text: central recreation ground the central recreation ground was a cricket ground in hastings , east sussex , used for first - class and list a cricket between 1864 and 1996 . the ground was frequently used by sussex county cricket club as one of their outgrounds from 1865 ; in total , sussex played 143 first - class and 17 list a matches at the ground . between 1887 and the 1960s , the central recreation ground also played host to the hastings & st leonards cricket festival , which attracted many other teams and notable players . in the early twentieth century , the ground hosted seven gentlemen v players matches , and notable players to have played at the ground include w.g. grace , don bradman , jack hobbs and denis compton . grace made over 40 appearances at the ground , whilst both hobbs and compton broke the record for most first - class centuries in a season at the central recreation ground . the ground also hosted a women 's one - day international between england and new zealand in 1984 . in the 1980s , planning permission was given for the ground be demolished , and the land used to build a shopping centre . after the demolition of the ground in 1996 , the priory meadow shopping centre was built on the site . cricket history in total , the central recreation ground hosted 228 first - class matches , and 14 list a matches . the ground was initially leased from the cornwallis family ( the descendants of charles cornwallis , 1st marquess cornwallis ) , until 1869 when the ground was purchased by the cricketing trust . between 1887 and the 1960s , the ground hosted the hastings & st. leonards festival in september , which was the southern equivalent of the scarborough festival . during these festivals , seven gentlemen v players matches were played on the ground between 1889 and 1903 , and in 1907 & 1909 , matches took place between gentlemen of the south and players of the south . the 1909 match was the only first - class match played by british army officer leonard slater , and was a victory for the players of the south by 228 runs . w. g. grace played at the ground over forty times , and during the 1894 hastings festival , he scored his 98th first - class century for the gentleman against the players . grace had captained a south of england team against an 18 of hastings team in 1877 , a match which was described as " a great success , and revived the game in hastings " . in 1900 , a match took place between a combined sussex and surrey team against a rest of england team containing grace ; the rest of england team scored 355 in 3 hours 50 minutes . in 1902 , a joint sussex and kent team played a rest of england team , this time captained by grace . in the 1902 gentlemen v. players match , grace and walter reed made a partnership of 99 as the gentleman scored 211 ; reed top - scored with 56 , whilst grace 's score of 53 was the only other score above 30 . during the 1925 hastings festival , jack hobbs scored 266 , in a gents v players match ; this was his record first - class score , and was also his 15th first - class century in the season , a new record . at the 1947 hastings festival , denis compton broke hobbs ' record by scoring a 17th first - class century of the season , in a match against south africa . compton was eventually dismissed for 101 , although south africa won the match by 9 wickets . in 1948 , don bradman scored his 115th first - class century in a hastings festival match against a south of england team ; his innings lasted 133 minutes . the central recreation ground also hosted many games aside from hastings festival matches . australian teams played at the ground 18 times , with one match in 1878 involving a side with eighteen hastings players , of whom six played for kent , three played for sussex and three played for surrey . in a 1902 match between sussex and surrey at the ground , c.b. fry and joe vine scored an opening partnership of 238 runs , and ks ranjitsinhji scored the first double - century at the ground , as sussex scored 705 – 8d , the highest total in a first - class match at the ground . the match also saw surrey batsmen bobby abel and thomas hayward score an opening partnership of 246 , the highest partnership ever for the first wicket in a match at the central recreation ground . in 1908 , a match took place at the ground between an english 11 and the melbourne cricket club . a first - class match between sussex and kent in 1984 ended in a tie . in the same year , the england women 's cricket team played a 55 overs a side one day international match against new zealand . jan brittin scored 101 , as england scored 194 – 8 , and in reply new zealand made 148 – 7 . the last sussex first - class match at the ground took place in 1996 . in 1954 , the cricketer magazine noted that sussex and kent used to frequently play their matches at nevill ground , tunbridge wells and the central recreation ground in hastings ; the article saying " amongst typical considerations which affect the issue are county weeks and festivals " . the players ' tea - room at the ground had graffito saying " victoria 1066 " ; guardian cricket correspondent matthew engel joked that " since the cricket ground is the only place in town not full of french students , this must have been put there by one of william 's soldiers and could well constitute the longest - running gloat in history " . other history in 1869 , the ground hosted an archery meeting for the royal st. leonards archers . during the 1890s , the ground hosted local football matches for rock - a - ( now hastings united ) ; in 1895 , it hosted rock - a - ' matches in the hastings carlisle cup competition . in 1896 , the ground hosted a charity match between hastings and eastbourne , to raise money for hastings rowing club ; hastings won the match 3 – 1 , and the match raised almost £ 10 , which was most of the money needed for the rowing club 's new galley . later in the year , it hosted another match between hastings and eastbourne , which eastbourne won 7 – 2 . in 1905 , the ground hosted a circus , in which american tight rope champion hermann davidson fell 60 feet ( 18 m ) to his death after falling off the balancing pole during a performance . davidson was 45 years old , and had begun training to be a tight - rope walker at the age of 10 . in september 1922 , the ground held a grand fete , to raise money to repair the tower of blacklands church . in 1948 , the ground was flooded , and the public health committee report into the storm floods had to be withdrawn after a magistrate appeared to provide misinformation in his statutory declaration . in his declaration , he had claimed to have been at the central recreation ground for two 15 minute time periods during the flooding period and claimed to have seen the flooding , but at those times , the ground had not yet been flooded . the ground had previously flooded in 1866 , when one resident noted that it had been underwater many times within their memory . demolition in 1982 , hastings council voted to relocate the central recreation ground to , and use the ground 's current location for a shopping centre . however , this proposal was rejected by the government in 1984 , before the central cricket ground committee decided to move in 1986 . planning permission for the shopping centre was granted in 1988 , and the ground was eventually demolished between 1996 and 1997 , being replaced by priory meadow shopping centre . the shopping centre has a 10 - foot sculpture entitled " the spirit of cricket " , with an inscription about the location of the ground there for 130 years . ground records in first - class matches highest total : 705 – 8d sussex v surrey , 1902 lowest total : 53 england xi v australians , 1888 highest individual score : 246 ks , sussex v kent , 1929 best bowling figures : 9 – 28 dl underwood , kent v sussex , 1964 best match figures : 17 – 50 ctb turner , australians v england xi , 1888