This is an enormous summer for cricket. The Cricket World Cup is under way, with grudge matches such as India against Pakistan drawing a billion viewers worldwide, then comes the Ashes when England play their fiercest rivals, Australia.
All the attendant hype and hullaballoo makes it an ideal time to buy a property with a cricketing connection — be it a great manorial pile with its own cricket ground or a more modest flat where owners can share the excitement of a game with the crowd.
It takes a true enthusiast to be swayed by the proximity of the sound of leather on willow and Philip Carrington, 60, is just such a cricket fan. That is why, when he found the Parsonage at High Easter in Essex for sale 28 years ago, he had to buy it.
Bird’s eye view: Langton House in the village of Langton Green, Kent, overlooks its own cricket ground and pavilion
‘The ground, which belongs to the house, had been used by the village team since the end of World War II,’ says Carrington, who works as a solicitor in the city.
‘The previous owner had been a cricket lover who used to offer a cash prize to any High Easter batsman who could break one of the Parsonage’s windows.’
Carrington has sponsored the building of a new pavilion, providing a comfortable clubhouse for the players, with changing rooms and showers and a kitchen for the preparation of those all-important cricket teas. Carrington believes his investment has been worth every penny. He was swiftly made honorary President of the club.
Also, the club members see to the upkeep of the ground — mowing and rolling the grass and keeping the buildings freshly painted — so maintenance is free.
Since their four children have flown the nest Carrington and his wife Ann rattle around in the seven-bedroom Georgian parsonage, so they are downsizing.
The house, with its paddock, all-weather tennis court, orangery, pool and gymnasium is for sale with Jackson-Stops for £3.325 million (jackson-stops.co.uk).
Langton House, the childhood home of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the scout movement, in the village of Langton Green in Kent is a Grade II-listed Regency house — all white-washed brick with blue shutters. To reinforce its colonial style, it has a large cricket ground and pavilion, all maintained by a groundsman within its 12 acres of rolling lawns and grounds.
The present owner runs a ‘house team’ — it helps that he has five sons — which play against invitation teams. Langton House, which has eight bedrooms on three floors, is for sale with Knight Frank for £3.95 million (knightfrank.co.uk).
For most cricket lovers just living in close proximity to a club cricket field is enough to satisfy their appetite for the game — and it makes financial sense.
‘Having a cricket club nearby will undoubtedly aid the sale of a house, particularly if you are selling to people who are newcomers to the area,’ says Jonathan Bramwell of property search company The Buying Solution.
‘Many clubs nowadays have barbecues on match days, bars in the clubhouse and run several teams, with youth sides for both boys and girls, so it’s a way the whole family can quickly make friends.
‘And you never know who you’ll play against. Sam Mendes, the film director, used to turn out for my home team of Shipton-under-Wychwood.’
It is not only homes of a certain age that enjoy views of the cricket. Next to the new pavilion and cricket green at the lovely Sussex village of Southwater, Broadacres is a collection of newly built two to five-bedroom properties. Prices start from £385,000 for a three-bedroom home (broadacres-southwater.co.uk).
For retirees wanting to watch county cricket for free, Pegasus Court directly overlooks the action at the county ground at Taunton. A two-bedroom apartment with views over the cricket is for sale for £350,000 (gibbinsrichards.co.uk).
So, why should a view over a cricket pitch be considered better than one overlooking, say, an athletics track?
‘There is something so reassuringly English about it,’ says Carrington of High Easter.
‘Many is the time I have caught sight of the village team starting an evening game as I have arrived home from London on the train and felt calmed by the scene.’