Colwyn Bay Cricket Club ground

 


Colwyn Bay Cricket Club ground, Penrhyn Avenue

This ground has been the home of Colwyn Bay Cricket Club since May 1924. The club was formed in September 1923 and work soon began on constructing a pitch and pavilion beside Penrhyn Avenue. Rhos-on-Sea. The first match at the ground was between Denbighshire and Caernarvonshire, and the first ball was bowled by Lord Colwyn, the club’s inaugural president.

The club benefitted in its early decades from cricketers moving to this area of North Wales from England, notably Lancashire, after their days of top-flight cricket had ended. Many fund-raising matches were played at the ground during the Second World War.

From 1930 the ground was also used as Denbighshire’s home ground in the Minor County Championship.

One of the founder members was George Mellor, who made silent films at the Rhos Playhouse in the 1930s. Another was Wilf Wooller, whose son, also called Wilf (1912-1997), played rugby and squash for Wales, captained Glamorgan County Cricket Club and played soccer for Cardiff City. After becoming Glamorgan’s captain in 1947, Wilf junior organised a short tour in North Wales which raised the game’s profile and set the foundations for the continuing relationship between Glamorgan and the Colwyn Bay club.

Glamorgan’s first county match here took place in 1966, when it played Derbyshire. A crowd of 4,000 attended. It was here that batsman Steve James became the first Glamorgan player ever to score a triple hundred, when he made 309 in a match against Sussex in 2000. In 2004 Glamorgan beat Lancashire here to take the league title.

Where is this HiPoint?

Postcode: LL28 4LR

Website of Colwyn Bay Cricket Club