Abbeydale Park

Abbeydale Park is a sports venue in Dore, South Yorkshire, England. It is unusual in having hosted home games for two different county cricket teams.

Abbeydale Stadium
LocationDore, South Yorkshire, England
Coordinates53°19′35.21″N 1°31′14.26″W
Capacity3,200 (100 seats)
Opened1921 (1921)
Tenants
Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club
Sheffield RUFC
Sheffield F.C. (1921–1988)
Derbyshire CCC (1946-1947)
Yorkshire County Cricket Club (1974-1996)

History

The Park first opened for cricket in 1921, with the first pavilion being completed the following year. Its first tenant was the Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club.[1] The ground was in Derbyshire until the county boundary was redrawn in 1934, and Derbyshire County Cricket Club played two first-class matches there in 1946 and 1947.

With the closure of Bramall Lane to cricket, Yorkshire County Cricket Club began playing at the venue in 1974, and continued regular matches until 1996.[2] In 2007, the club returned to the ground for some second team games.

In addition to cricket, football was also played at the Park, with Sheffield F.C., the oldest football club in the world, played there from September 1921 until 1988. Argentina and Switzerland both trained at the ground during the 1966 World Cup.[3]

The park is now home to a variety of sports, including squash, hockey, badminton, table tennis, racketball, bowls and rugby in addition to cricket.

Rugby ground
Derby between Sheffield RUFC and Sheffield Tigers at Abbeydale Park on 23 December 2017.

Abbeydale Park is home to Sheffield RUFC (formed 1902) who have been based in the area since 1919.[4] The rugby club are situated in the southern half of the complex and share their facilities with the cricket teams. Facilities include a large club-house and bar, pitches for both cricket and rugby union, a stand and floodlights to ensure matches can be played throughout the winter. There is also a choice of two car parks at the complex.[5]

In terms of capacity, the rugby ground has space for around 3,200 spectators, a figure that includes 100 seated in the stand. The ground was host to Rotherham Titans semi-final play-off games in the RFU Championship in 2014 and 2015 and saw attendances of 3,267 and 3,227 respectively.[6][7] In recent years Sheffield achieved an attendance of 1,820 for their derby game in National League 2 North against city rivals Sheffield Tigers on 23 December 2017.

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References
  1. History of SCCC: Chapter 5 - Abbeydale Park Archived 10 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine Sheffield Collegiate Cricket Club
  2. Sheffield Abbeydale Park Cricinfo
  3. Sheffield F.C.: celebrating 150 years of the world's first football club, pp.52–53
  4. "History". Sheffield RUFC (Pitchero). Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  5. "Facilities". Sheffield RUFC (Pitchero). Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  6. "Rugby union: Heroic Titans lose out to big-spending Bristol". Sheffield Telegraph. 19 May 2014.
  7. "Rotherham Titans 16 Bristol 24 (agg 36-56): Titans bow out despite reducing deficit to just two points at one stag". The Star. 11 May 2015.

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