ChantillyExpat.com

Chantilly Cricket Club dates from a request made following a one-off cricket match played to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the 'Entente Cordiale' between France and the UK in May, 2004. The match was played between two visiting teams with a couple of playing places taken by local expats on a temporary pitch erected in the middle of the racecourse at Chantilly.

Following that match one of the teams, the Cricket Club de Saint Brice Sous Forêt (CCSB95) , asked whether it would be possible to find them a pitch in our area. After some searching, we hit upon the Polo Club who immediately agreed to our use of one their fields at the Ferme d’Apremont. Once we had found the ground in Chantilly for CCSB95, it seemed logical to create our own club for the local folk of Chantilly.

The creation of our Club is in fact the return of cricket to Chantilly after an absence of over one hundred years because it is on record that the game was played regularly in our town at the end of the 19th century.


Thanks to some very hard work by our CCSB95 colleagues, an artificial pitch was laid in March 2006 with responsibility for it being shared between us and our friends at CCSB95.


The ground was inaugurated on 11th June 2006 with a match between Chantilly and CCSB95 at which the British Ambassador symbolically bowled the first ball. The situation and quality of our pitch became known rapidly to the cricketing community in France and we were honoured in 2006 with the final of the under 15’s national cup and a semi-final of the French 1st Division Cup. In 2007 we went one better and in September CCSB95 and Chantilly co-hosted the final of the new French Super League. After only two years, we had a ground and a team that are widely respected.