Trivia: Cricket Grounds Visible From Trains.

[WolvertonWorks]

The Nevill Ground in Tunbridge Wells is next to the railway line but I don't know if one can see the pitch through all the trees.

The Boundary House in Upper Cumberland Walk, near the railway footbridge had a view into the ground but the trees may have grown to hide this now.

 

[King Lazy]

Both Plumtree and Keyworth Cricket Clubs are situated next to the Old Dalby test track. Other grounds that I have seen around the UK that have not yet been mentioned include Seaford, Kendal, Shifnal, Duffield, Lytham as well as Frisby-on-the-Wreake that is located near Melton Mowbray.

Since floodlights have been introduced at most of the county grounds they are a lot more visible but there are not many of them where you can actually see trains from within the ground. There is also the Nursery Ground at Lords which is on top of the Chiltern mainline.

I’d forgot Kendal but you reminded me Burneside is right next to the same line too.

 

[Capybara]

The Headingley lights can be seen from all sorts of unexpected positions on the railway but not from the point closest to the ground.

Pannal CC is visible from the line near, errm, Pannal station.

 

[TheSel]

Settle.

Photo [mine] below shows 158908 and another (unidentified) unit passing the ground with play going on.

 

[john prytherch]

Bersham Cricket Club was beside an embankment carrying the Rhos (Rhosllanerchrugog) branch near Rhostyllen. The track was still in place c.1961 when I had to watch my brother playing in a cricket match there. No trains came unfortunately. My imagination’s hoping that something would come, occupied my mind rather than the cricket.

The tremendous panoramic views available from Latchford Viaduct (Warrington) included Grappenhall Cricket Club. I used to watch one match a year there (an inter-Church game sadly now discontinued). Before the line’s closure in July 1985, the occasional freight (most often a Fiddler’s Ferry MGR) would provide a welcome sight – of course, of more interest to me than the cricket.

 

[56xx]

Radyr CC (2 pitches} & Hoover's CC (Merthyr Tydfil) are alongside the Cardiff - Merthyr Tydfil line.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Surrey used to play a few matches at Whitgift School, from which I’m pretty sure you can see trains at South Croydon station.

It won’t be much more than a glimpse. There are plenty of buildings in the way and a large hedge on the Brighton Road side of the ground (which is also the direction for the station).

 

[Kadot]

Copley Cricket Club can be seen on Copley Viaduct. Really nice view from the Cab but sorry can't take a picture

 

[Greetlander]

Also in that area, Eastwood CC is plainly visible below the line next to the main road between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden.

Ramsbottom CC is adjacent to the East Lancashire steam railway station.

Would have been a lovely view of Greetland CC from the embankment before West Vale viaduct.

 

[Class 170101]

Essex Chelmsford County Ground from the Viaduct.

There is also one on the approach to Kelvedon from the Norwich direction right handside.

 

[scragend]

I remember fielding on the boundary at Rainhill CC as a junior and finding it very unnerving watching a train coming towards me across the fields!

The line out of Hindley towards Wigan runs past Hindley St. Peter's ground, although you only get a brief glimpse nowadays because of the trees.

 

[jkkne]

Durham CC’s Riverside Stadium can be seen from the East Coast Mainline

 

[david_g]

Linthwaite Cricket Club visible from trains travelling up/down the Colne Valley between Slaithwaite & Huddersfield. Lockwood CC used to play in the shadow of Lockwood viaduct on the Penistone line; local legend had it that only one person had ever thrown a cricket ball over the viaduct - that's what my dad told me though wikipedia says otherwise. The club ceased to exist in the mid eighties.

 

[Pnerick81]

There are 2 cricket grounds in view on the northbound approach to Preston, just before the ribble viaduct . Preston cricket club on the left and vernon Carus cricket club on the right.

 

[MedwayValiant]

The Nevill Ground in Tunbridge Wells is next to the railway line but I don't know if one can see the pitch through all the trees.

No you can't. Too many trees and rhododendrons in the way. Whether you can hear the trains depends on the wind.


There are at least two grounds in the Kent League from which you can see trains, though. Bexley CC's ground is very close to Bexley station. Unfortunately, the station entrance is on the "wrong" side, and it's a 7 minute walk. But from the ground you can see one of the platforms, and the trains that pass through.

Rainham CC backs on to the Chatham Main Line. It's about 10 minutes walk from Rainham station.

 

[davidhg]

Stockport Cricket Club ground alongside the start of the Hope Valley line just West of Davenport Station. Also a lacrosse pitch there.

 

[birchesgreen]

Princes Risborough CC ground is next to the station, often watch a bit of play from the footbridge when i'm waiting for a train (well in the summer obviously).

 

[Bodiam]

The Rother Valley Railway runs along one side of the Robertsbridge (East Sussex) cricket ground. Should see more regular trains in 2028.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

Seascale cricket ground on the Cumbrian Coast line, just after leaving Seascale Station heading in the Barrow-in-Furness direction.

 

[45Fox]

Weddington Road cricket ground is visible from a train going around the curve north of platforms 6 & 7 at Nuneaton, just to the east of the flyover above the West Coast Main Line.

Nowadays it's only used by a local club (Nuneaton CC) but in the distant past (pre-WW1) Warwickshire County Cricket Club played some matches there.

 

[hermit]

Brading Cricket club ground is adjacent to the Island Line north of the station. Unfortunately the club is currently defunct.

 

[InkyScrolls]

A well timed 6 could hit a train at Selby.

Salts CC in Saltaire and Bradford and Bingley CC from Airedale Line

No longer valid as the line is long gone, but Collingham and and Linton CC boundary is on what was once the Leeds to Wetherby line.

Also Cononley.

 

[Bodiam]

Surrey used to play a few matches at Whitgift School, from which I’m pretty sure you can see trains at South Croydon station.

Bryan Morgan, an old boy of Whitgift School, wrote in the introduction to his 1955 book "The End of the Line": "You could lie on the bank above the cricket field and, between overs, watch the trains go by. There were the unceasing crossings and recrossings of green locals: the expresses to the South Coast with destinations recognisable from the composition of their buffet-cars: the little steam line curving away between rising slate roofs and pious Victorian spires to the Surrey hills: four times during a day's play the gleaming coffee and cream of the 'Belle': and, just before they drew stumps, the home-bound Newhaven Boat Express." This would have been in the mid to late 1930s, I think.

 

[hermit]

Bryan Morgan, an old boy of Whitgift School, wrote in the introduction to his 1955 book "The End of the Line": "You could lie on the bank above the cricket field and, between overs, watch the trains go by. There were the unceasing crossings and recrossings of green locals: the expresses to the South Coast with destinations recognisable from the composition of their buffet-cars: the little steam line curving away between rising slate roofs and pious Victorian spires to the Surrey hills: four times during a day's play the gleaming coffee and cream of the 'Belle': and, just before they drew stumps, the home-bound Newhaven Boat Express." This would have been in the mid to late 1930s, I think.

What an evocative description of a different world! When I was there in May 2011 the trains all looked like ‘green locals’ except for the Gatwick Expresses.

(It was at that match that Graham Napier of Essex hit a world-record 16 6s in an innings. That may be why Surrey have not played there since).

 

[Farang]

Philip Larkin famously spotted someone running up to bowl when taking the train from Hull to London in the 1950s. Unfortunately, he wasn't specific about the location.

 

[CdBrux]

Schiedam, although much more obvious when at the ground than on a train

 

[Magdalia]

Philip Larkin famously spotted someone running up to bowl when taking the train from Hull to London in the 1950s. Unfortunately, he wasn't specific about the location.

This is from the penultimate verse of The Whitsun Weddings, one of the great railway poems, so is likely to be somewhere on the East Coast Main Line.

Just long enough to settle hats and say I nearly died, A dozen marriages got under way. They watched the landscape, sitting side by side -An Odeon went past, a cooling tower, And someone running up to bowl -and none Thought of the others they would never meet Or how their lives would all contain this hour. I thought of London spread out in the sun, Its postal districts packed like squares of wheat:

 

[Mikey C]

Two grounds where Middlesex play have railways running close by where trains can be heard but not seen - Merchant Taylors’ school (Metropolitan Line at Moor Park) and Radlett (MML).

Of all the cricket grounds, Radlett must be next to one of the busiest railways. Watching games there, on what is otherwise quite a picturesque ground, the constant roar from trains going past on the MML is quite disturbing!

 

[Woolos 22]

Lord's cricket ground you go under it

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Lord's cricket ground you go under it

Under the practice pitches, isn't it, not the main ground at Lords?