St Mary’s Unicorns Cricket Club: Three homes in three years

St Mary’s Unicorns Cricket Club are gearing to play their first outdoor cricket games of the year as the weather slowly turns into the ideal conditions for England’s national summer sport in which to be played.

However, they will be playing their “home” games at their third permanent venue in as many years. This hasn’t always been the case as St Mary’s Cricket Club did once have a permanent home down at the sports-dedicated Teddington Lock facility, but that was shut down some years ago.

Now the Teddington Lock facility houses the football pitches, an all-weather pitch, and extra rugby pitches in addition to the main one on campus, rather than cricket pitches. The cricket pavilion is still there however, sitting as a reminder of the facilities that used to exist there.

Teddington Cricket Club

Up until the end of the academic year 2022/2023, they had to play at Teddington Cricket Club’s facilities located in Bushy Park, which is over a half an hour walk from campus, compared to the maximum 20-minute walk to Teddington Lock where their previous facility was located.

Unfortunately, according to team member Miles Bratby, this arrangement ended because “of the financial implications of having to rent out the pitch. As the money at Teddington was going up and they charged us more and more for the pitch, we weren’t then able to use the pitch because it then became out of our price range.”

This was unfortunate because the arrangement worked perfectly for them. Not only were they given access to the changing rooms, useful because it’s a mixed team, but also because they had been given access to the bar which allowed people who came to watch them play to stay out longer and enjoy their day.

Miles also detailed this, saying “Teddington Cricket Club in Bushy Park is a lot easier because more people can stay there longer and watch it because there’s refreshments, there’s facilities that they can use so they can stay there and watch the game longer, whereas at Ted Lock there isn’t a bar or anywhere where they can get drinks during the game.”

Chopping and changing

So, after they ended their partnership with Teddington Cricket Club, for the academic year 2023/2024 they had to switch venue. They found a new home at Hampton Wick Royal Cricket Club, which is even further away at almost an hour’s walk, or between 20-25 minutes by bus, from the main campus.

Hampton Wick were less accommodating than Teddington had been, as they were not given access to the changing rooms there, despite the increased travel distance from campus just to get to the pitches in the first place and it being a mixed team.

Then, as they moved into this academic year, 24/25, they’ve once again returned to Bushy Park, albeit using Teddington Town Cricket Club’s facilities this time, independent of Teddington Cricket Club, reducing their commute from almost an hour back down to just half an hour.

On campus?

With such a high turnover of home venues in such a short space of time, the question becomes whether or not it’s time to have a pitch on campus again, not down at Teddington Lock, but on the main campus like it already has with the rugby pitch.

According to Miles, “If it was on campus and they did have a site, it would be nice to get to because it’s a St Mary’s space. It would feel like we’re supporting the university that way.”

Having, and maintaining, a cricket pitch comes with its challenges however. Firstly, St Mary’s are only able to play cricket in the final two months of the academic year. Having a pitch that will only be used for the last two months doesn’t seem feasible.

Practicality

The Unicorns this year will only be playing five games in the upcoming season, two at “home” and three away, meaning that if they were to have a dedicated pitch on campus, it would be used twice, and maybe a handful of times more when training. The continued upkeep of the pitch is also key to it being good enough to play on.

“The pitch has got to be good enough so that we can have other universities come here and play on the pitch. One of the reasons why we’re not at Ted Lock is because the groundsmen will have a lot of other stuff to do at Ted Lock and maybe they then can’t focus on providing a cricket square of the right level that we need.”

Miles also added that’s why they “go to an actual club that have proper grounds staff and have proper facilities that they protect and maintain properly.”

The reality is that most of the Unicorns cricket is played indoors over the autumn/winter/early spring months. But cricket is much more of an outdoor sport, a sentiment Miles shares as he doesn’t play indoor fixtures for precisely that reason.

Whilst there might be people who want a dedicated cricket facility on campus, including Education President Shelley Blake-Carey, the reality is that the cost of maintaining it versus the amount of actual usage you’d get renders it as another idea that will probably, and unfortunately, never make it off the ground.