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East Melbourne Cricket Ground

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Coordinates: 37°49′2″S 144°58′40″E / 37.81722°S 144.97778°E / -37.81722; 144.97778
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East Melbourne Cricket Ground
The EMCG in its final season of use, 1921
Map
LocationEast Melbourne, Victoria
Coordinates37°49′2″S 144°58′40″E / 37.81722°S 144.97778°E / -37.81722; 144.97778
SurfaceGrass
Construction
Opened1860
Closed1921
Demolished1922
Tenants
East Melbourne Cricket Club (unknown–1921)
East Melbourne Football Club (1878–1882)
Essendon Football Club (1882–1921)
Melbourne City Football Club (1912–1913)

The East Melbourne Cricket Ground was a grass oval sports venue located at the southwest corner of Jolimont Road and Jolimont Parade (now known as Wellington Parade South) in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.[1] The site is best known for playing host to many sporting events during the city of Melbourne's early existence, consisting mainly of cricket and Australian rules football, although the ground occasionally hosted soccer matches. Its closure was predicated by the annexure of the land by Victorian Railways to enable stabling and marshalling of trains as part of the electrification of Melbourne's metropolitan rail service.

History

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The ground was opened in 1860 and closed in 1921. It adjoined the Melbourne Cricket Ground and was not far from the Richmond Cricket Ground, all three grounds being sited in the area formerly known as Captain Lonsdale's Cow Paddock, now Yarra Park.[1]

The East Melbourne Cricket Ground being used for an intercolonial football match in 1879.

Cricket

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East Melbourne Cricket Club was the most successful member of the Victorian Cricket Association (VCA) during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, winning more than half of the VCA's Premierships during that period. The club was formed in 1857 as the Abbotsford Cricket Club but they soon changed their name as part of a push to use the East Melbourne ground.[citation needed] The team mainly consisted of Scotch College old boys.

Four first-class cricket games were played at the ground in the 1880s, including the Smokers v Non-Smokers match, in which the Non-Smokers made 803, at the time a world record innings score.

Season Teams Date Result Ref
1880–81 Victoria v South Australia 1880-11-12 12–13, 15 November 1880 Victoria won by 7 wickets [2]
1882–83 Victoria v South Australia 1883-03-24 24, 26–27 March 1883 Victoria won by an innings and 98 runs [3]
1886–87 Smokers v Non-Smokers 1887-03-17 17–19, 21 March 1887 Match drawn [4]
1888–89 Victoria v Tasmania 1889-01-01 1–5 January 1889 Victoria won by 9 wickets [5]

Australian rules football

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Early Carlton champion George Coulthard running with the ball against Geelong during the 1880 VFA season on 17 July

The oval was used for Australian rules football games during the winter months from 1878. The ground also hosted the first-ever interstate representative football match, on 1 July 1879, between Victoria - represented by the Victorian Football Association (VFA) - and South Australia. The match was attended by more than 10,000 people. It also hosted the first intercollegiate football match in Melbourne, played on 21 July 1881 between teams from the University of Melbourne colleges Trinity and Ormond.[6]

Tenant football clubs of the ground included:

The ground hosted 426 senior matches in the recognised top level of Victorian football - 201 matches in the VFA and 225 matches in the VFL/AFL - in 44 seasons of competition.

It also held 30 VFA finals between 1903 and 1921.[9] The VFL held one final in the 1897 and 1901 finals series and the 1900 Grand Final at the ground, while the VFA also held the 1896 premiership play-off match at the ground.

As a venue for football, the East Melbourne Cricket Ground had an unusual quirk that the field sloped downhill towards the railway end, but was often affected by a strong wind which blew to the pavilion end.[10]

The record football crowd at the venue was 36,185 for a VFA match between Essendon and South Melbourne in 1891, the record attendance for a match at that time.

The VFL record was 20,181 for the 1900 Grand Final, with the record for a VFL home and away match being 18,000, set twice in 1921.

Soccer

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Occasionally, soccer was played at the oval. The best known use for the sport were the interstate representative matches between the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales in the 1880s. Four matches were played between 1883 and 1887 with three taking place at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground with the other being played at the South Melbourne Cricket Ground that ended in a nil-all draw.[11]

Date Teams Result Attendance Ref
16 August 1883 Victoria v New South Wales 2 – 2 2000 [12]
16 July 1885 Victoria v New South Wales 4 – 0 600 [13]
16 July 1887 Victoria v New South Wales 2 – 2 300 [14]

Lacrosse

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The ground was occasionally used as a venue for lacrosse, and hosted Victoria's first intercolonial lacrosse match on 1 September 1888, against South Australia[15] (the first intercolonial match in Australia was played between Queensland and New South Wales a year earlier[16]). The match was not largely attended, due in part to the cold and showery weather on the day, with Victoria winning the match by 5 goals to 1.[17]

Closure

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After the 1921 football season, the ground was closed and then demolished to make way for an extension of the Jolimont Yard railway sidings.[18]

The East Melbourne Cricket Club subsequently amalgamated with the Hawthorn Cricket Club to form the Hawthorn-East Melbourne Cricket Club, and moved to Hawthorn's Glenferrie Oval. One of the wooden stands was moved from East Melbourne to Glenferrie Oval, where it stood until 1965, when it was replaced by the Dr A.S. Ferguson Stand.

After the Essendon Football Club lost the use of the ground, it moved to the Essendon Recreation Reserve. It had initially tried to move to the North Melbourne Recreation Reserve, resulting in a major off-field political struggle between the Essendon Association and North Melbourne Football Clubs, the VFL and the VFA.

The former site of the ground has now been taken over by a housing estate, a feature of which is a semi-circular housing block with a tower obviously designed to look like an ersatz football pavilion. The remaining part of the oval in front of that block is now a park.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Santo Caruso, Marc Fiddian and Jim Main, Football Grounds of Melbourne (Melbourne: Pennon Publishing, 2002 ISBN 978-1877029028.
  2. ^ "Victoria v South Australia, 1880–81". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Inc. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Victoria v South Australia, 1882–83". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Inc. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  4. ^ "Smokers v Non-Smokers, 1886–87". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Inc. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  5. ^ "Victoria v Tasmania, 1888–89". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Inc. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  6. ^ "FOOTBALL". The Argus. No. 10, 948. Victoria, Australia. 21 July 1881. p. 6. Retrieved 20 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "Football – the Victorian Football League". The Argus. Melbourne. 13 April 1897. p. 6.
  8. ^ "Football – Victorian League – Question of Grounds". The Argus. Melbourne. 28 March 1907. p. 4.
  9. ^ "Final – Williamstown v. West Melbourne". North Melbourne Courier and West Melbourne Chronicle. Melbourne. 4 October 1907. p. 3.
  10. ^ Old Boy (11 October 1920). "Footscray premiers – success of the unbeatable". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 11.
  11. ^ "Miscellaneous Games".
  12. ^ "Miscellaneous Games".
  13. ^ "Miscellaneous Games".
  14. ^ "Miscellaneous Games".
  15. ^ First Intercolonial Lacrosse match
  16. ^ "Intercolonial Lacrosse Match". The Brisbane Courier. 26 September 1887. p. 7. Retrieved 8 May 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "Lacrosse". The Age. Victoria, Australia. 3 September 1888. p. 6. Retrieved 8 May 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "Flinders Street Yard – why the cricket ground is needed". The Argus. Melbourne. 1 December 1920. p. 14. Retrieved 20 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
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