Cheltenham Cricket Festival future in balance over rising costs

Like all Gloucestershire devotees who make an annual pilgrimage to one of English cricket’s most iconic venues, Peter Matthews does not struggle for fond memories from more than half a century of visits to the Cheltenham Cricket Festival; the trouble tends to be whittling it down to a select few.

After a few moments, Matthews – a lifelong Gloucestershire member turned club chairman – settles on two: a masterful double from Pakistan great Zaheer Abbas in 1977, whose unbeaten 205 and 108 secured an eight-wicket win over Sussex, and an epic 32.5-over opening spell from Courtney Walsh and the recently deceased David ‘Syd’ Lawrence, who shared all 10 Hampshire wickets in 1986 to dismiss the visitors 17 short of their 116-run victory target.

Festival cricket was once a treasured aspect of the English domestic game, taking the sport on the road to urban, rural and seaside locations. Their demise follows a continuing trend of rising costs, increased staging requirements and the steady reduction in outground use.

In 1961, the County Championship visited 81 grounds. This summer, the number of County Championship venues away from county headquarters is just six. Cheltenham College, setting of Gloucestershire’s showpiece festival, is arguably the most venerated.

But this year’s festival – which begins with a men and women’s T20 double-header on Thursday – comes with a warning from Matthews that its future is in doubt if it does not stop losing money.  “The amount of people you get through the door becomes really important,” he explains. “It’s an expensive undertaking because you’re essentially creating a pop-up cricket ground for the duration.”

For the best part of three weeks, the Gloucestershire club relocates to a base 40 miles from its Bristol home.

“A match at Cheltenham was always much harder to deliver because you are effectively camping in a field for weeks, with all the temporary infrastructure and the challenges that brings,” says Will Brown, former Gloucestershire chief executive.

“But it was always worth the long days. It’s a fundamental part of the heartbeat of what I think a cricket club could and should be.”

And there is demand. This summer’s Chesterfield Cricket Festival saw a 5,000-strong sell-out, while almost 4,000 attended the first two days of Derbyshire’s County Championship defeat against Lancashire.

In a bid to grow attendances at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire are this year increasing off-field activities, including a chance for spectators to bring antiques for valuation by experts from BBC’s Bargain Hunt.

“If we can get more people coming to watch cricket then Cheltenham becomes profitable,” says Matthews. “I’m hopeful we’ve turned a corner.”

“It would be a crying shame if Cheltenham or any of the other remaining festivals were to go,” says Matthews.

“It takes away some of the romance of cricket if it’s always played at the same grounds every season.”

Photograph by Matthew Williams-Ellis/Getty Images