County Cricket at Glastonbury and Street

Martin Chandler | 8:56am BST 21 April 2024

Published: 2024
Pages: 50
Author: Crees, Colin
Publisher: Somerset Cricket Museum
Rating: 3.5 stars

The future of county cricket might be uncertain, but the trend towards county clubs establishing and supporting museums is one to be welcomed. Somerset’s museum is not the first to realise that one route to fundraising is by publishing, and if this one is indicative of their quality control I sincerely hope that there are other book/booklets planned.

The subject matter of this booklet is clear from its title. Glastonbury used to be one of Somerset’s outgrounds, but one that has not appeared on the county’s fixture list for many years. The ground bowed out in 1978 after a Sunday fixture which, ironically, produced the county’s highest ever gate receipts for a John Player League match.

The booklet begins, naturally, with a history of the ground’s occupiers, originally named Morlands Cricket Club after the company that originally bought the site in 1924 and developed the facility. The club reverted to the name Glastonbury after the firm closed in 1986.

Somerset started to visit the ground, usually for beneficiaries’ matches, before the war, and the first Championship fixture was played at the ground in 1952. As further evidence of the popularity of the venue Harold Gimblett chose the fixture for his Benefit match. In between then and 1978 there were a total of eighteen County Championship matches and seven in the John Player League.

And what of Street? It is a small town a couple of miles from Glastonbury and, once in the Championship and twice in the Sunday League, came to the rescue when there were problems with the Glastonbury ground, hence the last few pages of the booklet dealing with the two grounds in Street that were used.

The bulk of the booklet is a brief account of each of the matches. It is profusely illustrated with items of memorabilia, photographs of the men and the matches that are featured, and some interesting contemporary press reports.

Clearly a booklet like this one is going to be picked up primarily by those with an affinity for Somerset, but it will appeal to anyone with an interest in county cricket past and, at a mere £8 including UK postage and packing, County Cricket at Glastonbury and Street is a very reasonably priced slice of nostalgia. Copies can be purchased directly from the Museum, whose contact email is somersetcricketmuseum@btconnect.com, and I understand that copies are on their way to Roger Page in Australia.