Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Scarborough Cricket Club Sign 10 Year Deal
Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Scarborough Cricket Club have signed a 10-year deal to continue playing first-class and List A matches at North Marine Road.
Scarborough CC, which has staged 256 first-class matches and 92 List A matches, will continue to host ten days of cricket per season – providing the county cricket structure remains the same. This ten days will comprise two first-class (four days each) and two List A matches.
The new agreement comes into effect this summer and comes off the back of Scarborough’s Town Deal which will see the club receive up to £250,000 to make significant improvements to their facilities over two phases.
The first phase will include refurbishment of the North Stand and Trafalgar End toilets with the addition of a new accessible toilet. Phase two will see the renovation of the West Stand, including new seating, new bar facilities and a female changing room. Two hybrid pitches will be built to help the ground become a hub for junior cricket.
Yorkshire’s chief executive, Mike Arthur, said:
"This is great news for both clubs and our Members who attend Scarborough each summer. This ongoing relationship and commitment to playing ten days of cricket at Scarborough will enable the much-loved ground to continually improve facilities within their financial capabilities
"North Marine Road is the jewel in the crown for county cricket. Yorkshire’s members and visiting members alike love to watch cricket at this unique ground.
"We were disappointed not to host any cricket at Scarborough in 2020 due to Covid, however, our next match there will be against Lancashire in the county championship, a game that we believe will attract the largest county crowd in recent years."
Paul Harrand, Scarborough CC’s chairman added:
"We are delighted about the ten year agreement. This allows us to plan for the future and gives the us much-needed stability following a difficult year.
"Scarborough attracts the biggest crowds for four day county cricket in the country. It is expected that hospitality for the first three days of the Roses match will be sold out and we anticipate attracting crowds in excess of five or six thousand per day.
"Advanced ticket sales have gone through the roof for the Roses match. We also have a five counties cricket week later in July which has captured people’s imaginations. Durham are coming down to play Gloucestershire, and there are two Yorkshire one-day games against Surrey and Northamptonshire. They will all take place within a week ahead of the festival later in the summer.
"Staging Yorkshire matches brings a lot of money into the Scarborough economy. The hotels and boarding houses are full, pubs and restaurants do increased trade, so it really benefits the town.
"It is a great facility, but we need to keep moving forward. It is an aging Victorian ground, so there are things that need doing. We have addressed that and we are now starting to get on top of those issues. It is like painting the Forth Road Bridge, once you have done one job, there is another one that needs doing.
"Our aim is to give the Yorkshire members and general public a good time when they walk through the gates at North Marine Road. To that end, the ground needs to look up to a certain standard and the facilities need to be there for people. We reckon in the next two to three years, Scarborough will maintain the status of being the number one outground in the country."
