There might, of course, be a few supporters and potential supporters for whom Welbeck is more convenient than Trent Bridge.

Yes Notts is quite a large county North to South. A few of us went there on the train a few years back massive crowd Alex Hales basically did to us what Barnard and Yates did to Worcester the other day. Nice journey up there but had to be careful with bus/rail connections on the return leg although we were fine once we were in Nottingham.

I see Leicestershire are playing at a club ground in a dot of a village called Kibworth today

If that's feasible then perhaps somewhere like Berkswell is feasible for Warwickshire

GerryShedd wrote:

There might, of course, be a few supporters and potential supporters for whom Welbeck is more convenient than Trent Bridge.

Yes no doubt we would get the same moans from Birmingham based members who don't understand the County concept. I remember this happening when the subject has been raised at agms.

It is incredible really we don't play any games in Coventry or Nuneaton given the history and the populations. The grounds are more than capable of holding matches.

I'm glad somebody raised the removal country membership. There has been steady erosion of acting like a county cricket club. Warwickshire Cricket board the last hope but even that seems to be undermined to an extent these days.

I don't know how many times it has to be stated, but Nuneaton cricket club is barely adequate for the top division of the Warwickshire league, the facilities are non existant.

Have you ever visited that ground?

Having just spent 3 days at Rugby School, I can confirm it is a wonderful venue, with an excelelnt wicket and outfield, but there are absolutely zero facilities for spectators, no seating, no catering, no parking and no toilets. All would have to be imported at great cost, remembering that playing at an outground means that our main facility will be sitting idle, but still incurring costs for the club. Also, as a business, Rugby School will make a better financial and reputational return on hosting 2 weeks of junior cricket festivals, which also allows it to hire out other parts of its sports and learning facilities than it would from having the site closed for a week to prepare for a one day county game.

With all the extra costs involved, I'd estimate that it would cost well over £100,000 to convert any of the suggested outgrounds into acceptable locations for a List A of championship game.

The ground at Berkswell is a public park, with a poor pavillion, and a car park that is barely adequate for the demands of a club game.

I am not against having a game on an outground, but I am realistic about the financial and logistical realities of outground cricket.

BosworthBear wrote:

GerryShedd wrote:

There might, of course, be a few supporters and potential supporters for whom Welbeck is more convenient than Trent Bridge.

Yes no doubt we would get the same moans from Birmingham based members who don't understand the County concept. I remember this happening when the subject has been raised at agms.

It is incredible really we don't play any games in Coventry or Nuneaton given the history and the populations. The grounds are more than capable of holding matches.

I'm glad somebody raised the removal country membership. There has been steady erosion of acting like a county cricket club. Warwickshire Cricket board the last hope but even that seems to be undermined to an extent these days.

Actually a bit offended by that as a "Birmingham based member"...

Colchester is a public park. Hosted festival cricket for decades. Relative paupers in the county game Leicestershire have managed to host games at Oakham school and now Kibworth.

Tell spectators to bring their own deckchairs/brollys and have a supply of chairs for those who don't. I just don't think all the issues are insurmountable or the 'scary' looking cost figure should mean that the county club continues to retreat into it's (almost quite literal) Poveydome sized Brummagem bunker

Today's crowd would have looked quite spectacular at Rugby School or Swans Nest Lane Stratford. And surely the club could work with Rugby School to have a county fixture on during or just prior to or just after the 2 week schools festival taking advantage of all the facilities that are in situ - bit of co-ordination would overcome that particular challenge.

They can and should work to make it happen and get a game on somewhere north south or east of the county

Highveld wrote:

I don't know how many times it has to be stated, but Nuneaton cricket club is barely adequate for the top division of the Warwickshire league, the facilities are non existant.

Have you ever visited that ground?

Having just spent 3 days at Rugby School, I can confirm it is a wonderful venue, with an excelelnt wicket and outfield, but there are absolutely zero facilities for spectators, no seating, no catering, no parking and no toilets. All would have to be imported at great cost, remembering that playing at an outground means that our main facility will be sitting idle, but still incurring costs for the club. Also, as a business, Rugby School will make a better financial and reputational return on hosting 2 weeks of junior cricket festivals, which also allows it to hire out other parts of its sports and learning facilities than it would from having the site closed for a week to prepare for a one day county game.

With all the extra costs involved, I'd estimate that it would cost well over £100,000 to convert any of the suggested outgrounds into acceptable locations for a List A of championship game.

The ground at Berkswell is a public park, with a poor pavillion, and a car park that is barely adequate for the demands of a club game.

I am not against having a game on an outground, but I am realistic about the financial and logistical realities of outground cricket.

Yes I do know NUneaton cricket club given I’ve been a member there for forty years and a vice President and have long standing family connections.

I know you have said the same thing over and over again but you are utterly wrong and in my opinion obstacle placing.

It’s one of the five oldest clubs in the midlands. Has good pavilion facilities, is tree lined has huge amount of potential parking and spectator areas.

It has hosted first class matches before, was where John Whitehouse learnt his craft and is regularly voted one of the top pitches in the midlands because currently it has first class gorundsman in Dave Button.

Just because you keep posting something doesn’t make it true.

Playing at outgrounds is about having the mentality and motivation to do so. I despair the current Board has it but I would hope genuine Warwickshire born and bred members would!

This article lists all the outgrounds used by Warwickshire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Warwickshire_County_Cricket_Club_grounds

Yes Weddington Road did host first class cricket, about 110 years ago so hardly relevent to a discussion of viable sites to use now.

Without a significant commercial sponsor, ideally with a multi year contractual commitment, there is not a viable option for using an outground in the county.

And yet for two seasons running now we've had Warwickshire send teams to club grounds to play a Warwickshire or Birmingham League select XI in a warm up game of sorts for the T20 and/or 50 overs comp.

Not all that difficult to transition from that to a full first class or List A fixture surely

mad wrote:

And yet for two seasons running now we've had Warwickshire send teams to club grounds to play a Warwickshire or Birmingham League select XI in a warm up game of sorts for the T20 and/or 50 overs comp.

Not all that difficult to transition from that to a full first class or List A fixture surely

For a warm up game the club would not be having to take in to account spectator facilities or admissions including seating and car parking

Point is they can't be bothered to;
a) Work with the host club or host league put some seating out and encourage folks to bring their own fold up chairs
b) encourage people to use public transport and set aside some space for mobility impaired to park their cars
c) the club pays lip service to but clearly does not see a future for a county cricket club in all but the name - increasing reliance on Portland Road for the 2nds games demonstrates this

Exactly its all froth and nonsense about facilities. It is not rocket science.

Why not ask Glamorgan what Neath CC needed to provide?

I saw inside the dressing rooms on the social media feeds and they are smaller than the dressing rooms at Nuneaton and Cov and North Warwick.

Both grounds probably have more parking than Edgbaston offers these days.

Gary Barlow has made clear there are no more fresh wickets available at Edgbaston hence the low scoring matches in all forms of cricket. The square at Edgbaston is exhausted.

You can dress it up how you want to and try to sound as clever and well travelled as you want but it is patently obviously a matter of will and choice.

If WCCC want to take games around the County then they will.

I see that Surrey are playing at Guildford - capacity just 2,000 and no parking:
https://www.kiaoval.com/metro-bank-one-day-cup-surrey-v-lancashire-match-day-info-for-guildford-cc/
PS - Bosworth Bear, I'm glad I'm not the only one who confuses our groundsman with the lead singer of Take That.

GerryShedd wrote:

I see that Surrey are playing at Guildford - capacity just 2,000 and no parking:
https://www.kiaoval.com/metro-bank-one-day-cup-surrey-v-lancashire-match-day-info-for-guildford-cc/
PS - Bosworth Bear, I'm glad I'm not the only one who confuses our groundsman with the lead singer of Take That.

Guildford's a very tight ground with a bog standard pavilion but I've enjoyed seeing Warwickshire win there especially in 2004.

And brilliant Gerry. I always try so hard not to do that. I will leave it there! The point remains valid though. There has simply been too much cricket at Edgbaston this year.

The spectator capacity at Guildford is only part of the story. A chunk of the ground is always given over to sponsors marquees - which is what makes it viable. Just a little creativity needed.
Personally, I need little more incentive to visit Guildford than the fact that their beer tent serves Hog's Back Brewery's TEA - Traditional English Ale. Lovely drop. Probably best not to take the car.

Yeah I remember watching Warwickshire play a championship match at Guildford some years ago and I don’t remember the facilities being anything spectacular, just a couple of very small temporary stands and a few marquees. I also saw us play Durham at South Northumberland a few years back and there you paid a deposit for a camping-style chair, with the option of just keeping the chair if you didn’t want the deposit back. I don’t see how it would cost anything like in the region of £100k to do.

Highveld wrote:

This article lists all the outgrounds used by Warwickshire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Warwickshire_County_Cricket_Club_grounds

Yes Weddington Road did host first class cricket, about 110 years ago so hardly relevent to a discussion of viable sites to use now.

Without a significant commercial sponsor, ideally with a multi year contractual commitment, there is not a viable option for using an outground in the county.

Highveld wrote:

This article lists all the outgrounds used by Warwickshire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Warwickshire_County_Cricket_Club_grounds

Yes Weddington Road did host first class cricket, about 110 years ago so hardly relevent to a discussion of viable sites to use now.

Without a significant commercial sponsor, ideally with a multi year contractual commitment, there is not a viable option for using an outground in the county.
I saw Tom Cartwright score 210 at Griff and Coton Nuneaton, plus a host of world class players there over the years, good crowds with plenty of parking and passable refreshment facilities. Also saw Warwickshire Seconds play at Weddington Road, Nuneaton. Of course the real answer is "where there is a will there is a way", might take a bit of effort and work, but it would reap rewards.

Derbys played in the park at Chesterfield - we played there in 1994 - the heavens opened at the interval casusing the game to be abandoned

Thanks guys - common sense at last in this discussion!

Let’s hope the will is there!