Welbeck Cricket Club are to host two matches involving Nottinghamshire CC this summer — the first time the county side has played home games outside the city for 17 years.

Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, Mick Newell, said his first-team squad would relish playing two Royal London One-Day Cup 50-over matches at The John Fretwell Sporting Complex, Sookholme.

The two-day festival will take place on July 25 and 26, when the Green and Golds will take on Warwickshire Bears and then Glamorgan.

It means cricket fans in the north of the county can look forward to seeing the likes of England players Alex Hales, James Taylor, Samit Patel and Michael Lumb in action, along with former Australia and Ashes bowler Ben Hilfenhaus and Zimbabwean World Cup batsman Brendan Taylor.

Nottinghamshire last played a competitive first-team fixture away from Trent Bridge in 2004 at Cleethorpes. Their last home game in the county outside Nottingham was at Worksop in 1998.

Newell said: “We have played at Horsham and Liverpool and places like that, which have been great. If the set-up is right, which we feel Welbeck will get right, it will be a great experience for us and for our supporters to see Notts play somewhere else.

“We have asked Welbeck to prepare pitches for one and three-day cricket for our second-team matches in recent years and they have worked hard to prove they will be of a suitable standard for first-team cricket.

“We knew already that the facilities are as good as any of the other outgrounds we have played at.
“It promises to be a weekend the players will relish and enjoy, as well as those watching.

“There’s definitely a sense of it being a big, historic event because it hasn’t been done for a long while.”
One of the Notting-hamshire squad who will be desperate to play a part is seamer Jake Ball.

The 24-year-old from Warsop took 19 wickets at 22.63 as he helped his home county win the Yorkshire Bank 40 in the 2013 season, having previously come through the ranks at Welbeck.

Ball said: “It would be a proud moment for me to represent my county in a professional game at the ground where I grew up playing, and Welbeck will do Notts proud.”

“Hopefully we will get a lot of local people interested and coming down to watch us – I know I will have plenty of friends and family there.”

The John Fretwell Complex was opened in 2006 and has been continuously developed for use not just by local cricketers, but also footballers and bowls players too.

The facility’s benefactor, John Fretwell, said: “It was one of the aims when we built this place that we would get a Notts first-team game here, so this weekend makes me excited.

“Hopefully this can help the not-for-profit Warsop Sporting Trust, which oversees cricket here, to inspire many more youngsters in our area to take up the game.”

General admission tickets are priced £15. Car parking is £5 per vehicle.

Tickets are available through Nottinghamshire’s website at www.trentbridge.co.uk/tickets or via the booking hotline 0844 8118711.

Corporate hospitality for the game has gone on sale at £70 per person for the weekend and £40 for one day.
More details are at www.trentbridge.co.uk/tickets or by calling 01623 847468.

Pictured are Jake Ball, John Fretwell and young Welbeck players with the letter confirming Nottinghamshire are to play two games at The John Fretwell Sporting Complex in the summer. PHOTO: myb777 photography