The ground was opened in 1877 as the Royal Hotel Recreation Ground, and was used for athletics, cricket, cycle racing and football. An oval ground, it had a stand around 100 feet long on the western side and banking around the remainder of the pitch. To open the ground, Crewe Alexandra cricket club (established in September 1866 by employees of Crewe locomotive works, and named after
Princess Alexandra; the related Crewe Alexandra Athletic Club was founded in 1867) hosted an athletics festival, which raised £75 and subsequently became a prominent meeting in the Northern athletics calendar. In the
1886–87 season the ground was the venue of the
FA Cup semi-final between
Aston Villa and
Rangers, with the attendance of 7,000 probably being the ground record. On 16 April 1887 the ground was used for the
Welsh Cup final between
Chirk and
Davenham. An attendance of 1,500 witnessed Chirk win 2–1. On 4 February 1888 the ground
hosted the opening match of the
1887–88 British Home Championship, which saw
England beat
Wales 5–1. In 1891, the Crewe Alexandra football club split away from the cricket club, ==References==