Aylestone Road, now also known as the Leicester Electricity Sports Cricket Ground, is a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

ground in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, which was the headquarters of

Leicestershire County Cricket Club Leicestershire 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 Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the coun ...

from 1901 to 1939. Although the playing area is much reduced by housing and commercial developments, it is still used as a cricket ground, though not by the county team.

Early history

The previous centre of cricket in Leicester had been at Victoria Park, where informal Leicestershire representative sides played. Costs associated with enclosing aspects of what was an open park proved costly, requiring a permanent home for cricket in the city. In 1877, land was purchased along for the sum of £40,000 and a sports complex, known as Grace Road, was constructed. This included an athletics track, cricket ground and hotel. This ground held its first cricket match in 1878, when Leicestershire defeated a touring Australian club side, with 30,000 people in attendance. What would become the cricket ground at Aylestone Road existed in a sporting capacity since at least 1891, temporarily serving as the home ground of Leicester Fosse F.C. while their new ground at

Filbert Street Filbert Street was a football stadium in Leicester, England, which served as the home of Leicester City F.C. from 1891 until 2002. Although officially titled the City Business Stadium in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively b ...

was under construction. Having gained first-class status in 1895,

initially played their home matches at Grace Road, however it was considered too far away from the city centre by the Leicestershire committee and with poor transport links leading to low crowds, it was decided in 1901 to relocate the county club headquarters to the cricket ground further up the Aylestone Road and closer to the city centre, close to the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

stadium at

and the rugby stadium at Welford Road. The ground hosted its inaugural first-class match in the 1901 County Championship, with Surrey as the visitors.

Use by Leicestershire

Leicestershire played all their first-class fixtures at Aylestone Road from 1901 to 1913, when they used Park Road in Loughborough as an outground. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

the ground was requisitioned as a base for military training and headquarters of the Leicester Town Rifles. From hosting its inaugural first-class match in 1901 through to 1939, Aylestone Road hosted 396 first-class matches. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the ground was requisitioned to serve as a quartermaster's depot for the American

82nd Airborne Division The 82nd Airborne Division is an Airborne forces, airborne infantry division (military), division of the United States Army specializing in Paratrooper, parachute assault operations into hostile areasSof, Eric"82nd Airborne Division" ''Spec Ops ...

. During the war, the ground was damaged by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

bombing, which caused damage to the main stand. Following the war, the expansion of Leicester power station by

Leicester City Council Leicester City Council is the local authority for the city of Leicester, in the ceremonial county of Leicestershire, England. Leicester has had a council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1997 the council ...

necessitated the return of the county club back to their former Grace Road headquarters, due to the ground being blighted by black soot, coupled with the cooling towers making the pitch consistently damp.

Later history

After moving back to Grace Road, Leicestershire removed the main stand from Aylestone Road in 1952–53 and reconstructed it at Grace Road, initially naming it the Richards Stand, before settling on its current name The Meet. Leicestershire returned to the Aylestone Road ground in 1957, playing two matches in the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. Leicestershire played their 399th and final first-class match at Aylestone Road in 1962, against

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In 1990, the ground played host to women's international cricket when it hosted two

Women's One Day International Women's One Day International (ODI) is the limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 overs, equivalent to the men's game. The first women's ODIs were played in 1973, as part of the first Women's World Cup which was ...

s in the 1990 Women's European Cricket Cup between England women and the Netherlands women in the first match, and Denmark women and the Netherlands women in the second match. The ground is still used for cricket. It is the home ground of the Leicester Electricity Sports Cricket Club. Its playing area is greatly reduced and several outbuildings have been demolished, but the pavilion still stands. The ground has been substantially renovated by South Leicestershire College as part of a

NatWest National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major Retail banking, retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the Corporate merger, merger of National Provincial Bank and We ...

Cricket Force initiative.

First-class records

* Highest team total: 590 for 5 declared by

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizenship, citizens, nationality, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Aust ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

, 1938 * Lowest team total: 25 all out by Leicestershire v

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, 1912 * Highest individual innings: 341 by

George Hirst George Herbert Hirst (7 September 1871 – 10 May 1954) was a professional English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1891 and 1921, with a further appearance in 1929. One of the best all-r ...

for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

v Leicestershire, 1905 * Best bowling in an innings: 10–64 by

Tommy Mitchell Thomas Bignall Mitchell (4 September 1902 – 27 January 1996) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1928 and 1939. A leg spin bowler, he was the most successful slow bowler in the history of a county better ...

for

v Leicestershire, 1935 * Best bowling in a match: 16–102 by

Colin Blythe Colin Blythe (30 May 1879 – 8 November 1917), also known as Charlie Blythe, was an English professional cricketer who played Test cricket for the England cricket team during the early part of the 20th century. Blythe was a Wisden Cricketer of ...

for Kent v Leicestershire, 1909

References

;Sources * {{coord, 52, 37, 17.39, N, 1, 08, 15.33, W, region:GB_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title 1877 establishments in England Cricket grounds in Leicestershire Sports venues in Leicester Leicestershire County Cricket Club

Early history

Use by Leicestershire

Later history

First-class records

See also

References