County Cricket Ground, Northampton

Capacity: 6,500

Main Sport: Cricket

Cricket grounds in the UK are a funny mix. Some are larger like Lord’s, but others like The County Cricket Ground in Northampton are much smaller. However, unlike in football, there is more likely to be some correlation between the size of the ground and the quality of the players on show, in cricket you could quite easily see world stars at either end of the scale. As our closest cricket ground, we have started to become frequent visitors here.

When heading to the County Ground there are a couple of options open to you for parking. On match days there is a park directly opposite which is free to park in. The first couple of times we went we were lucky enough to nab one of these spots but more often we have had to find a nearby street to park in but it’s never been too difficult.

The ground was first used back in 1885 and for many years it was the home of both Northamptonshire Cricket Club but also Northampton Town Football Club. The football club moved to Sixfields in 1994 and since then the ground has been exclusively used for cricket.

In recent years we have tried to get to the ground at least once a year for a T20 match. The first ever visit was cold and damp but since then we have always been remarkably lucky with the weather. It is free seating in much of the ground and we have found an area we like to sit each time now.

There has always been a good selection of food options when we have gone but I do wonder if it would be slightly less varied for a county championship match where attendance would be much lower.

Parking so close, getting away has also been good which is always nice when you have a later finish and a 45mins drive home