Brambles Bank Cricket Match

Where: The Solent on Brambles Sandbank, halfway between Southampton and Cowes
When: Late August / September
Time: Dependent on the tide

 

This is one of  only two cricket matches to appear on this list (the other is the Horn Fair at Ebernoe). Only once each year, Brambles Bank emerges from the briny for around half an hour when the tide drops to its lowest point – it’s about 200 metres long so is just about big enough for the game. Local yacht clubs from either side of the Solent use this opportunity to stage their cricket match, arriving in a flotilla, sometimes before dawn; the winner is decided beforehand which must make this one of the oddest competitions in the calendar, and in a gentlemanly fashion the teams take wins in turn. It all started in the 1950s but will have to cease if the bank, which slowly moves westward, disappears forever.

Helpful Hints

In 2024 it was scheduled to be on Friday 23rd August but had to be postponed due to the weather, and took place on September 21st. 2025 details are yet to be announced.

The participating teams are from the Royal Southern Yacht Club, Hamble and Island Sailing Club, Cowes. In 2016 it was on Sunday August 21st in the morning and in 2017 it was much earlier in the season than usual on Sunday June 25th at 5.30 pm, while in 2018 it was on July 15th.

Spectators can watch from boats!

Click here for the sailing club websites : https://www.royal-southern.co.uk/events/calendar  and https://www.islandsc.org.uk

and here for the Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/islandsc

and https://www.facebook.com/RoyalSouthernYC

Photo by Laurence Dillamore.

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