Holt Pound 2.07

Holt Pound is a small village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It has the A325 road running through the village, on the Bordon to Farnham route. The village is situated in between the Alice Holt Forest and the Holt Pound Enclosure. Its nearest town is Farnham, approximately away. It has one pub, the Forest Inn.Cricket groundThe origin of Holt Pound is unknown but it was certainly established before 1784 when it was used for a Farnham v Odiham & Alton match. Much earlier, on Tuesday, 26 August 1729, there was an important match in Farnham at an unspecified location between Surrey and Kent.The Holt Pound ground was known locally as "the Oval" (the current venue of that name did not become a cricket ground until 1845, so there is no connection). Many important Surrey games of the period were contested at Holt Pound including, in 1808, when Surrey beat All-England by 66 runs.After Farnham left the ground, to take up residence at a pitch created near the moat of Farnham Castle, thanks to a past Bishop of Winchester, who wished to tidy up part of the Farnham Park, the ground was made available to other clubs and the local population to play cricket.An anonymous writer in 1862 wrote that the residents of Wrecclesham, a small community that was supposedly 'riddled with drunkenness and vice', would play there every Sunday. They would play for a 'pint or a pot', meaning that the winners would be rewarded with pints of beer paid for by the losing side.