Mellis CC prepare for ‘huge’ honour

June 25, 2026

NESTLED between trees mid-way between Ipswich and Norwich less than half-a-mile off the A140 lies one of Suffolk cricket’s best kept secrets.

That is all about to change as Mellis Cricket Club prepares to host the Suffolk Men’s 1st XI for the first time in two T20 matches versus Hertfordshire a week on Sunday. (July 5th)

You can be excused if you didn’t know that there is a cricket club in Mellis, because there isn’t – the club is actually situated in the neighbouring village of Thornham Magna.

And the chances are that if you play for a Suffolk club you will not have faced Mellis as the club are in Division Five of the Norfolk Cricket Alliance.

So how come Suffolk, who usually stage home fixtures at East Anglian Premier League grounds such as Bury St Edmunds, Copdock, Mildenhall and Sudbury, will be playing at Mellis?

Suffolk Men’s 1st XI have this season cast their net further afield in taking cricket around the county, using Ipswich CC for a friendly versus Essex U18s and Hadleigh CC for two T20 clashes with Lincolnshire.

Even so, Mellis appears at first sight to be an unusual choice of venue, but wait.

The club have previously hosted Suffolk County Age Group games from U10s through to U18s, all three Seniors sides at O50s, O60s and O70s as well as the Women’s 1st XI.

Chris Farrant, the long-serving groundsman at Mellis CC

The club’s long-serving groundsman is Chris Farrant, who was one of the four founding members of Mellis CC. He has scored more than 29,000 runs with 52 centuries for the club.

As well as running his own Sticky Wicket Cricket Coaching company, over the past decade Chris has coached county age group sides in the Suffolk pathway from U10s-U15s, including the last four seasons at U14 level.

He said: “The feedback we have had from visiting counties, including Kent, Middlesex, whose U18s played here, and Surrey has been consistently good.

“Even so when Manny (Men’s 1st XI head coach Adam Mansfield) made contact to ask if they could play here, it was a pleasant surprise for sure.

“I asked if Suffolk could send me the criteria required for a ground to host a match, and we ticked most of the boxes.

“We added two extra sightscreens (one at each end of the ground) and improved the driveway into the ground, while we will be putting up a marquee for players and officials for lunch.”

So what will it mean to the club to stage such a prestigious fixture?

“It is huge. It’s a real privilege and a big leap of faith from Suffolk because we are by far the furthest club down the cricket pyramid to host the Men’s 1st XI, so it is a massive honour and responsibility.

“It will be really nice to showcase our ground to the Suffolk Cricket community because they don’t get to play here for their clubs,” said Chris.

So how did a club in central Suffolk come to play league cricket in Norfolk in the first place?

“As the club grew stronger, we outgrew just playing friendlies and decided to join a league, so we applied to the Two Counties Championship.

“However, we missed the deadline by a week, and they were very dismissive, so we applied to the Norfolk League instead and they readily accepted our application, but it is a sticky point because my loyalties lie with Suffolk!”

The 57-year-old relocated to Suffolk from Surrey in 1990 as his father was living in the county. At the time Mellis CC, who re-formed in 1990, were playing on the village common.

Success on the field saw Mellis gain promotions and it became clear that for the club to continue to grow, the spiritual home on Mellis Common would need to be sacrificed to find better facilities.

Home games were played at Palgrave, near Diss for four years until one night on their way back from the Four Horseshoes pub, two of the original four founding members walked past what is now the entrance to the ground.

They saw an overgrown, weed, nettle and thistle covered field and thought it would make the perfect location for a cricket ground.

Investigations with the Thornham Estate, in which the field is located, discovered that it was once a cricket ground dating back to the Victorian times, with matches involving estate workers featuring opposition such as the Gentleman of Suffolk and I Zingari.

A new square was laid in the spring of 2005, and the outfield was ploughed, harrowed and levelled in preparation for the club’s first game at their new home in 2007.

Mellis CC fielding at home to Narborough CC in Norfolk Cricket Alliance Division Five

Those early days were somewhat rustic, with the teams changing in a tent, bottled water was brought in on match days and the urn, powered by a rather noisy generator, polluted the atmosphere!

The club continued to grow, a Junior section was started, a Second XI was entered into the league and a pavilion followed.

Chris, who used to skipper the 1st XI and still plays in the side, has been groundsman since joining the club 36 years ago.

“It is hugely exciting for the club. We have around 50 playing members and this will bring real energy to the club and be a great way of putting what we can offer in the shop window,” he said.

The club’s 2nd XI play in Division 4SE of the Norfolk Cricket League, while Mellis field a side in the Stowupland Midweek League, which allows their U15s to play competitive cricket.

Mellis run All Stars (5-8-year-olds) and Dynamos (8-11-year-olds) and have both U11 and U13s sides.

“We have been doing our best to advertise the game on social media and signage along the A140.

“We will be doing a barbecue and the bar will be open and we will try to make it as welcoming as possible for spectators.

“We won’t have the Red Arrows, although we do have two brothers who are in the RAF, one of whom did the flypast for the King recently, so we could ask them if they can pull some strings!” he joked.

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