Sussex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 member clubs of the English

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 ...

, representing the historic county of Sussex. Although Sussex representative sides had been playing cricket since the mid-eighteenth century and had also played

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 ...

matches since 1815, the County Cricket Club was established on 1 March 1839. They have played first-class matches since 1839, List A matches since 1963, and

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

matches since 2003. Unlike most professional sports, in which a team usually has a single fixed home ground, county cricket clubs have traditionally used different grounds in various towns and cities within the county for home matches, although the use of minor "out grounds" away from the club's main headquarters has diminished since the 1980s. In total, Sussex have played first-class, List A and Twenty20 cricket at 17 different grounds across the county. The club's first fixture was played at the Royal New Ground, Brighton. The ground was Sussex's main ground until 1848, when the

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 F ...

Brunswick, Hove Brunswick Town is an area in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is best known for the Regency architecture of the Brunswick estate. History Originally, the area had been part of Wick Farm. In the late 18th and early 19th centur ...

became the main ground. In 1872, the land of the Royal Brunswick Ground was required for the expansion of the town, so the club relocated to the County Ground, which continues to be the main ground for Sussex Cricket Club. The County Ground was the venue where Sussex claimed the 2003 and 2007 County Championships. It is also the only ground in Sussex to have hosted international cricket; in the 1999 World Cup, a One Day International between

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

was played at the ground. In 1849, the club used a venue outside Brighton for the first time, when they played a first-class match at

Petworth Park New Ground Petworth Park New Ground is a cricket ground in the shadow of Petworth House, Petworth, Sussex. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1844, when Petworth Cricket Club played the Marylebone Cricket Club in the first first-class match he ...

; the match against Surrey is notable for being one of Sussex's lowest aggregate scoring matches of all time, with only 287 runs scored. It was also the only time that Petworth Park hosted a Sussex match. Sussex have frequently used out grounds to host some of their matches, typically as part of cricket festivals. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, their main out grounds were the

Central Recreation Ground The Central Recreation Ground was a cricket ground in Hastings, East Sussex, used for first-class and List A cricket between 1864 and 1996. The ground was frequently used by Sussex County Cricket Club as one of their outgrounds from 1865; ...

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

The Saffrons The Saffrons is a multi-purpose sports ground in Eastbourne, East Sussex. 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 ...

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 la ...

, the Cricket Field Road Ground in Horsham, and the

Arundel Castle Cricket Ground Arundel Castle Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in Arundel, West Sussex, England, nearby to Arundel Castle. It has been in use since 1952. The ground was first used by the Sussex 1st XI in 1972 for limited-over matches and in 1990 for C ...

(from 1972). After the Central Recreation Ground was demolished in 1996, Sussex also played two List A matches at

Horntye Park Horntye Park Sports Complex is a sports and conference centre in Hastings, East Sussex, England. Primarily known as a cricket ground, the venue also contains a large indoor sports hall, an all-weather pitch used for football and hockey and a se ...

, Hastings' other cricket ground. Eastbourne cancelled its proposed fixture in 2001 and did not host another county match until 2017, whilst Horsham was not awarded any matches for the 2016 season, due to financial difficulties. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, all of Sussex's matches in 2020 and 2021 were played at the County Ground. In 2020,

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 ...

played some "home" fixtures at Arundel, as the Rose Bowl was being used by

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The County Ground and Arundel Castle are the only two grounds to have hosted Sussex Twenty20 matches.

Grounds

''Below is a complete list of grounds used by Sussex County Cricket Club for first-class, List A and

matches. Statistics are complete through to the end of the 2020 season. Only matches played by Sussex County Cricket Club since its establishment in 1839 are included in the table. Matches abandoned without any play occurring are not included.''

Notes

References

{{featured list Sussex County Cricket Club Cricket grounds in Sussex Sussex Lists of buildings and structures in Sussex Sussex-related lists