On 8 July 2024 the Ospreys regional rugby team announced that their new base would be at St. Helen’s, with redevelopment work planned to take place so that they could play at the revamped complex from the start of the 2025/26 rugby season. Uncertainty over the future of the Ospreys as part of a revamp by the Welsh Rugby Union in regional rugby has meant that this work has been put on hold with Ospreys playing at Bridgend RFC in 2025/26.Once the redevelopment work gets the green light , it will see the pavilion and clubhouse facility being revamped with a new stand erected on the cricket pitch.
The decision meant that Swansea CC played their final match at St. Helen’s on 31 August 2025 – their 150th anniversary year and the 57th anniversary of Garry Sobers’ six sixes – with a 2nd XI contest against Pontardawe. Shortly after the game, the Swansea club confirmed that they would move for the 2026 season and beyond to the playing fields used by Bishop Gore School off Sketty Lane which have been the home of Swansea Civil Service CC for many years, and with whom they will be merging. This has duly taken place, with the new club called Swansea and Civil Service CC, playing its inaugural match at Sketty Lane on 2 May 2026 when their 2nd XI met Aberdare CC.
Glamorgan’s final first-class match at the ground was between 11 and 14 June 2019 when they drew with Derbyshire. The three-wicket success against Durham at the end of May 2017 proved to be the Welsh county’s final success at the ground.
St.Helen’s, which in 1973 had staged the sixth-ever One-Day International, therefore became only the second ground in the United Kingdom which had hosted international cricket to close, with the other venue being Sheffield’s Bramall Lane which had staged an Ashes Test Match in 1902 as well as a Victory Test in the summer of 1945.
Whilst the decision taken by the Ospreys means that no more cricket will take place at St. Helen’s after 31 August 2025, it does not herald the end of top-class cricket in the area. Given the strong heritage of cricket in Swansea and West Wales, plus the long standing support provided by the St. Helen’s Balconiers, the board of Glamorgan County Cricket Club, have been actively exploring the potential for the creation of a centre of excellence in west Wales so that the Club can continue to support the development of cricket in the area and create effective player development pathways to the professional game for both women and men.
