First class conditions and history at The Rec

The Recreation Ground in Torquay is a ground any cricket lover excitedly anticipates playing at.

The enjoyment is layered given there is so much to experience. Initial thoughts are about the hard, bouncy wicket that is markedly different from many low or slow tracks at nearby grounds.

It’s a treat to play on. Batting is easier and back of a length bowlers are equally in business.

There is a quiet reverence about the history of The Rec, which dates back over 150 years. It is a former First-class ground and the playing surface still meets that threshold. Somerset last played there against Northants in July 1975. In cricketing terms, that’s quite recent. Many of Devon’s memorable games in their glory years of the 2000’s were played there too.

The outfield can, however, involve risk in early season if you are fielding where the shared rugby pitch overlaps the boundary. A long barrier can result in the ball whistling over your shoulder through no fault of your own.

The clubhouse is a quaint whitewashed timber structure behind a traditional white picket fence. A viewing balcony connected to the dressing rooms upstairs affords a birds eye view of the action and the seafront beyond.

On quiet days you can hear holidaymakers enjoying the seaside before sauntering over to watch the cricket and casually chatting to boundary fielders about ‘who’s playing’.

The adjacent duck pond must have hundreds of balls nestling in the silt attached to individual stories of a shattered bowler’s ego.

One of the quirks of playing at The Rec is that when batting, your score goes on the board before you’ve completed the run. This is a credit to the stalwart scorer Nick Evanson.

The nets behind the clubhouse are outstanding and leave no room for excuses not to improve or for young players to spend the whole of their school holidays down there.

The Rec encapsulates the best things about nostalgia and because it offers the conditions it does, you can almost touch the history and feel you are part of that whilst enjoying first class playing conditions.