(by Andrew Hignell)
County Championship cricket returns to Newport after an absence of 54 years with Glamorgan playing their next home match in the Specsavers County Championship against Gloucestershire at Spytty Park, starting on May 14th.
With preparations in full swing ahead of the ICC 2019 World Cup matches at Sophia Gardens, Glamorgan have allocated the Championship match against Gloucestershire to Spytty Park – the current home of Newport CC. The West Country side are very appropriate opponents because back in 1939 at Rodney Parade - Glamorgan’s previous ground in Newport - Wally Hammond, the great England batsman scored 302 against the Welsh county before Emrys Davies, the legendary Glamorgan opener, replied with an unbeaten 287 to save the game for his side. Emrys’ fine efforts stood for 61 years as the highest individual innings in the Club’s history until Steve James made 309* against Sussex at Colwyn Bay in 2000.
In all, Glamorgan staged 27 first-class matches which Glamorgan staged at Rodney Parade between July 1935 and May 1965. It followed Glamorgan’s merger with Monmouthshire the previous year and also saw other grounds such as Ebbw Vale and Abergavenny being subsequently added to the Welsh county’s first-class fixture list.
Following the redevelopment of Rodney Parade during the early 1990s, Newport CC moved to the south of the town to the Spytty Park complex. Their new ground has already hosted plenty of Glamorgan 2nd XI and Wales Minor County fixtures as well as the List A game during July 2016 against Pakistan A, but the Championship game with Gloucestershire will be the inaugural first-class fixture at the well-appointed ground.
Glamorgan’s last Championship match at Rodney Parade took place in May 1965 as they drew with Warwickshire. The Welsh county, under the captaincy of Ossie Wheatley made 155, with Bernard Hedges top-scoring with 49 as David Brown, the England fast bowler, claimed 6/46. The visitors replied with 254, with their total underpinned by 86 from Dennis Amiss, who also won Test honours with England. Glamorgan then made 4 without loss in as many overs before the end of the second day’s play, before rain washed out the third and final day.
The weather also played a decisive hand in June 1990 when Glamorgan planned to stage their fourth and final List A contest at the Rodney Parade ground before it was redeveloped for housing and a school. But the Sunday League contest against Yorkshire was abandoned without a ball being bowled. During the previous two seasons, Glamorgan had enjoyed more luck with the weather at Rodney Parade, beating Derbyshire by 25 runs in May 1988 thanks to 60 from John Hopkins, before the following May losing by three wickets to Gloucestershire in a 40 overs contest which saw Alan Butcher make a solid half-century before a volley of expansive blows by Vibert Greene late in the visitor’s innings saw Gloucestershire home with five balls to spare.
Gloucestershire last visited Newport for a County Championship game in 1956 – a contest which they won by 37 runs, whilst their most recent first-class contest on Monmouthshire soil came in 1995 at Abergavenny when they drew a contest made famous by the batting feats of Andrew Symonds with the Anglo-Australian striking a world record 20 sixes during the game.