Victory Square, Nelson

Story

Victory Square is a cricket ground in Nelson, Nelson Region, New Zealand. Located a short distance south-west of Nelson's central business district, it is in a public park of the same name bounded by Vanguard, Toi Toi, St Vincent and Northesk streets.Early historyThe ground was being used for cricket in the 1858-59 season, when clubs from Nelson and the nearby town of Wakefield played each other there. The first interprovincial match there was in 1862-63, when Nelson played Wellington in a one-day match in which 40 wickets fell for 167 runs on a "very fiery pitch".First-class matchesBetween 1875 and 1887 Nelson played seven matches at Victory Square that are now recognised as first-class. Nelson won all six matches against Wellington and lost the other match to Auckland. Scores were extremely low and there were some notable bowling figures.1874-75Wellington 93 and 71 lost to Nelson 100 and 65 for 8 by two wickets.Harry Hole took 8 for 37 and 2 for 24 for Nelson in his only first-class match. Thomas Armitage of Wellington, also playing in his first first-class match, took 5 for 18 and 4 for 24. The highest score was 31, made by two Wellington batsmen in the first innings.