1Trent Bridge — A Test ground guide

In the first of a series of “guides to the grounds” we fea­ture Trent Bridge with details of the lay­out of the ground and the best places to sit

To start with, here is an image of the ground, ori­ented prop­erly to the com­pass, and with the stands labelled

Radcliffe Road Stand (officially the Trent Bridge Cricket Centre)

The Rad­cliffe road stand is a large, 3 tiered stand, with the com­ment­ary box in the centre.  On our last vis­it to Trent Bridge we sat in the Rad­cliffe road stand and on our way to our seats encountered Sir Ian Botham and Michael Vaughan.  The view from the upper parts of the stand is very sim­il­ar to the view on TV (for half the overs at least).  The stand also faces South so catches a lot of sun.  The Upper 2 tiers are exposed to the ele­ments without any cov­er, whilst the lower tier is mostly covered by the upper tiers, although the front rows are likely to catch any rain that falls.  As you can see on the pic­ture, if you’re seated at the West­ern side of the upper-most tier you are likely to get some shade later in the after­noon.  The middle tier has an elev­a­tion of at least 10m and the upper tier an elev­a­tion of at least 14m.  Along with the Hound Road stand the Rad­cliffe Road stand is typ­ic­ally where the highest priced tick­ets are located.

William Clarke Stand

The Wil­li­am Clarke stand is an alco­hol free stand which can be thought of as the “fam­ily stand”.  Dis­coun­ted tick­ets for fam­ily groups, under 21s and juni­ors are often avail­able only in this stand.

Parr Stand & West Wing Stand (Now replaced by the “New Stand”)

The most recent upgrade to Trent Bridge was recently com­pleted, with the “New Stand” repla­cing the Parr and West Wing Stands.  The image above still shows the old stands as the google-earth imagery pred­ates the upgrade of the ground.  The New stand has an upward curving roof which offers shel­ter to the rear ¹⁄₃ of the seats.  The front ²⁄₃ of the seats remain vul­ner­able to rain how­ever.  The stand faces North-East and with the arched roof is well shaded.  Oth­er than the fam­ily dis­counts in the Wil­li­am Clarke stand the New Stand (along with the Fox Road stand) typ­ic­ally have the cheapest tickets.

Members Pavillion

The Mem­bers Pavil­lion (along with the Lar­wood and Voce Stand) is only avail­able to Not­ting­ham­shire CCC mem­bers.  Mem­ber­ship costs around £150 (around £100 for seni­or citizens).

Hound Road Stand

Along with the Rad­cliffe Road stand the Hound Road stand is typ­ic­ally where the highest priced tick­ets are loc­ated.  It has 2 tiers, with the upper tier hav­ing an elev­a­tion of at least 6m.

Larwood & Voce Stand

The Lar­wood and Voce Stand (along with the Pavil­lion) is only avail­able to Not­ting­ham­shire CCC mem­bers.  Mem­ber­ship costs around £150 (around £100 for seni­or citizens).

Fox Road Stand

Oth­er than the fam­ily dis­counts in the Wil­li­am Clarke stand the Fox Road stand (along with the New Stand) typ­ic­ally have the cheapest tick­ets.  The Fox Road stand is also the stand which usu­ally hosts the Barmy Army, and the most rauc­ous atmosphere.

Transport links

Public transport

Trent Bridge is a mere 1.0 mile from the main Rail sta­tion in Not­ting­ham.  You can either walk which takes about 20 minutes, take the bus (e.g. #11) which costs £1.70 for adults and £1 for chil­dren, or take a taxi for around £5.

Park and Ride

Not­ting­ham is well served by the M1 from both North and South.  Once in the city drivers can make use of the Event­Link Park and Ride ser­vice provided by Not­ting­ham and Derby loc­al author­it­ies.  For pre­vi­ous Test matches this ser­vice has run from the Queen’s Drive Park & Ride site and costs £4 per car for up to 4 people.  The ser­vice runs to out­side  San­d­icliffe Ford on Lough­bor­ough Road which is with­in 100m of the ground.  Not­ting­ham­shire CCC provide up‑to-date inform­a­tion for spe­cif­ic events on their site.  From the north take M1 junc­tion 26 and then fol­low the A610, A6514 and A52 a total of 6.1 miles.  From the south take M1 junc­tion 24 and then fol­low the A453 and A52 for 9.1 miles.

Rations

Like most oth­er sport­ing aren­as you aren’t allowed to take bottles or cans into the ground, includ­ing soft drinks and water.  Drinks are avail­able in the ground, typ­ic­ally from around £3.50 — £4.00 per drink for alco­hol­ic bever­ages.  The good news is that you can take your own food into the ground.