A nomadic past, but a stable future?

The club started off life playing at the prestigious Real Club de Polo de Barcelona in 1982, after Barcelona CC founder Philip Paterson Smith convinced the Conde de Reus (Earl of Reus), the then-President of the polo club, that Englishmen always played a game of cricket to celebrate the Queen's birthday and were granted use of the grounds. Despite this white lie, the club were soon invited back to play there regularly, as can be seen from the letter below. The club played there until the 1992 Olympics, when they were required to find somewhere else to play, although they were able to return temporarily and sporadically from 1995. 

After ten years playing regularly at the same place, suddenly the club had to become more nomadic. They embarked on more tours abroad, as well as around Spain. One game saw them host Swiss side Cern CC in the grounds of Hotel El Montanyà, some 60km north from Barcelona. 

After the club had a short hiatus at the end of the 90s, it continued in its nomadic ways before ending up playing games in a field outside Constantí, Tarragona, almost twice as far from the capital as El Montanyà. Following the subsidised purchase of a Flicx mat, a few practice sessions were also able to take place in the nearer Sitges Rugby Club (below) in 2006-7.

Sitges rugby club, the temporary home of cricket practice

BICC in league action, December 2011

In 2007, the inaugural Catalan cricket league started, with the recently renamed BICC entering as a founding member with games to take place at the Olympic Baseball stadium, in Montjuïc, with a coconut matting placed between 2nd and 3rd bases. The ground also saw us hosting Essex touring side Stanford-Le-Hope in 2012. Seemingly, the club played all of its league games there until 2012. In 2013, our second division matches were moved to the University of Barcelona's rugby pitch (below). At the end of that year, the club pulled out of the league and stopped playing at either the baseball ground or the University. 

BICC vs Stanford-Le-Hope

The year before, the club had signed an agreement to play at the Estadi Julià Capmany, soon to be nicknamed the Coca-Cola stadium (can you guess why?). There, we began playing friendlies against selected oppositions from Barcelona as well as continuing to receive British teams. ​

BICC vs 'Umair XI', October 2013

The club has remained there ever since, surviving the closing of the stadium bar, repeated break-ins and theft, an arson attack, double bookings with softball matches and far too many incidents of trespassing. The ground has become the cricket hub of Barcelona, now used by most clubs in the area, despite its unideal rectangular shape and uneven ground. 

​Throughout the years, the ground has continuously changed from the one seen in the photo above (even the Coca-Cola sign is gone!).

• Spring 2014- the club went about installing three concrete nets on the far-side of the ground, which are still in use today. 
• October 2015- the bar inside the ground is closed, and BICC have to look elsewhere for a post-match bevvy!
• June 2017- following a fire, the entire grandstand is condemned and *eventually* knocked down.
• 2018- following the opening and expansion of a dog-training school next door, and the demolition of the grandstand, it is decided to put the pitch the other side of the ground to face north to avoid balls being hit regularly into the dog school. 

This ground is now in real need of some TLC. If you are a resident of Barcelona, please click and vote here (until 4th April) to help get funding to do the ground up!

Our last practice at the ground in October 2020

Even with this potentially funding, the club has been looking to find its own ground for a while now and continues to pursue this. We hope that this will be somewhere in the suburbs of Barcelona and will allow us to play in better conditions with the hope of attracting more touring teams to visit us. Please get in touch if you might have any lead in terms of land available, or potential investors or sponsors! With any luck, we won't have to be a nomadic club for too much longer. 

​Sam Phillipps​