The Chester Road North Ground, often referred to simply as Chester Road or Kidderminster, is a

cricket ground Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by stri ...

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is the home of

Kidderminster Cricket Club Kidderminster Cricket Club is a cricket club in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. Their 1st and 2nd XIs currently play in the Birmingham and District Premier League Premier Division. Their 3rd, 4th and 5th XIs play in the Worcestershir ...

, and is currently used for

Worcestershire County Cricket Club Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Worcestershire. Its Vitality Blast T20 team has been rebrande ...

's Second XI matches. It was opened in 1870.

International cricket

Kidderminster hosted international cricket in 2005 when the second

Women's One-day International Women's One Day International (WODI) is the limited overs cricket, limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 over (cricket), overs, equivalent to the One Day International, men's game. The first women's ODIs were played ...

between

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

was played here. The Australians won by 65 runs thanks largely to 7-24 from

Shelley Nitschke Shelley Nitschke (born 3 December 1976) is a female cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. A left-handed batter and left arm orthodox spinner, she was one of the leading all-rounders in the world until her retirement in 2011. I ...

, who became the first Australian woman to take more than five wickets in an ODI.

First-class and List A cricket

Worcestershire played one

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...

match at Kidderminster every season from 1921 until 1973, and again each year from 1987 to 2002. Chester Road was then relegated to a Second-XI ground, and the only first-class game at Kidderminster for several years was Worcestershire's 2005 game against

Loughborough UCCE Loughborough MCC University (previously known as Loughborough University Centre of Cricketing Excellence) is a cricket coaching centre based at Loughborough University in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, and the name under which the universi ...

, which the university side won by eight wickets. In 2007, with New Road badly affected by flooding, Kidderminster hosted two Championship games, while in 2008 Loughborough UCCE again visited. First-class cricket returned to Kidderminster in June 2019 when Worcestershire transferred their game against Sussex to the ground because of the threat of flooding at New Road. In

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numb ...

, one Player's County League game was held here in 1969, and a further six List A matches — three involving the Worcestershire team proper and three more contested by the recreational Worcestershire Cricket Board team — were hosted between 2000 and 2002. A further

Pro40 The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect large numbers of matches being played on days ...

game was played there in 2007, as were two

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inn ...

matches. In 2010, the ground hosted the

Unicorns The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicor ...

team in the Pro40 competition.

Records

First-class

* Highest team total: 560 by Worcestershire v

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, 1993 * Lowest team total: 63 by Worcestershire v

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It ...

, 1963 * Highest individual innings: 259 by

Don Kenyon Donald Kenyon (15 May 1924 – 12 November 1996) was an English first-class cricketer, who played in eight Tests for England from 1951 to 1955. He captained Worcestershire between 1959 and 1967. Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, noted, "A polis ...

for Worcestershire v

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, 1956 * Best bowling in an innings: 9-56 by Jack Flavell for Worcestershire v

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

, 1964

List A

* Highest team total: 281/7 (40 overs) by Worcestershire v

, 2007Same match. * Lowest team total: 56 (27.1 overs) by Middlesex v Worcestershire, 1969 * Highest individual innings: 100 by

Moeen Ali Moeen or Moein or Moien is a given name and surname. It is a Quranic name which means: helper, supporter, or provider of refuge. Notable persons with the name include: Persons with the given name * Moein (singer) (born 1951), Iranian singer * ...

for Worcestershire v Northamptonshire, 2007Same match. * Best bowling in an innings: 5-36 by Imran Jamshed for Worcestershire Cricket Board v

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

, 2002

Notes

References

Chester Road North Ground, Kidderminster
from CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 December 2006. Cricket grounds in Worcestershire Kidderminster Sports venues completed in 1870 {{England-cricket-ground-stub