The home of Cannock Cricket & Hockey Club has been sold for £1.45 million.
The site was bought during an online auction last night but the identity of the buyer was not revealed.
Bidding started at around £600,000 at 3.50pm before reaching its selling price at 5.46pm after a bidding war eventually came down to two potential buyers.
The Chase Park site, in Church Lane, Hatherton, was locked up by receivers last month forcing the cricket and hockey teams to train and play games at other venues.
It was described as an “exceptional lot” by digital auction platform BidX1, which described the site as follows:
“Cannock Cricket and Hockey Club, offered on behalf of fixed charge receivers, is a freehold sports ground and pavilion arranged across approximately 25 acres.
The grounds include two cricket pitches, three floodlit artificial hockey pitches (one water and two sand based), a crown green bowling green, two tennis courts and a large car park.
“The sizeable pavilion contains a bar with capacity for 270 people, changing rooms, gym, three squash courts, a restaurant and banqueting suite.”
Why was the site locked up?
The ground was locked up by receivers from Duff & Phelps of London Ltd on June 26 after a dispute between developer Craig Watts Ltd and Sport England.
The wrangle centred on the length of lease being offered to the clubs as part of a proposed development to turn the under-used pavilion and bar into apartments while building new clubhouses for the cricket and hockey clubs.
Sport England, which holds a legal charge on a hockey pitch on the land, initially refused to accept anything less than a 15-year lease for the clubs while Craig Watts Ltd was only prepared to offer a 10-year lease.
Meanwhile Duff & Phelps were acting on behalf of Promontoria Pine DAC, a so-called vulture capitalist group which held a charge on the land after buying up the site’s debt from the Allied Irish Bank during the financial crisis of 2008.
The crisis stemmed from Chase Park’s long-term loan, taken out in 2008, to relay an artificial hockey pitch.
