Newmarket Cricket Club secure long-term future with switch to Dullingham after Severals contract dispute with town council

The sound of leather on willow will no longer be heard at The Severals, but Newmarket Cricket Club connections are confident that they will continue to go from strength to strength at their new home outside of the town.

The Stampede had played at the town centre venue since the club rose from the ashes in the summer of 2020.

But a contract wrangle with the town council towards the end of last season raised major doubts as to where Newmarket would be playing their cricket in 2023.

And with no agreement possible, the club has taken the decision to move themselves almost four miles up the B1061, signing a 20-year lease with Dullingham Parish Council in what they believe is an opportunity to lay down some roots.

On having to move out of Newmarket, first-team captain Mark Nunn said: “It’s a travesty we’ve had to move out of the town.

“We’ve done nothing but try to improve the ground at The Severals and make it a nice place to be with a good atmosphere.

“Disappointing circumstances have not allowed us to do that and it’s our members, of which we have around 50, that are going to suffer.

“This isn’t about me or anybody else that helped to get the club going. It’s about the wider community and the fact they’ve lost a cricket club. There’s football, rugby, hockey and plenty more in the town, but we’ve been prevented from providing cricket.”

Yet, the hope now is that the feeling of disappointment and frustration will make way for optimism. Work is already under way on improving their new home, which by Nunn’s own admission is run down.

However, with their long-term future now secured, the skipper believes the future is bright.

He added: “It’s massive to have secured our long-term future for so many reasons. Now we can start to apply for things like ECB and Sport England grants and that will really help to push the club forward.

“From a playing perspective it will help hugely as well. Due to a previous agreement we could not set up the ground for cricket until 12pm on a Saturday, so for two years we didn’t have the time for a warm-up.

“That’s like a football team going out to play a match and they’ve not done anything in preparation, so it will be good to put that right and it should lead to better performances.

“And we have to say a massive thank you to Dullingham Parish Council. They’ve been a pleasure to deal with and they’re more than happy to work with us.

“It’s been really refreshing to work with people that are so receptive. We only had our first conversations with them in September so it’s all happened quickly, but it’s been easy in lots of ways because of how open they have been.”

And despite setting up home in Dullingham, the club will continue to run under the Newmarket name.

“We’re staying as Newmarket, it’s something that we have built up from scratch.

“The club logo, the engraving on our kit, the website and things like that, it costs a lot of money and so we didn’t want to throw that down the drain.

“It’s our club and we were keen to keep the name.”

In a brief statement provided to Suffolk News, town council clerk Cathy Whitaker said: “Newmarket Town Council is disappointed at the cricket club’s decision to move from The Severals grounds.

“The council worked hard to find a solution to the club’s difficulties in operating within the necessary conditions of the agreement, but constructive discussion proved difficult.”

* Newmarket Cricket Club is keen to add to its number of playing and non-playing members after securing their long-term future.

For more information visit the contact section on the website: www.newmarketcricketclub.co.uk