Ceremony at new pitch honours Exeter’s Father of Baseball

Baseball club Exeter Spitfires have taken part in a ceremonial turf cutting at the spot where a new diamond will be located in the city.

The club will play on the quality new surface being created at the Bromham’s Farm Field site next to the Exeter Ship Canal in the Riverside Valley Park.

Three football pitches and a baseball pitch are being created on the site which is owned by Exeter City Council. It is expected to be ready for use in 2026.

The project is being funded by the Environment Agency, which used the location as a site compound for the city’s flood defence scheme. The fields had been used as sports pitches before the flood defence work started.

Playing surface creator Carrick Sports carried out work to clear the site of rubble and level the surface to enable the establishment of two adult and one children’s football pitches and a baseball diamond.

The ceremonial turf cutting coincided with the 200th birthday of Exonian Henry Chadwick, and the club have revealed the new diamond will take his name.

Born in Exeter in October 1824, Henry Chadwick was a sportswriter, baseball statistician and historian, often called the Father of Baseball for his contribution to the development of the game.

He edited the first baseball guide sold to the public. Chadwick was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.

Matt Cousins, of Exeter Spitfires, said: “Henry Chadwick was born less than a mile away from the pitch, in St Thomas. He moved to the United Stated in 1837 and he became hooked on baseball, effectively rewriting and standardising the rules and scoring methods and became recognised as the pioneer and driving force behind the game.   

“We are incredibly excited by this space, and I want to thank Exeter City Council. We will be here in 2026, and we are planning to grow with a youth section, which will secure the future of the club, as well as investing in a women’s team.”  

Cllr Duncan Wood, Lead Councillor for Leisure Services and Healthy Living, said: “I am really pleased that we are able to give baseball a permanent home in the city, the region and beyond to compete, and I wish the Spitfires every success in the future.

“This is community space that we have worked hard, together with our partners at the Environment Agency, to bring back into use and I very much look forward to watching football, baseball and other sporting activities here in the future.”

Exeter Spitfires, formed in 2000, celebrated topping the table in the Westcountry Baseball League in the summer.

The Spitfires lost only two of 15 matches, finishing above teams from Plymouth, Truro, Newton Abbott, Wellington and Yeovil.

The Club has received grants from the City Council and Sport England, and next month it plans to launch a Crowdfunder to generate extra resources.