Broadhalfpenny Down
The cricket ground was the home venue for matches organised by the Hambledon Club from 1753 to 1781 which generally involved a Hampshire county team.
[1] Immediately next to the ground is the Bat & Ball Inn, known as the "cradle of cricket" whose landlord for ten years from 1762 to 1772 was Hambledon captain Richard Nyren.
Places that had obtained a charter from the King to hold markets or establish fairs were issued with Letters Patent stamped with "Broad-Halfpenny".
[4] Hambledon in the eighteenth century was a large parish of over 9,000 acres containing small hamlets and detached farms in addition to the main village.
Much of the agricultural land had been enclosed in small farms but there remained extensive commons, including Broadhalfpenny, on which grazing rights existed.
The source for this is an advertisement placed in the Reading Mercury newspaper by the Reverend Richard Keats of Chalton for information about his dog, a spaniel called Rover, whom he lost at the match.
In 1770, a Sussex lawyer called John Baker left an account in his diary of a match between Hambledon and the Surrey club Coulsdon which lasted two days.
[9] The 1772 season is notable in English cricket history because it is from then that surviving scorecards are common and three exist of 1772 matches organised by the Hambledon Club which commence a continuous statistical record.
[12] Despite being ordained, a Steward of the Hambledon Club and a member of the Laws of Cricket committee, the Reverend Charles Powlett was not above gambling on the outcome of matches or of betting against his own team.
Then Small was joined at the wicket by his captain Nyren and the two put on a massive century partnership which turned the game around, for Surrey collapsed and Hampshire won a famous victory.
[14] A key difference was that Windmill was under the club's control as they rented it from a farmer at ten guineas a year, whereas Broadhalfpenny was common land in use as sheep pasture, for fairs and other gatherings.
In 1939 local side Portsmouth FC had just won the FA Cup, defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers 4–1, so the engineering company that leased the ground, Wadhams, organised a celebratory cricket match against Westgate Brewery.
A few months later, Germany invaded Poland and the FA Cup itself was moved for safekeeping to a pub in Lovedean, not far from Broadhalfpenny Down, for the duration of the war.
He wrote that "across the road from the famous Bat and Ball pub [was] a clunky monument and a green field with a cricket pavilion, sightscreens, and a square that bore the scars of recent matches."
[citation needed] Articles were published by Elgan Alderman,[17] Ivo Tennant, Jon Hotten[18] and Guy Ladenburg[19] covering the 250th anniversary.
[citation needed] On Friday 24 June 2022 a Hampshire All Star XI led by Mark Nicholas and Georgia Adams played an All England XI that included Chris Tremlett and Charlotte Edwards as well as well-known actors, cricket writers and players from the England Disability Cricket team.
Hambledon is a beautiful setting in which to play and watch and I am looking forward to the celebrations of the historic match and famed ground continuing throughout the year."
[citation needed] Broadhalfpenny Down hosted a match on New Year's Day 2022 to kick off a season of celebrating two and half centuries of First-Class cricket.
Ex-Sergeant Major Newland, fondly known as Picolo Jim, climbed on top of the monument and beckoned the players to the field to start the match.
