Bournemouth - Dean Park Cricket Ground
Cavendish Road : BH1 1RB
Mr Clapcott Dean sold 6½ acres of Dean Park in the 1870's and a cricket pitch was set out and used by Bournemouth Cricket Club. Dean Park was also used by Bournemouth Football Club.

The first bicycle racing in Bournemouth seems to have been a club event put on by Bournemouth Bicycle Club at Dean Park Cricket Ground on a cinder track on 11th July 1878. The one mile event was won in a time of 3 min 15 sec.

On Whit Monday 1879, the Bournemouth BC held an athletics meeting at Dean Park which included bicycle races. The races were 2 miles and 5 miles handicap, mounting and dismounting. Because of the weather, the 1 mile and 10 miles club championship race were abandoned. The mounting and dismounting race required competitors to mount and dismount four times in each lap at places marked by flags.

Bicycle racing at Dean Park continued through the 1880's and meetings were well attended, a crowd of 4,000 watched the sports on Easter Monday 1889. Racing continued into the 1890's but the track was now described as a grass track.

The local Guardian newspaper of September 2nd 1905 comments on track racing in Bournemouth, lobbying for a track in the proposed sports ground and commenting on Dean Park "the ground has dropped into obscurity, partly through the old racing track being removed and mainly due to the cost of hiring and the restrictions imposed". There does not seem to have been any track racing at Dean Park after this.

Dean Park Cricket Ground still exists, it is currently used by Bournemouth University Cricket Club, Parley Cricket Club and Suttoners Cricket Club. It was formerly used by Hampshire and Dorset County Cricket Clubs.


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