SADLY, perhaps, this summer has seen an end to the tradition of Worcestershire CCC playing one of its first-class home games at Chester Road, Kidderminster. In previous times too, the county used Dudley as the venue for one of its home games each season.

It's topical, therefore, to discover that exactly 100 years ago, Worcestershire CCC was first exploring the possibility of playing one of its home games away from New Road.

Crowquill wrote in his Journal Jottings for this week of 1903: "From time to time it is suggested that Worcestershire should play a match or two away from the County Ground, perhaps at Kidderminster or Stourbridge or Dudley or Bournville, but the very suggestion has been ridiculed by those in authority who know well how poorly such experiments have fared elsewhere.

"At Dudley there is not a piece of flat turf big enough or clean enough for a county match, though Mr G Cadbury's ground at Bournville does perhaps offer greater facilities and prospects, if not wanted by Warwickshire.

"Kidderminster, if it desired a match, could, by an arrangement of incidental festivities, make a success of a fixture, but this is not even suggested. Stourbridge is the only place taking a lead in offering its ground for a county match. The Stourbridge committee stresses that such a fixture would prove a great stimulus to cricket in that district and bring county cricket before the attention of hundreds who cannot get to matches at Worcester. It would also result in adding to the county coffers by way of membership from the Stourbridge district."