You can watch the action from your deckchair on the fifth-floor balcony overlooking the county cricket ground and the sea beyond. The views, indeed, compensate for the plainness of the apartment block, set in communal gardens. This £399,950 two-bedroom flat has been refurbished recently and is one of the few to get a basement garage. Its chief glory is the dual-aspect living room, which faces south and west and opens on to the balcony.
Hamptons International, 01273 230230 Photograph: Hamptons International
The sound of leather on willow is the cliched epitome of an English summer and will be with you all through the season at this two-bedroom cottage, which overlooks the village cricket club, which reckons itself one of the prettiest grounds in Surrey. Although you don’t get much space for £410,000 in the Surrey commuter belt – the biggest squeeze is the kitchen – both reception rooms are decently sized, a bathroom has been managed upstairs and there are long gardens to the front and back, plus off-street parking. It’s 35 minutes by train into London.
Fine & Country, 01883 653040 Photograph: Fine & Country
Across the lane from this £625,000 home lies the city cricket club alongside tennis courts and Boscowen Park. There’s ample space for your own slightly tilting cricket matches in the large gardens that surround the house and room inside for extensive hospitality. You could sacrifice the study as a fifth bedroom and harness the large boot room as a utility space to free up the kitchen breakfast room for entertaining. Brace yourself for the fact that the central heating is oil-fired.
Clive Pearce Property, 01872 272622 Photograph: Clive Pearce Property
From the rooftop you can just about glimpse the Oval, home of Surrey County Cricket Club. It’s part of a plan to regenerate this underloved area of London and, like all self-respecting new developments, calls itself a “village”. There are 808 new homes in all, 146 of them shared ownership, which will occupy 12.5 hectares, including over seven hectares of parkland and gardens plus shops and a glass-walled community centre. A three-bedroom shared-ownership apartment starts at £140,000 for a 25% share of the full market value of £560,000. The second phase of private sales launches on 20 September.
Oval Quarter, 020 7582 7288 Photograph: Oval Quarter
Kenneth Grahame’s famous amphibian would have needed a large inheritance to buy this Toad Hall, which is approximately two minutes from the cricket grounds at the Desmond Haynes Complex and Hoyte Village. The £860,285 asking price includes nearly 22,000 sq ft of gardens with a pool and views of the sea, plus the lavishly renovated house built around a water courtyard. A detached annexe at the back could be used as a fourth bedroom suite.
Altman Real Estate, 0808 120 2364 Photograph: Altman Real Estate
