Isle of Wight plans for Minor County Status

The Island has tentative plans to enter the Minor Counties CA Trophy competition in a few seasons time. The Gurit IWCB Academy team already play in the Southern Counties Under-21 Competition - against Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Wiltshire – and would play its matches on the new ground. The lion's share of the funding for the new ground is coming from cricket enthusiast and businessman Brian Gardener, who owns the land and lives at nearby Newclose Farm. Mr Gardener’s dream is to model the new island ground on the stunning Wormsley Park complex, built by the late Sir John Paul Getty in Buckinghamshire. Besides providing the island with a venue to play cup and representative cricket, Seaclose could also solve Ventnor’s current Southern Electric Premier League accreditation problems. The island club has won the Premier League Division 2 championship for the past three seasons – and was going for a fourth successive title at Rowledge this afternoon. But it has been denied promotion to the top flight each time because its sloping bowl-shaped Steephill ground – formerly a quarry - does not meet current accreditation requirements. “I must emphasis that the idea of a county ground has not grown because of Ventnor Cricket Club and their continued success in the Southern Electric Premier League,” reaffirmed Mr Gardener, who is also a vice-president of arch rivals Shanklin. ”My love of the sport has made me become involved,” he said at the outset. “This new ground – when it materialises - is for the whole Island community and not for any particular club or organisation But having Ventnor playing ECB Premier League there by 2009 would be another dream well worth realising.