War Memorial Athletic Ground

A football match in progress at the ground.

The War Memorial Athletic Ground, often referred to as simply the War Memorial Ground, is a sports ground in the Amblecote region of Stourbridge, West Midlands, England. It plays host to both cricket and football, being the home of Stourbridge Cricket Club and Stourbridge Football Club.

Cricket

International

Two ICC Trophy matches have been played at the War Memorial Ground: Bermuda v Papua New Guinea in 1979, and Argentina v East Africa in 1986. The ground also hosted a match in the 1997 Triple Crown Tournament, between an England Cricket Board XI and Ireland.

Domestic

Worcestershire County Cricket Club played 61 first-class matches at the ground: 60 between 1905 and 1962, and a further one in 1981. All these games were in the County Championship. Only three List A games have been played here, in 1969, 1970 and 1982, again all involving Worcestershire. The county played Second XI cricket at the ground into the early 1990s.

On this ground in 1911, Worcestershire lost to Lancashire by 372 runs, which as of the beginning of the 2009 season remains the county's largest ever defeat in terms of runs. ^[1]

Records

First-class

• Highest team total: 592/9 declared by Lancashire v Worcestershire, 1909
• Lowest team total: 43 by Worcestershire v Kent, 1913
• Highest individual innings: 217 by Frederick Bowley for Worcestershire v Leicestershire, 1905
• Best bowling in an innings: 9-40 by Reg Perks for Worcestershire v Glamorgan, 1939

List A

• Highest team total: 164/9 (40 overs) by Worcestershire v Leicestershire, 1970^[2]
• Lowest team total: 104 (37.5 overs) by Glamorgan v Worcestershire, 1969
• Highest individual innings: 58 by Nigel Briers for Leicestershire v Worcestershire, 1982
• Best bowling in an innings: 4-24 by Bob Carter for Worcestershire v Leicestershire, 1970^[2]

Football

The War Memorial Athletic Ground is also the home of Stourbridge FC. The ground hosted League 1 team Walsall F.C in the FA Cup 1st round on Saturday 7 November 2009. The match finished in a 0-1 loss for Stourbridge FC.^[3] It also hosted a replay between Stourbridge FC and Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup on 22 November 2011.

Notes

1. "Largest Margin of Runs Defeat". CricketArchive. Retrieved 6 January 2007.
2. Same match.
3. Ihttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/8341086.stm

References

• Amblecote, Stourbridge from CricketArchive. (This is the only name CA gives to the ground.) Retrieved 19 December 2006.

Coordinates: 52°27′45.20″N 2°09′04.89″W / 52.4625556°N 2.1513583°W