for the Australians by the large margin of an innings and 135 runs. The match was of particular note for the England XI being dismissed for 28 in their first-innings, with Charles Turner taking figures in the innings of 9/15, figures which would remain the best return for any bowler in subsequent first-class matches there. The Australians returned to the ground during the 1890 Ashes series, playing a first-class match against a Staffordshire XI, resulting in an 88 runs victory for the Australians. In 1895, Staffordshire played their inaugural Minor Counties Championship match there against

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. The ground was the main venue for Staffordshire in these early years in the competition, hosting 70 Minor Counties Championship matches before the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914. It was in 1912 that the ground played host to a first-class fixture for the first time since 1890, when a combined

Minor Counties cricket team 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 ...

played its inaugural first-class match against the touring

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, with poor weather forcing the match to end in a draw. Following the war, the ground began to decline as a cricket venue, with Staffordshire preferring other locations around the county. After the war, just seven further Minor Counties Championship matches were held there in a fourteen-year period from 1922 to 1936, with Staffordshire playing their final fixture there against

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

. First-class cricket returned once to the ground in this period, when the Minor Counties played the touring South Africans in 1929, which ended in a draw. Around the 1920s, Stoke City considered moving from their

Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. History ...

to the county ground, however this move did not materialise. By 1955, the North Staffordshire Technical College had taken over ownership of the ground, and shortly after they built on it, with the site today a campus of Staffordshire University.

Records

First-class

* Highest team total: 248 by

v England XI, 1905 * Lowest team total: 28 by England XI v Australians, 1888 * Highest individual innings: 92 by William Cook for

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 ...

, 1929 * Best bowling in an innings: 9-15 by Charles Turner for Australians v England XI, 1888 * Best bowling in a match: 13-48 by Charles Turner, as above

References and notes

External links

County Ground, Stoke-on-Trent
on CricketArchive

on Cricinfo {{Staffordshire CCC Defunct cricket grounds in England Cricket grounds in Staffordshire Sports venues in Stoke-on-Trent Defunct sports venues in Staffordshire Sports venues completed in 1885 1955 disestablishments in England