Tunstall Road, also known as Victoria and Knypersley Social Welfare Centre, 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 Knypersley,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

. The ground is located along the Tunstall Road, which itself forms part of the A527 Road. It has played host to

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, 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 competit ...

matches for

Derbyshire County Cricket Club Derbyshire 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 Derbyshire. Its limited overs team is called the Derbyshire Falco ...

, in addition to playing host to

Staffordshire County Cricket Club Staffordshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty national county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Staffordshire. The team is currently a member of the National Counties ...

minor counties cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

History

The ground was established in 1870 as the home ground of Knypersley Cricket Club.

first played

there in the 1946

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship or National County Championship is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national counties (previously ca ...

, playing once a year there until 1955. After playing there in 1960, Staffordshire returned to the ground in 1976 and played one match per season there until 1987.

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 ...

first used Tunstall Road as an outground in 1985, playing a List A one-day match there against

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

in the John Player Special League. Derbyshire played two further one-day matches there, in 1988 against Worcestershire and 1990 against

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 ...

. Derbyshire's use of the ground was part of an agreement with

Staffordshire County Council Staffordshire County Council is the upper-tier Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Staffordshire, England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includ ...

to stage one Sunday match in Staffordshire per year, alternating between three venues. The other two venues were at Cheadle and

Leek A leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of Leaf sheath, leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a "s ...

. Staffordshire continue to use the ground for minor counties fixtures, having also played

MCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Industrial Estates Cup'', before being called the ...

and

National Counties T20 National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

fixtures at the ground. Tunstall Road has also played host to Staffordshire Women in one-day and Twenty20 matches. The

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

at the ground is a black and white timber structure which stands above the ground on a high bank. The ground was formerly shared with Biddulph Victoria F.C., until they folded at the end of the 2010–11 season and were evicted from the ground. Other structures at the ground include a

scoreboard A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score (sport), score in a game. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards i ...

and the old pavilion, which serves as a clubhouse. The ground has a capacity of up to 5,000, with Derbyshire attracting crowds of 3,500 to 4,000.

Records

List A

* Highest team total: 292 for 9 by

, 1985 * Lowest team total: 104 all out by

v Derbyshire, 1990 * Highest individual innings: 91 by

Phil Neale Phillip Anthony Neale (born 5 June 1954) is an English former first-class cricketer who played for Worcestershire County Cricket Club, captaining the team to success in the County Championship in 1988 and 1989. He also played association foot ...

for Worcestershire v Derbyshire, 1988 * Best bowling in an innings: 5-39 by Alan Warner, for Derbyshire v Worcestershire, 1985

References

External links

Tunstall Road
at

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{{Staffordshire CCC Biddulph Sports venues completed in 1870 1870 establishments in England Sports venues in Staffordshire Cricket grounds in Staffordshire Staffordshire County Cricket Club Derbyshire County Cricket Club Defunct football venues in England