The Municipal Ground is a cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 ground in Alton

Alton, Hampshire

Alton is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of the English county of Hampshire. It had a population of 16,584 at the 1991 census and is administered by East Hampshire district council. It is located on the source of the River Wey and is the highest town in...

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

. The ground was constructed as a result of the efforts of G.J. Poole, the headmaster of a local Grammar School

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

. Constructed by 1899, the Hampshire Second XI played there in 1899 in the grounds first recorded match, while Hampshire

Hampshire County Cricket Club

Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...

 later played one first-class match at the ground, against the touring South Africans in 1904. The match ended in a South African victory by an innings and 19 runs, during which South African batsman Louis Tancred

Louis Tancred

Louis Joseph Tancred was a South African cricketer who played in 14 Tests from 1902 to 1913, including three as captain....

 was dismissed for 99 by Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard

Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard

Major Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard, DSO, MC, FRGS, FZS was an explorer, adventurer, big-game hunter and marksman who made a significant contribution to sniping practice within the British Army during the First World War...

, while in Hampshire's first-innings Johannes Kotze

Johannes Kotze

Johannes Jacobus Kotze was an South African cricketer who played in 3 Tests from 1902 to 1907....

 took a five wicket haul with figures of 5/66.

The ground is owned today by the Coors Brewing Company

Coors Brewing Company

The Coors Brewing Company is a regional division of the world's fifth-largest brewing company, the Canadian Molson Coors Brewing Company and is the third-largest brewer in the United States...

 and comprises three cricket pitches. Cricket is still played on the ground with Alton Cricket Club playing their home matches there. Football and rugby

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 are also played there.

External links

• Municipal Ground at ESPNcricinfo
• Municipal Ground at CricketArchive
  CricketArchive
  CricketArchive is a website that aims to provide a comprehensive archive of records relating to the sport of cricket. It claims to be the most comprehensive cricket database on the internet, including scorecards for all matches of first-class cricket , List A cricket , Women's Test cricket and...