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<\/p>\nTANYA ALDRED: The Cricketer’s Greenest Ground competition, sponsored by Ortus Energy, is open for entries until August 30<\/p>\n
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My friend has a pet phrase: “Cricket can change the scoreboard.”<\/p>\n I love it because it sums up the power of cricket to move things, one run after another, a team working together, each person playing their part \u2013 from 20 overs into the wind to sandwich making, sub-collecting, to a vital 55.<\/p>\n My friend’s name is Ian Curtis. He played for Oxford University and for Surrey as a slow left-arm bowler before working for Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute for 35 years. He’s a board member at Dorset Local Nature Partnership, and works to connect the dots between sport and climate \u2013 working out how sport could win the planet for nature.<\/p>\n Here’s where The Cricketer’s Greenest Ground competition, sponsored by Ortus Energy, comes in. Ian and I are members of The Next Test (a cricket and climate group), where we dream of cricket grounds across the country forming a living corridor where nature can thrive. The Greenest Ground celebrates and encourages that.<\/p>\n The good news is that the basic infrastructure already exists. Cricket grounds are, by nature, little green gems. Wherever they are, they are an antidote either to the hard concrete of cities or the industrial agriculture of the countryside.<\/p>\n Most of them are not immaculate \u2013 good! The scruffy bits around the edges are vital for nature \u2013 be that the bright yellow dandelions sprouting up everywhere at the moment and giving vital early-season nectar to pollinators, or rogue nettles, supporting more than 40 species of insects. A bit of basic, benign neglect is a great starting point. From there, clubs have done amazing things.<\/p>\n Our previous winners are from up and down the country \u2013 Manchester (Whalley Range CC), Surrey (Valley End CC), the North East (Corbridge CC), the Warwickshire countryside (Fillongley CC) and East Scotland (Brechin Buccaneers CC), with two runner-ups, in Essex (Eight Ash Green) and Glasgow (Langside Sports Club).<\/p>\n Related: Brechin news \u2013 Buccaneers scoop green award<\/a><\/p>\n All had something memorable about\u00a0them, most importantly, the human\u00a0volunteers who put in hours and hours of\u00a0work to make amazing change happen.\u00a0I think about the community orchard at\u00a0Fillongley and their resident barn owl Joe\u00a0Hoot, and Corbridge investing in a scythe\u00a0to cut the grass without using petrol and\u00a0their chairman John Maude collecting\u00a0apples from his garden to take to the club\u00a0for an apple pressing weekend. Fillongley ended up represented in the UK pavilion at\u00a0the last COP.<\/p>\n The 2025 winner, Brechin Buccaneers,\u00a0sits in an area of huge social deprivation, and\u00a0the club does amazing work for local people\u00a0in terms of energy saving and education,\u00a0operating a share shop and running\u00a0community groups, as well as growing\u00a0their own vegetables for a club shop.<\/p>\n Judges, Russell Seymour from BASIS,\u00a0naturalist Mark Cocker and author Roger\u00a0Morgan-Grenville, do a brilliant job\u00a0choosing from all these great clubs.\u00a0This year’s competition opens on April 24\u00a0and closes on August 30, and you can find the\u00a0entry form via the link at the bottom.\u00a0Do tell us how you’ve made your club\u00a0greener, in terms of saving carbon, planting\u00a0for nature and helping your community.<\/p>\n If you’ve entered before and not been\u00a0successful, please do try again. Not every\u00a0club can win, but every club is a dot on the\u00a0map, proof of a growing movement.\u00a0If you’re looking for inspiration, pop\u00a0into Grace Road. I was there during the\u00a0first game of the season. It’s a lovely old\u00a0ground, with dozens of trees lining the\u00a0boundaries. There, in between a visit to\u00a0the Friends of Grace Road cake stand \u2013 a slice decorated with chocolate eggs on\u00a0Easter Sunday \u2013 I met up again with Mark\u00a0Smith, one of the groundstaff. He was busy\u00a0bringing cuttings from his garden to plant\u00a0up and trying to build up the nature walk\u00a0by the main entrance, despite one of the\u00a0walls falling down. Robins are busy nesting\u00a0and even, a scorer has suggested, lesser\u00a0spotted woodpeckers.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to enter the Ortus Greenest Cricket Ground 2026 competition<\/p>\n A version of this article first appeared in the May 2026 issue of The Cricketer magazine.\u00a0Subscribe here<\/a><\/p>\n
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