School Field, Cranbrook

School Field
Ground information
LocationCranbrook, Kent
Coordinates51°06′04″N 0°32′13″E / 51.101°N 0.537°E / 51.101; 0.537
OperatorCranbrook School
Team information
Kent County Cricket Club (1850–1851)
Cranbrook School (1945–)
As of 5 December 2017
Source: CricketArchive

School Field Ground is a sports ground owned by Cranbrook School located in the town of Cranbrook, Kent, England. It is known by the school as Big Side Playing Field.[1] The field, which is 4.63 hectares (11.4 acres) in size, and located south of Quaker Lane, is used by the school for cricket, rugby union and hockey.[2]

Cricket history

The ground has been used as a cricket field since at least the mid 19th century, at which point it was in private hands.[3] Kent County Cricket Club played two first-class cricket matches on a ground specifically prepared on the site, one in 1850 and the other in 1851, both against England XIs.[4][5] Kent also played two first-class matches at nearby Swifts Park in 1862–63.[6]

The ground has been used by the school since the 1940s,[3] including for matches against teams such as MCC. A South African Universities team and a South Africa Schools XI played on the ground in 1967 whilst apartheid was in operation. In July 1968, Free Foresters played a United States team on the ground.[7]

References

  1. ^ Sport @ Cranbrook, Cranbrook School, Kent. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  2. ^ Site Summary Sheet: Site 129 Big Side Playing Field adjacent to Quaker Lane and Waterloo Road, Cranbrook, Cranbrook and Sissinghurst Parish Sites, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, 2017. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  3. ^ a b Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in The Cricket Statistician, no.28, December 1979, pp.2–10.
  4. ^ Milton H (2020) Kent County Cricket Grounds, p.210. Woking: Pitch Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78531-661-6
  5. ^ First-Class Matches played on School Field, Cranbrook, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  6. ^ Grounds Records in Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017, pp.210–211. Canterbury: Kent County Cricket Club.
  7. ^ Other matches played on School Field, Cranbrook, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-05.