The Hoovers cricket ground in Merthyr Tydfil hosted two of Glamorgan’s List A matches during the late 1980s. The Hoover Electrical Company had moved to the former steel-making centre of South Wales after the Second World War with their new factory, making washing machines and tumble dryers, to the south of the town at Pentrebach being formally opened on 1 March 1948. The new plant created around 2,000 jobs, and like the earlier ironmasters, Hoovers decided to create a recreational complex for their employees. Alongside the factory was an area of railway sidings, which following the closure of the mines and steel foundries were now in a semi-derelict state. The Company bought the land, reclaimed and levelled it, and so created the Hoovers Sports Ground.
By 1953 the wicket was ready for competitive matches, and during June Wilf Wooller led a Glamorgan Club and Ground XI against a combined Hoover and Merthyr XI. Over the next few years, regular Benefit matches were staged at the ground, together with a fixture against the 1957 Pakistan Eaglets. It had always been the dream of the Hoover’s management that their sports ground would stage county matches, and after a lucrative sponsorship package being developed with the local council and other businesses, the ground hosted Glamorgan’s Sunday League matches against Kent on 5 June 1988 and Middlesex on 11 June 1989. It continued to stage 2nd XI and Wales Minor County fixtures until the mid 2000s but the factory closed in 2009 and the ground subsequently became disused.
Click on the link below to see the ground records at the Hoovers ground in Merthyr Tydfil.