The Sark Cricket Club in its present era was started in the late 1990s when Rossford de Carteret allowed the ‘Airplane Field’ at the north of the island to be used for a one-off game against the Lord Taverners from Guernsey, who played a fixture against the Seigneur’s IX as a one-off event, the game being the idea of resident Members of the Lord Taverners.

However, records do exist of cricket being played in Sark before and after the Second World War and post war was also played in Sark school.

The one-off game against the Lord Taverners was to run for 12 years and the Club benefited financially from those games to help build a home for cricket on Sark. In the year 2000 the current Cricket Club was formed, and this small beginning saw the formation of the Sark Sports Club that took individual Clubs of Cricket, Rugby, Football, Hockey, Soft Ball and now also the Running Club under its wing.

Whilst the grass wicket at the Air Plane field, known affectionately as ‘The Field of Dreams’, played very well it was apparent that it could not be used long term as a wicket due to the number of games that were then being played on it, with visiting teams from Guernsey in addition to the Lord Taverners’ annual match. At about this time Sark was looking to build a new school to replace the two existing schools and the Island donated a field in the centre of the Island for this purpose, to be known The Millennium Field having been donated in the year 2000.

The Cricket Club saw this as being an ideal spot for a new cricket home with an artificial wicket and with the help of the Sports Club this came to fruition,

with the Sports Club taking on a lease from the island to develop playing areas for all the sports. The Sports Club also donated money to the Trustees of the School and Community Centre to put two changing rooms into the community centre. Whilst the building was being erected work began on the on removing a hedge splitting the playing areas and when levelled the artificial wicket was laid on newly seeded pitch for cricket, and football, hockey and rugby pitches were also prepared.

The new cricket ground was taken into use when an MCC touring side came to play the Sark CC and this took place on the 30th May 2003, with the annual game against the Lord’s Taverners following a few weeks later. Since 2003 Sark has played all its home fixtures on its new home the Millennium Field. In that time, we have had to replace the original artificial wicket and this year we are to lay our third wicket at a cost of £4,000. This will be laid in time for the start of the cricket season which begins at Whitsun with matches against Elizabeth College on the 25th May and is followed by a three-day Cricket Festival against the Marylebone CC (MCC) and Alderney CC. Rock Trustees of Sark are kindly sponsoring the festival.

As a Club, we are reliant on a core of resident Sark players and several ‘overseas’ players, this core is augmented each year by any recruits we can garner from seasonal workers with an enthusiasm for the game. We always welcome visitors to join us as temporary members of the club which several do each year. The Sark teams’ motto is: Play hard, play fair and enjoy the game.