However by the 1880’s the continuing expansion of the town coupled with the fragility of having just an annual lease prompted the aforesaid James Forbes Lumsden, still Club Captain and Secretary (as well as being a respected lawyer), to seek to purchase a ground.

The financing of Mannofield was organised and, not a little funded, by James Williams (a whisky blender in Aberdeen and who probably played more games for Aberdeenshire in the 19th century than anyone else) and by his brother Sir Robert Williams, (an engineer who made a fortune in the goldfields of South Africa and who made his fame by building the railway for Cecil Rhodes from Southern Rhodesia - Zimbabwe to-day - to Angola).

The confidence brought by ownership of Mannofield enabled the Club to attract the top teams to Aberdeen and, now under the guiding hand of Secretary W. Kendall Burnett (another successful lawyer), to push towards a Scottish Cricket Competition.

Once more, and after 60 years of service to Aberdeenshire CC, James Forbes Lumsden saw the Club out of the near disaster of impending insolvency.

This enabled the Club to gradually acquire land on the north side as it became available; to seriously develop junior cricket; and, reaping the rewards of the latter, to have a Mannofield XI strong enough to join, and quickly become, a major force in the Strathmore Union.

The occasion was also marked by Sir John Hay, (who was then Managing Director of Guthrie Bros, rubber producers in Malaya - now Malaysia) and also President of Surrey C.C., setting up a large trust fund for the benefit of Aberdeenshire C.C., the club he had attended as a youngster.

Twenty six years without a Counties Championship was ended in 1975 and this success was to herald a quarter of a century of outstanding achievement within the club.

The existing clubhouse (of 1912 vintage) was enlarged and the interior totally renewed; the "old" tearoom (from 1920) was revamped to become The Cavalier Bar: and then a snooker room was added.

Office and flat accommodation at the corner of the ground was purchased with a view to diversifying the club’s income.

Ken McCurdie also received the Groundsman of the Year, in recognition of his efforts in connection with the staging of One-Day Internationals at Mannofield for the first time.

[3] In 1893/4 Aberdeenshire CC employed the services of future England Test cricketer Schofield Haigh.

We are very proud of our history and we wished to promote our colours which were laid down by our forefathers in the form of our present day playing attire.