Nothing remains of it today — the site, on the Coleraine Road near the modern Metropole roundabout, has long since been built over. But for the best part of half a century, the Metropole Field was where Portrush played its cricket and hockey.
Cricket first
Portrush Cricket Club formed in 1897, with the Rev. J. Pim as President and patrons that included the Earl of Antrim, two colonels, and a QC. Its first recorded match, on 25 August 1897, was against a Visitors XI drawn from the Northern Counties Hotel — Portrush lost, with the visitors helped along by a well-known Surrey cricketer, Mr F. Audinwood, playing as a guest. A rematch went better: Portrush beat Coleraine by 60 runs. Through the early 1900s the club played 17 to 20 matches a season against sides including Ballintoy, Morecambe and Ballymoney, and had grown past 100 members by 1900.
Then hockey
The earliest mention of hockey at the field comes from July 1900. A mixed hockey club ran from 1906 to 1909, before splitting into separate men’s and women’s clubs — Portrush Hockey Club held its official inaugural meeting at the Osborne Hotel in 1909, with 22 gentlemen present and, fittingly, the same F. Audinwood from the cricket club as its first Captain.
The men’s club created the Kerr-Smiley Cup in 1911, and won it the following year, beating Coleraine 5–1. 1913 brought the club’s most successful season to date — runners-up in the Braddell Shield. Hockey was suspended for the war, revived in 1919, and by 1920 the club had moved on to Meadow Park.
Beyond sport
The field wasn’t only used for cricket and hockey — it hosted a gymkhana for Kelly Memorial School in 1913, and travelling circuses passed through after the Second World War. Building development began in the 1950s, and the Metropole Field’s sporting life came to an end.
Sources
Sourced from “The Metropole Field – A Mecca for Sport” by Frances Wilson, published in Discover Portrush Magazine.