County cricket returns to Newport on Friday, July 15th with Glamorgan meeting the Pakistan A tourists in a 50-overs contest which is scheduled to start at Spytty Park at 10.30am.
Glamorgan used to play regularly in Newport following their merger with Monmouthshire in 1935, with the Rodney Parade ground staging fixtures in the County Championship until 1965. Owned by Lord Tredegar and boasting an impressive pavilion, the ground hosted 27 Championship plus four List A matches, as well as being regularly used by junior sides from the Gwent area.
Without doubt the most famous first-class match staged at Rodney Parade was in 1939 when Gloucestershire were Glamorgan’s opponents. Visiting captain Wally Hammond scored 302, before Emrys Davies replied with an unbeaten 287 – a score which remained the highest individual score for the county until 2000 when Steve James scored 309* at Colwyn Bay against Sussex.
Glamorgan’s final game at the Rodney Parade ground came on June 24th, 1990 but the One-Day League match against Yorkshire was washed out without a ball being bowled. Since then the pavilion has been demolished and the historic ground redeveloped, with Newport CC moving to Spytty Park in the south of the city.
Spytty Park has regularly staged Second Eleven matches for Glamorgan since 1997, as well as Wales Minor County games since 1998. The ground has also been used by Cardiff MCCU, the Glamorgan and Wales Academy, plus Wales age-group teams, whilst during the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013, several of the international teams used Spytty Park for practice matches.