Adelaide Oval

The Adelaide Oval is an oval in Adelaide, South Australia. It is located between the central business district and North Adelaide and has a history which dates back to the 1870s. It is considered to be one of the most picturesque Test cricket grounds in Australia, if not the world. The oval is managed by the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA).

It currently holds 30,000 spectators, but a record attendance of 62,543 people was recorded for the 1965 SANFL Grand Final between Port Adelaide and Sturt.

Major Sporting Events

Adelaide Oval hosts the following major sporting events:

- International cricket – Test and One-day International. There are normally two or three one-day games on the Australia Day weekend in January (replacing a traditional Australia Day test). The test is now normally in December and is Australia against the international touring team of the time.
- Domestic cricket. Adelaide Oval is the home ground of the Southern Redbacks, the South Australian state cricket team. They play in three competitions: ING Cup, Pura Cup and occasional domestic twenty20.
- Australian rules football. Adelaide Oval hosts SANFL matches. Australian Football League matches are played at AAMI Stadium.

Adelaide Oval was also home base for most of the Adelaide Rams rugby league team’s short history. 16 sports have been played at one time or another at the oval: archery, athletics, baseball, cycling, American football, highland games, hockey, lacrosse, lawn tennis, rugby league, rugby union, quoits and soccer.

History

- Established in 1871 after the formation of SACA.
- December 1884 – first test match
- 1900 Picket fence put up surrounding the oval (then with a cycling track).
- Lights were constructed at the grounds in 1997, allowing sport to be held at night. This was the subject of a lengthy dispute with the Adelaide City Council, due to environmental issues relating to the parklands area. Initial plans to build retractable light towers were scrapped after one collapsed.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval wikipedia entry
Southern Redbacks
Cricket Australia

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