[3] Two years later in 1888, the fixture was repeated,[2] resulting in victory for the Australians by the large margin of an innings and 135 runs.

[7] The ground was the main venue for Staffordshire in these early years in the competition, hosting 70 Minor Counties Championship matches before the start of World War I in 1914.

[2] It was in 1912 that the ground played host to a first-class fixture for the first time since 1890, when a combined Minor Counties cricket team played its inaugural first-class match against the touring South Africans,[2] with poor weather forcing the match to end in a draw.

After the war, just seven further Minor Counties Championship matches were held there in a fourteen-year period from 1922 to 1936, with Staffordshire playing their final fixture there against Durham.

[7] First-class cricket returned once to the ground in this period, when the Minor Counties played the touring South Africans in 1929,[2] which ended in a draw.