A history of Neath CC

08-Jan-2006Like many of Glamorgan’s grounds’ The Gnoll is the home to bothNeath Rugby and Cricket Club. The name of the ground is likelyto have been a derivation from the word ‘knoll’, meaning a smallround hill, as the first building in the area was situated on thecircular mound at the western end of the hill known as CefnMorfydd to the north of the twon.By the 17th century a castle and country house had been built onthe hillside, and from 1710 onwards it became the home of theMackworth family, who were wealthy industrialists and owned thetown’s copper works. In 1811 the Gnoll Estate was bought byHenry Grant, who later became the first mayor of the town. Grantsold off some of the land for building purposes, and allowed ballgames to be played on the fields below Gnoll House.The first record of cricket being played in Neath dates back tothe mid 1840’s, and in 1848 a cricket club was formed, with TheGnoll being its base. During the middle of the 19th century,more housebuilding took place on Grant’s land, but he refused tosell the cricket field, and the club went from strength tostrength. A number of quite prestigious fixtures were held overthe next few years as Alex Cuthbertson, a local soloicitor,helped to arrange three-day fixtures in 1855 and 1856 between anEleven of All-England and a XXII of Neath and District.However, the Neath club encountered money problems, and in theearly 1860’s looked like going out of existence. They werethrown a lifeline in 1863 as J.T.D.Llewelyn, the cricket-lovingindustrialist and landowner of Penllegaer House, paid off theirdebts, agreed to personally pay for the use of the Gnoll andreformed the club under the name of Cadoxton Cricket Club. The’new’ side took its name from a small hamlet to the north of thetown, yet there was nothing small about Llewelyn’s ambitions, asCadoxton C.C. became the M.C.C. of South Wales.Indeed, in September 1864 he was instrumnetal in arranging acricket week which had as its highlight a challenge match betweena Glamorganshire XI and a side representing Carmarthenshire.However, perhaps the most famous of these early games took placein May 1868 when a XXII of Cadoxton challenged the United Southof England. W.G. Grace was in the English side, yet for once inhis career, he bagged a pair, dismissed in both innings by GeorgeHowitt, Cadoxton’s guest professional.In 1871 Neath RFC was formed and the south-western part of thesports field was devoted to rugby, with cricket being played inthe north-eastern half. A rugby grandstand was built and seatingwas also provided alongside the cricket pavilion as the Cadoxtonclub continued to be the premier gentleman’s side in South Wales,and played with success in the newly-formed South Wales ChallengeCup.In 1897 the Neath Football Club and Athletic Association tookover the affairs of CadoxtonC.C., but this proved to be ashort-lived organisation, as in 1904 the cricket club re-formedunder the name of Gnoll Park C.C. However, there were severalfinancial problems, caused by internal friction within the nowdefunct Association. Fortunately, these problems were overcomeby the staging of a series of exhibition games on The Gnoll by aside called The Gentlemen of Glamorgan. The instigator behindthese games was a young solicitor called T.A.L.Whittington, whohimself was a fine batsman and had represented Glamorgan in theMinor County Championship.As a result of his efforts, the financial problems disappeared,and the club reverted back to being known as Neath C.C in 1906.The success of these games also led to Whittington becoming oneof Glamorgan’s administrators and it was the young solicitor whowas instrumental in the decision by the county club to stage someof their minor county matches at Neath. The first took place inJune 1908 as Carmarthenshire visited The Gnoll, and either sideof the Great War, the Neath ground staged an annual Minor Countyfixture.In 1923 the Neath Corporation became the new owners of the GnollEstate and despite the temptation to sell the land for building,they decided that the ruins of the Gnoll House should be thetown’s War Memorial , and that the rugby and cricket groundshould be preserved for sporting activities. The Corporationwere also responsible for attracting first-class cricket to TheGnoll, as in the 1930’s they offered various financial incentivesif Glamorgan agreed to play a Championship fixture at the ground.The inaugural game took place in 1934 as Essex visited The Gnolland following the success of the game Neath was added to theclub’s fixture list. The annual fixtures proved very popular,with 12,000 people watching the match with Warwickshire in 1948,and in the early 1950’s the club also decided to build an IndoorSchool at Neath. The idea was that a purpose-built complex wouldact as their winter coaching base in the West of the county andon October 28th, 1954 the Indoor School was opened byR.E.S.Wyatt. Over the past 40 years, a host of young Glamorgancricketers have been groomed in the nets during the winter monthsand the facilities have also been used by the club in theirpre-season activities.However, there were a few problems at the ground, especially whenit rained, as the area around The Gnoll has a high water table.Indeed, some people believe that the area was once the formercourse of the River Neath, and there are several small springs onthe hillside below the remains of mackworth’s old mansion. Thersult as far as cricket was concerned was that the ground took along time to dry out after rain, and in the late 1960’s theground became used just for one day matches rather than three dayChampionship games. Indeed, in 1969 The Gnoll staged thecounty’s first-ever home game in the Sunday League, but eventhese one day games were often rain affected, and after theBenson and Hedges Cup fixture with Gloucestershire had takenthree days to complete in 1974, The Gnoll was dropped from thecounty’s 1st XI fixture list.During the early 1980’s various industrial regeneration schemesbegan in the area, and the Neath Development Partnership began topromote tourism and recreation in the area. They viewed countycricket as the perfect vehicle for promoting their activities andthe area as well, so in 1984 Neath Borough Council offeredGlamorgan a substantial sponsorship package if the Australianmatch in 1985 was staged at Neath. The offer of around =A320,000resulted in the tourist match being staged at The Gnoll, and thesuccess of the game, and the off-field arrangements led toGlamorgan playing further first class and limited overs cricketat the ground. Indeed, the 1993 match with the Australians aswell as the 1995 fixture with their ‘A’ side have taken place atNeath.The Neath Cricket Club, quite rightly, have a proud tradition andtheir splendid pavilion houses many items celebrating the deedsof their players, including two English Test captains – TonyLewis and Cyril Walters, as well as Barry Lloyd, the currentcaptain of the Wales Minor County side, and the late John Bevan,the former Welsh rugby international and coach. Many otherGlamorgan have turned out for the Neath club, including StanTrick and Geoff Holmes, whilst their overseas stars have includedtwo from the 1996 World Cup – Richie Richardson of the WestIndies and Kenyan Maurice Odumbe.