Botanical Gardens Cricket Ground

Botanical Gardens was a cricket ground in Old Trafford, Stretford, Lancashire. It was located adjacent to the Manchester Botanical Gardens on land owned by Sir Humphrey de Trafford and leased to Manchester Cricket Club for nine seasons from 1848 to 1856. Manchester relocated to the new Old Trafford Cricket Ground in 1857.

Apart from local cricket, at least forty matches are known to have been played at Botanical Gardens but records of some are lost. Most of these involved Manchester against another town club, particularly Liverpool who were perennial visitors. Other matches were against the All England Eleven and the United England Eleven but these were played at odds with Manchester fielding 22 against eleven. The last match recorded at the ground was in 1856 when Manchester played against Rugby Cricket Club.^[1]

Five matches (from 1848 to 1854) are rated first-class, all involving Manchester and Sheffield Cricket Club though two of them, in 1849 and 1851, were styled Lancashire v Yorkshire.^[2] Manchester narrowly won the 1848 match but the other four were all won by Sheffield/Yorkshire, two of them by an innings margin. The highest score in these matches was 76 by John Berry for Sheffield in 1854. The best bowling was by Richard Skelton of Sheffield who twice took seven wickets in an innings with seven for 44 in 1849 and seven for 59 in 1854.

After Manchester Cricket Club left Botanical Gardens, it was re-developed for the 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition. In the twentieth century, the site became a motorcycle speedway venue until that closed in 1982 and, today, it is covered by the White City Retail Centre.^[3]

References

Coordinates: 53°27′43″N 2°17′02″W / 53.46184°N 2.28402°W / 53.46184; -2.28402