Cambridge cricketers work to bring historic Parker’s Piece wicket back up to scratch

Cricket played on a quality wicket is returning to Parker’s Piece for the first time in more than 30 years.

It follows efforts from cricketers to take on responsibility for its upkeep and restore it to its former glory.

As well as being one of Cambridge’s most popular green spaces, the Parker’s Piece has played a very important role in the history of cricket, both locally and nationally, in developing the game and as the launchpad for legendary players like Jack Hobbs.

In the city, it is the home of cricket for town, just as Fenner’s is for gown, and it is one of the most historic cricket grounds in the country.

Richard Young, who was previously chairman of Cambridge NCI Cricket Club, and has also played for the county’s over-60s team, has been closely involved in the effort to revive its fortunes.

He said: “I’ve played cricket on Parker’s Piece for 35 years or so, and for around the last 20 years it’s been deteriorating rapidly.

“It’s been getting worse and worse in terms of bumpiness and dangerousness and less and less enjoyable to play, almost to the point of becoming an embarrassment. But we haven’t stopped playing - Covid stopped it, but around that time actually the city council relaid the square.

“That meant that potentially it would make a terrific difference, because the old square was tired and dead and full of rubbish and you couldn’t do much with it, even with the best groundsman in the world.”

In order to further improve the pitch, which lay fallow for a couple of years during the pandemic, members of the club asked the council if they could take over the ongoing improvements.

“To my surprise, they said ‘I don’t see why not’,” said Richard, “’We asked ‘Can we as a cricket club hire in our own people and hire a roller, hire a groundsman, cut the wicket’ and they said, ‘So long as you provide risk assessments and insurance’, which we did. Until then, in previous years, they’d always said no outside bodies.”

From the late 18th century to the middle of the 19th century, Parker’s Piece was the main location for the great Cambridge Town teams of the time, including their matches against the university. These often attracted large crowds.

When Frank Fenner purchased what became Fenner’s ground, his vision was that it would be a centre for town as well as university cricket. But the town club refused to co-operate, because admission fees were to be charged and they wanted to maintain free access.

For most of the 20th century, many games were played simultaneously on the Piece: up to 11 before the Second World War. The boundaries were the paths, so if three overlapping games were being played in one of the quadrants, fielders often had to go round the other games to retrieve the ball. It meant it was not uncommon for all-run 6s and 7s to be recorded.

First-class teams were brought to the Piece on several occasions by famous Surrey and England players Tom Hayward and Sir Jack Hobbs, both Cambridge born and bred, to play against the best of the local players.

In recent times, most of the cricket on the Piece has been played on the pitch in front of the Hobbs Pavilion. Arthur Morgan was the groundsman for 40 years, and maintained a high-quality wicket but, after his retirement in 1989, it began to deteriorate, to the point where it was becoming too dangerous to play on.

Richard added that it will still take at least another couple of years before the wicket gets back to the standard it was in the 80s.

The first match of the season on the newly-rolled wicket will take place today (Saturday, April 22).