The beauty and history of Cricketfield Road

The latest in our series on South Devon cricket grounds takes us to the home of Barton Cricket Club on Cricketfield Road in Torquay.

Driving along Barton Road towards Torre on the left is a cricket ground with a rich heritage and a culture seeped in the community.

One can’t imagine a green space that is utilised more, never mind a cricket ground inclusive to all. This is not a club where ‘strictly private’ signs proliferate and authoritarianism rules. When any of the 26 teams, including a team for people managing a disability, aren’t using it then dog walkers and football teams enjoy the symbiotic relationship all year round.

There never seems a time when its dormant. The club appears to be everything the ECB aspires to, and laudably, could never be accused of being classist, providing much needed resources for local groups and schools.

The pitch itself is a sweeping slope down from the cavernous clubhouse towards the far corner, from where dog walkers spill in a steady stream. On match-days, there is a festival feel where cars park on the boundary edge beeping their horns to boundaries struck by a relative.

Whilst the outfield is cut meticulously by the council, the square is tended by tireless volunteers, who have produced a well grassed, easy paced wicket.

The playing area is surrounded by an almost unbroken mixed hedge with impressive horse chestnuts trees and the three, imperious black Norway maple trees looking down on proceedings from the Cricketfield Road end.

The opposite end of the pitch is a short bunt straight but is also a trap for those with an inflated ego. Benches are, it seems, placed strategically for the best views of those falling into it.

The view from the pitch offers players a sight of the impressive clubhouse with its distinctive six cylindrical brick pillars underpinning the balcony and apex roof. Inside is surprisingly spacious, even housing indoor nets. The high adjacent score box above the groundman’s shed was once only accessible by perilous ladder.

Barton also has a very niche claim to fame in that the ground was used in a famous Monty Python sketch where psychiatrists played patients in the mid-1970s.