Higher Common Ground is a

cricket 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 st ...

ground on Tunbridge Wells Common in the town of

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It was used as a ground 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 Ke ...

in the 19th century and is the home ground of

Linden Park Cricket Club Linden Park Cricket Club (LPCC) is a cricket club based at Higher Cricket Ground, Fir Tree Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. The club has a senior section which runs five Saturday league teams, with the top two sides playing in the K ...

. The ground is located in the central area of Tunbridge Wells Common, close to the Wellington Rocks, an outcrop of Ardingly Sandstone laid down in the

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also *Nizhny Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́� ...

period.Geology and Geography
Tunbridge Wells Commons Conservators. Retrieved 2017-12-03. It is on Fir Tree Road, around from the

A264 road A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

to the north and from the

A26 road The A26 road is a primary route in the southeast of England, going from Maidstone to Newhaven through the counties of Kent and East Sussex. The road is almost entirely single carriageway with one lane on each side, although some of the road is ...

to the south and east. The centre of Tunbridge Wells is east of the ground.Explorer Map 136 – High Weald (Royal Tunbridge Wells Cranbrook, Hawkhurst & Bewl Water),

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was ...

, 2015-09-16.

Establishment

Cricket has been played on the Tunbridge Wells Common since at least the 18th century and the first recorded match on the ground took place in 1782.214 not out! A short history of Linden Park Cricket Club
Common Ground 12
Spring 1996, The Friends of Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall Commons. Retrieved 2017-12-03. In 1839

Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club is an amateur cricket club in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. It was founded in 1782 and they play their home matches at the Nevill Ground. As of 2019 they play in the Kent Cricket League Premier Division. His ...

were given permission to improve the ground and cricket began to be played more formally on the ground.About
The Friends of Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall Commons. Retrieved 2017-12-03. The ground was enlarged in 1859 and in 1875.

Cricketing history

The first

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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

match was held on the ground in 1844, when a team of Married cricketers played a Single's team.First-Class Matches played on Higher Common Ground, Tunbridge Wells
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-03.

first used the ground in 1845 and county matches were played on the ground until 1880 with Kent playing 28 matches in total on the ground, 18 of them against Sussex.Grounds Records in ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017'', pp.210–211. Canterbury:

."100th Tunbridge Wells Cricket Festival 6th to 12th June"

, 2012-05-24. Retrieved 2017-12-03. A total of 36 first-class matches were held on the ground, including five featuring the

South of England Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes Gr ...

between 1854 and 1883 and one match in 1882 when a United Eleven, captained by

WG Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket for a record-equal ...

, played the touring Australians. The ground stopped being used as a first-class venue due to concerns over the condition of the pitch which was "regularly trampled by the public and grazing animals". After the match against the Australian team in 1882, in which Australia were bowled out for 49 runs, reports suggested that "fencing is required to keep the cows out", although the match report in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'' makes no mention of the pitch being a factor in their low score, blaming instead the "carelessness" of the Australian captain

Billy Murdoch William Lloyd Murdoch (18 October 1854 – 18 February 1911) was an Australian cricketer who captained the Australian national side in 16 Test matches between 1880 and 1890. This included four tours of England, one of which, in 1882, gave ri ...

and crediting the fine bowling of the Leicestershire born professional

John Parnham John Thomas Parnham (6 September 1856 – 18 February 1908) was an English first-class cricketer and umpire. Parnham was born at Bottesford, Leicestershire. He made his debut in first-class cricket for a United Eleven against the touring A ...

who took 12 wickets in the match."The Australians v. United Eleven." ''

'', 1882-09-04, p.8. The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 2017-12-03. Linden Park Cricket Club Pavilion - geograph

The ground has been used since 1906 by

. The club plays in the

Kent Cricket League The Kent Cricket League is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in Kent, England. The league was founded in 1970 and the first season of play was 1971. The twelve founding clubs were Ashford, Aylesford Paper Mills, Dart ...

and fields a number of teams at weekends as well as using the ground for junior and midweek cricket.Linden Park Cricket Club
Retrieved 2017-12-03.Linden Park Cricket Club Report
Common Ground 34
Spring 2004, The Friends of Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall Commons. Retrieved 2017-12-03. The first

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 ...

was built at the ground in 1922 and replaced with a new building in 2008.From the Chairman
Common Ground 43
Spring 2008, The Friends of Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall Commons. Retrieved 2017-12-03. The Common is also the site of another cricket ground, the Lower Cricket Ground around north-west of the Higher Common Ground alongside the

A264 A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

, which is home to Rusthall Cricket Club. It was first used for cricket in 1850 and improved in 1885.

Records on the ground

A total of 36 first-class matches have been played on the ground, 28 of them featuring Kent as the home team.Higher Common Ground, Tunbridge Wells
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-03. *Highest total: 405 by

against Sussex, 1878 *Lowest total: 36 by Kent against Sussex, 1858 *Highest partnership: 129, 2nd wicket by W Barnes and W Flowers, for MCC against Kent, 1879 *Highest individual score: 127, L Hall, for

North of England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

against

, 1883 *Best bowling in an innings: 8/34, J Wootton, for Kent against Surrey, 1880 *Best bowling in a match: 13/42, J Jackson, for North of England against South of England, 1857

References

External links

Higher Common Ground
on

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

{{Kent CCC Cricket grounds in Kent Sports venues completed in 1844 Sport in Royal Tunbridge Wells