The Crabble Athletic Ground, also known as simply Crabble, or The Crabble is a

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 A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

located in the northern Dover suburb of River, Kent. It was the home of the various incarnations of Dover F.C. from 1931 until the club folded in 1983. Since then it has been the home of Dover Athletic F.C., and it was also the temporary home of

Margate F.C. Margate Football Club, originally called Margate Town, is an English association football, football club based in the seaside resort of Margate, Kent. The club's first team (association football), first team play in the . The club was known du ...

between 2002 and 2004, when the club's

Hartsdown Park Hartsdown Park is a football (soccer), football stadium located in Margate, Kent, England. It has been the home of Margate F.C. (known as Thanet United F.C. between 1981 and 1989) since 1929, apart from between 2002 and 2005, when the club was ...

stadium was being redeveloped. The stadium has two seated stands and two covered terraces and holds a total of 5,745 fans (including 1,010 seats and 3,642 covered terracing), although in the past, crowds larger than that figure could be accommodated. It also has a clubhouse, which the club completely redeveloped in 2008. A sports ground was first established on the site at the end of the 19th century and was used for both

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 ...

and football as well as for other sports. This ground was used by

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

for over 100

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

matches between 1907 and 1976 and is now the home of Dover

Rugby Union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

Club.

History

In 1896, a syndicate of local businessmen began a project to create a sports complex at the site known as Crabble Meadows on the outskirts of

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

. The word ''Crabble'', which is also found in the name of a local corn mill, derives from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''crabba hol'', meaning a hole in which crabs are found. The project was an extremely costly one but was completed in 1897, and football was first played on the Crabble site in the same year. The ground was originally laid out on an plateau "carved out of the side of the hill" and was originally laid out to cater for cricket and football, with an athletics track and international standard cycling track around the edge of the playing surfaces. In 1902, the original owners of the site, beset by financial problems, contemplated selling the land for redevelopment but eventually sold the site to the

town council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland In 2002, 49 urban district councils and 26 town commissi ...

for £5,500. The pitch was shared by the town's

and football teams, with the cricketers being given priority, which meant that the football team was forced to begin and end its season either with a long run of consecutive

away Away may refer to: Film and television * ''Away'' (2016 film), a British film directed by David Blair * ''Away'' (2019 film), a Latvian animated silent film by Gints Zilbalodis * Away (2025 film), a drama film by Gerard Oms * ''Away'' (TV series ...

matches or by playing matches at other, less satisfactory, venues in the town. To resolve the issue, the council opted to lay out a new football pitch further up the hillside, behind the lower pitch's pavilion. The first match played on the "upper pitch" took place in September 1931, with a small stand being constructed the following year. The football club then used the upper pitch whenever the lower pitch was unavailable due to cricket commitments. Dover F.C. applied for permission to build a grandstand on the southern side of the "upper pitch" in 1947, but the application was rejected. Three years later, the club was permitted to extend the existing small stand on the opposite side and in 1951, Dover F.C. moved to the upper pitch on a permanent basis, initially paying the council rent of £300 a year. The final match on the lower pitch took place on 26 March 1951, and the first on the upper pitch was held eleven days later, when

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

were Dover's opponents in a friendly. Due to a shortage of bolts, the grandstand had not actually been completed at this time. Covered terracing at the Town End, where fans had previously stood on the hillside, was added soon afterwards. Floodlights were added in 1961 and inaugurated with a match against a Chelsea XI. Dover F.C folded in 1983, but the newly formed Dover Athletic took over the ground and continued to make improvements. When the team won the Southern League championship in 1990, however, promotion to the

Football Conference The National League of English Football Clubs is a professional Association football, football league in England that consists of 72 teams, divided equally between the National League (division), National League North and National League South ...

was refused on the grounds that the stadium did not meet the standard required by the higher division. Subsequently, new turnstiles were installed and two new terraces were built behind the goals. The seating in the main stand was replaced and a second grandstand was added on the opposite side of the pitch. These improvements meant that the club was able to gain promotion after its second Southern League title in 1993. In the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons,

played home fixtures at the stadium while redevelopment work took place at their own

ground. What was originally intended to be a short-term arrangement ended up lasting for two years as the redevelopment work stalled. DovervStaines

Between 2003 and 2004, the ground was known as the

Hoverspeed Hoverspeed was a ferry company that operated on the English Channel from 1981 until 2005. It was formed in 1981 by the merger of Seaspeed and Hoverlloyd. Its last owners were Sea Containers; the company ran a small fleet of two high-speed Se ...

Stadium under the terms of a sponsorship deal. In 2007, the club announced that under another such arrangement, the stadium would be known as the

SeaFrance SeaFrance was a ferry company based in France, wholly owned by the French railways, SNCF, which operated ferry services between Calais, France, and Dover, England. The company employed a total of 1,850 staff, including 1,300 seagoing personnel, ...

Crabble Stadium, however a year later it was announced that the deal would not be renewed due to the ferry operator's financial constraints. On 1 July 2008, the club announced local car dealership Perry's as the club's new main sponsor, with the stadium being rebranded as the Perry's Crabble Stadium. In 2008 the club launched a project to replace the existing clubhouse with a new £200,000 building featuring a larger bar, better audio-visual facilities and a high quality kitchen. The club hopes the new building will become a popular venue for social and business functions.

Structure and facilities

The stadium is known for its unusual location, being set into the side of a hill. It has two seated stands and two covered terraces. The Main Stand, which has been in place since 1951, occupies the length of one side of the pitch and has a roof supported by numerous columns, which obscure the view for some fans. Identical covered terraces for standing spectators are behind both goals, which also suffer from an obstructed view. The small Family Stand occupies a portion of the side opposite the Main Stand. The remainder of this side of the ground is taken up by the clubhouse,

toilets A toilet is a piece of sanitary hardware that collects human waste (urine and Human feces, feces) and sometimes toilet paper, usually for disposal. Flush toilets use water, while dry toilet, dry or non-flush toilets do not. They can be desi ...

and other club facilities. Unlike most football stadiums, the club directors' lounge is set atop one of the stands. In December 2009

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

gave the stadium's facilities an A grade, meaning that it meets the minimum standard for entry to

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

. The stadium is approximately from Kearsney railway station, which lies on Southeastern's

Chatham Main Line The Chatham Main Line is a railway line in England that links London VictoriaQuail Map 5 – England South ages 2–13Sept 2002 (Retrieved 14 December 2011) and Dover Priory / Ramsgate, travelling via Medway (of which the town of Chatham is ...

from

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, London, Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named afte ...

Dover Priory The Priory of St. Mary the Virgin and Martin of Tours, St. Martin of the New Work, or Newark, commonly called Dover Priory, was a priory at Dover in southeast England. It was variously independent in rule, then occupied by canons regular of t ...

. Dover Priory itself is further away, but connecting bus services are available. Parking is available around the perimeter of the adjacent rugby club.

Records

The highest attendance ever recorded at the ground was recorded when "just under 7,000" fans were in attendance for a match between Dover F.C. and

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a coastal town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour, shipping port, and fashionable coastal res ...

on 13 October 1951. Current club Dover Athletic's record home attendance is the crowd of 5,645 for the match against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup on 4 January 2015.

Cricket history

The lower pitch at The Crabble was originally intended primarily for cricket. It was used by Dover Cricket Club and football matches had to be scheduled around cricket fixtures until Dover F.C. moved to the upper ground in the 1930s. The ground hosted MCC in 1899 and the first cricket festival was held on the ground in 1900.Crabble Athletic Ground and County Cricket
Dover Historian, 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2018-03-21. In 1907 the ground was first used by

as one of its home venues for

, a move ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' classed as "something of an experiment".Cricket – The Kent County Club, ''

'', 1906-12-11, p.11.Moseling M, Quarrington T (2013) ''A Half-Forgotten Triumph: The story of Kent's County Championship title of 1913'', pp.200–203. Cheltenham: SportsBooks. . The experiment, with

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

providing the opposition, was successful and from 1908 the ground was given a cricket week by the county club, with two first-class matches played in almost every season until the end of the 1960s.Moseling & Quarrington ''op. cit.'', pp.229–237.A Dover Cricket Week, ''

'', 1907-08-28, p.9.First-class matches played at Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-03-21. After a series of matches during the 1960s where the pitch was considered not at first-class standard, only one match was held at the ground in 1968 after an MCC inspector passed the ground fit.No Dover cricket week in 1968, ''

'', 1967-12-07, p.12. After a full festival programme in 1969, Kent gradually began to move away from the ground. The final first-class match on the ground was played 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 ...

in July 1976. Kent played a total of 106 first-class matches on the ground as well as using it for four

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 num ...

matches between 1970 and 1975 and for occasional Second XI matches in the 1970s and 1980s.Grounds Records in ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017'', pp.210–211. Canterbury:

.Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-03-21. Kent Women played matches against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in 1984 and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 1987 on the ground and it was used by the

England women's cricket team The England women's cricket team represents England and Wales in international women's cricket. Since 1998, they have been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by the Women's Cricket Associatio ...

for a warm-up match ahed of the 1993 Women's World Cup. After Kent played the final match on the ground in 1976, it continued to be used by Dover Cricket Club until the club was forced to close down in 2004 with debts of over £10,000.Debts force cricket club to fold
''

Kent Online KM Media Group is a multimedia company in the county of Kent, England which originated as the publisher of the Kent Messenger. The Group now produces local newspapers, radio stations, TV and websites throughout the county. Yattendon Group#Iliff ...

'', 2004-01-29. Retrieved 2018-03-21.

Records on the ground

A total of 106 first-class matches were held on the ground, all with Kent as the home team. *Highest total: 560 by Kent against Derbyshire, 1935 *Lowest total: 43 by Kent against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, 1957 *Highest partnership: 280, 3rd wicket by J Seymour and FE Woolley for Kent against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, 1922 *Highest individual score: 305

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

, WH Ashdown for Kent against Derbyshire, 1935 *Best bowling in an innings: 10/65, GC Collins for Kent against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, 1922 *Best bowling in a match: 16/83, GC Collins for Kent against Nottinghamshire, 1922 Bill Ashdown's individual score of 305 not out was his second triple-century and followed his score of 332 the previous season against

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

at Brentwood. It remained Kent's second highest individual score and the highest score made by a Kent batsman on a home ground until 2017 when Sean Dickson scored 318 runs at

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Prior to 1965, it was part of Kent. It is situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park, east of Penge, south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham, and west ...

.Kent v Northamptonshire: Sean Dickson scores post-war record 318 for hosts
''

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

'', 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2017-07-04.Dickson's 318 tops day of Kent records

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

, 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2017-07-04.''Kent Spitfires v Gloucestershire'', Match Guide, 2017-07-18. Canterbury:

.Hoad A (2017
Record-breaking Kent batsman Sean Dickson wants another shot at history in the future
''

'', 2017-07-05. Retrieved 2018-03-04. George Collins' bowling figures of 10/65 in an innings in 1922 was the third time a Kent bowler had taken all 10 wickets in an innings. As of March 2018, they are the third best innings bowling figures in the county's history.Bowling records, in Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017, ''op. cit.'', pp.197–205. Four List A fixtures were also played by Kent on the ground between 1970 and 1975, all in the Sunday League. Hylton Ackerman made the only century scored in List A cricket on the ground, scoring 115 not out for

Northants Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordsh ...

in 1970. The highest team score on the ground was made during the same match, Kent scoring 240 runs to win the 40 over match.Cricket Review, ''

'', 1970-06-15, p.13.

Other uses

The lower ground was originally laid out as a sports ground with the capacity to play football, cricket,

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

and

lawn tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

. It was surrounded by an athletics track and a cycling track and the ground was used regularly for both sports – its opening event was a cycling meeting organised by Dover Cycling Club. The cycling track remains, and the ground and original

cricket pavilion A cricket pavilion is a pavilion at a cricket ground. It is the main building within which the players usually change in dressing rooms and which is the main location for watching the cricket match for members and others. Pavilions can vary from ...

are used by Dover RFC for

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

matches.Crabble Athletic Ground
Dover District Council. Retrieved 2018-03-21.Edwards P (2017-07-16
Eastbourne and other Elysiums
''The Cricket Monthly'',

. Retrieved 2018-03-21.Britain's lost cricket grounds
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. Retrieved 2018-03-21.

References

External links

Stadium page on the Dover Athletic website

CricInfo {{good article Defunct cricket grounds in England Football venues in England Dover Athletic F.C. Margate F.C. Cricket grounds in Kent Buildings and structures in Dover, Kent Sports venues completed in 1931