Summer Sports - Cricket
Right now, getting people to think of the Nevill Ground as a cricket venue with quality pitches is my first priority
No hockey on this part of the outfield this winter, but plenty of surface water
surface water removal, which belongs to Kent CCC at Canterbury. This is brought to the ground for the duration of Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week. Luckily, Jon didn’t have to use it for his first Cricket Week though, looking around, it would be over-worked if cricket were a winter game. In a year’s time, I reminded him, he would be looking after a hockey pitch in front of the pavilion. “It’s always been my opinion that we are
here to provide a complete service. I know something about looking after grass hockey pitches on a cricket outfield. It was one of the jobs I had to do at Sunderland Cricket Club, so I’m ready for it and looking forward to it.”
“Right now, getting people to think of the
Nevill Ground as a cricket venue with quality pitches is my first priority.” Jon has three experienced assistant
groundsmen to rely on here at the Nevill and for all of the facilities in Sodexo’s care: Tony Field, Adam Hogg and Dave Boakes. The ground is noted - not just by E W
Swanton, but by many a cricket watcher - for its rhododendrons. These used to be a colourful backdrop for the Cricket Week when, until a couple of seasons back, it was
held for close on a century in late May early June. As Tunbridge Wells Club Chairman Mark Williams had earlier told me, this date switch was a strategic decision by the county as four of the five previous seasons had been wash-outs. The day I’m there, Tony Field is giving a stretch of ‘rhodies’ a hard mid- winter prune. They’ll be a joy as always. The Nevill is named after William Nevill,
the 1st Marquis of Abergavenny, who owned it before selling it on lease to the town’s sports clubs in 1895. After the war, in 1946, ownership passed to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, where it remains. An event of notable and infamous
significance occurred in 1913, when the original pavilion was destroyed by deliberate fire at the hand of the Suffragettes. In 1995, the Bluemantle Stand was erected on the site of the fire, bearing the name of another local cricket club, which has been using the ground since Victorian times. This permanent source of undercover seating is popular with both cricket and hockey watchers. Two cricket records, other than last year’s
massive Kent innings, are firmly inked in the book alongside the name of the Nevill Ground. In the same year as the Suffragette
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fire, Kent dismissed Warwickshire for just 16 in a Championship match and this remains the lowest score by a 1st class team against the county. Even less to boast about, given the current drive by Jon to get things faster and truer, is the single day in 1960 when 30 wickets fell in a Championship game against Worcestershire and the match was concluded before stumps with two of the three days left to play. This is the last 1st class match to finish on the first day. Last year, the Nevill Ground was named as one of the best outgrounds in the country by The Independent newspaper and it seems the new July Cricket Week is already proving successful, even without the rhododendrons in flower. The weather can be more helpful later in the summer and the huge cricket following in the Tunbridge Wells area will always be very supportive. Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week has a great
history and it gives people in this part of the county the opportunity of enjoying county cricket in two versions of the game. Jon will be doing his best to see that they do.
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