Peter Buckley picture
Ventnor have called time on their stay at the Isle of Wight's Newclose County Ground and will return to their Steephill home for this season's Southern Premier and Hampshire League home matches.
They moved to Newclose eight seasons ago in 2010, eventually putting accreditation issues aside and celebrating promotion after five successive Division 1 titles, but relegation in 2016 began to sew seeds of doubt how long Ventnor would remain there. The cost of the hire of Newclose, loss of bar takings and a desire return to their spiritual home where many of the players had grown up led to the island club deciding to ‘come home’ to its unique bowl in 2018.
Under the captaincy of Chris Russell, who played his embryo cricket at Ventnor before joining Worcestershire, the club will launch its SPL1 programme at home champions Calmore Sports on May 5 and then host Portsmouth a week later.
They moved to Newclose eight seasons ago in 2010, eventually putting accreditation issues aside and celebrating promotion after five successive Division 1 titles, but relegation in 2016 began to sew seeds of doubt how long Ventnor would remain there. The cost of the hire of Newclose, loss of bar takings and a desire return to their spiritual home where many of the players had grown up led to the island club deciding to ‘come home’ to its unique bowl in 2018.
Under the captaincy of Chris Russell, who played his embryo cricket at Ventnor before joining Worcestershire, the club will launch its SPL1 programme at home champions Calmore Sports on May 5 and then host Portsmouth a week later.
