Not all the action takes place on stage at Chichester Festival Theatre. The CFT Cricket Club were very active in the 1980s, made up of actors, directors and staff. Every year they played a charity "grudge match" against the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), losing every year until 1987 at Stansted Park. It was the same year a young Sam Mendes joined CFT as an Assistant Director of The Tent, jokingly citing his cricketing prowess as the reason for his appointment: "I felt the weight of John's expectations more on the cricket field than I did in The Tent".

Ten years previously in 1977, the Chichester Festival Theatre Society (now CFT Friends) had started the games with a cricket match against Southern TV, with commentary by Penelope Keith, Keith Michell and Alfred Marks. Explore programmes and photographs below.

Programme Cricket Match: Chichester Festival Theatre vs Southern Television, Sunday 19 June 1977