Cricket has been played in Stone since around 1845. Today Stone SP Cricket Club is a two-ground, current Premier Division champion club with around 600 members, about 300 young players and a clear philosophy: its junior section is the first team of tomorrow.
For this Club Spotlight we head to Staffordshire and Stone SP Cricket Club, a club whose story stretches from 19th-century cricket to one of the largest junior programmes in the area.
Stone SP is unusual in having two grounds: the historic Lichfield Road ground in Stone and Swynnerton Park in nearby Swynnerton.
The modern club was formed when Stone and Swynnerton Park merged in 2007, but both sides of that partnership have cricket histories that go back well over a century.
Two grounds, one club and a lot of history
Early records show cricket being played in Stone from around 1845, with the club established at its present Lichfield Road ground in 1891.
The first recorded match there took place against Fenton on 9 May 1891. Stone scored 134 before bowling Fenton out for just 16, winning by 118 runs.
The ground developed around the club over the following decades. The present scorebox was completed in 1952 and presented by the Supporters’ Club, while the pavilion was completed in 1961 before being altered and extended again in 2008.
Lichfield Road has also hosted an extraordinary list of first-class and touring sides. Essex, Sussex, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Derbyshire, Warwickshire and Surrey have all visited, alongside touring teams from Pakistan, South Africa and Australia.
Among the international names to have played at Stone are Sir Garfield Sobers and Shane Warne. The great SF Barnes, one of Wisden’s leading players of the 20th century, ended his playing career at Lichfield Road.
Swynnerton Park has its own deep history. The first recorded match there was against Stone in 1892. Its original pavilion, built in 1912, survived a bomb landing near the square during the Second World War; a piece of shrapnel is still displayed at the club. The current pavilion was built in 2004.
Success on the field is only part of the story
Stone SP has won the North Staffs & South Cheshire Cricket League Premier Division seven times, most recently in 2025, making the club the current champions.
It has also won the Talbot Cup 10 times and the T20 Trophy six times, while its junior sides are regular trophy winners in the North Staffs Junior Cricket League.
But when the club talks about what matters most, the conversation quickly moves away from trophies and towards development.
“The junior section is the first team of tomorrow”
Stone SP’s philosophy is simple: there should be a game of cricket for everyone, whatever their age or ability.
The club has around 300 youngsters playing across numerous teams during the week. Ade Cuthbert lists nine senior teams, 19 junior teams and five women and girls teams across the wider cricket programme.
Rather than directing money towards overseas professionals or player payments, the club says it prefers to invest in coaching, facilities and equipment so that its own players have the best possible opportunity to improve.
That is why Stone SP describes the junior section as “the first team of tomorrow”.
The same long-term thinking is behind the club’s growing women and girls section, which Stone SP says it is particularly proud to see blossoming.
Bigger and better after lockdown
One of the things the club is most proud of is simply how strongly it has come back from the disruption of the pandemic.
When cricket stopped, some members and volunteers never returned. Like many grassroots organisations, Stone SP had to rebuild.
Its response has been to grow beyond where it was before, while keeping the focus on people, facilities and participation.
The priorities for the next few years are clear:
- Continue investing in facilities and equipment
- Keep growing the women and girls game
- Recruit, support and retain the best paid staff and volunteers
- Maintain the financial stability that underpins everything else
Why financial stability matters
Cricket is an expensive and highly seasonal sport.
Membership fees alone do not cover the cost of running a club of Stone SP’s size. The cricket income has to be supplemented by the bar, room and ground bookings, functions and sponsorship.
“Massive. Put simply, we couldn’t survive without them.”
Ade CuthbertClub Treasurer, Stone SP Cricket Club, on sponsors and local businesses
That dependence on local commercial support is one reason the club continues to look for ways to offer sponsors more value and to keep members engaged with what is happening around the club.
A screen at the centre of the pavilion
Stone SP describes its Grassroot Media screen as a centrepiece in the main pavilion.
Whenever the club is open, the screen is on, and the club actively draws attention to new content.
It has already been used to promote guest speakers, social events, room-booking opportunities and practical club messages, and the club plans to make even greater use of it over time.
That is exactly how the screen model is intended to work. National advertising helps fund the screen, while the majority of the airtime remains available to the club for its own fixtures, events, sponsors, recruitment messages and local advertising.
Stone SP can therefore use the same physical screen both as a communications tool for members and as another asset it can build into local sponsorship packages.
A historic club still looking forward
Stone SP has plenty of history to celebrate: cricket in Stone dating back to the 1840s, two long-established grounds, famous visitors and a cabinet full of league and cup honours.
But what stands out most is how much of the club’s attention is focused on what happens next.
Develop the next generation. Grow the women and girls game. Improve the facilities. Support the volunteers. Keep the finances stable enough to make all of those things possible.
That combination of history and forward planning is what makes grassroots clubs like Stone SP so important.
Grassroot Media is delighted to have Stone SP Cricket Club as part of our network, and we look forward to seeing how the club continues to use its screen as another tool for communication, sponsorship and club development.
Find Stone SP online
Follow the club
For club news, teams, fixtures and results, visit Stone SP Cricket Club online:
Stone SP Cricket Club website
Play-Cricket fixtures & results
For clubs
Could your club make more of its screen?
Grassroot Media provides digital screens free of charge to grassroots football, rugby, cricket and bowls clubs across the UK. Host clubs receive the majority of the screen airtime for their own use and can display club information, events, sponsors and local advertising. If a club sells advertising within its own airtime, the club keeps the revenue.
For advertisers
Want to reach grassroots sports communities?
Grassroot Media helps advertisers reach players, members, supporters, families, volunteers and club decision makers inside trusted grassroots sports environments across the UK.