Devonport Oval is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Devonport, Tasmania Devonport ( ; Palawa Kani: ''Tiagarra'') is a city in northern Tasmania, Australia, located on the lands of the Pannilerpanner clan of the Palawa nation. It is situated at the mouth of the Mersey River. Devonport had an urban population of 26, ...

. It is the home stadium for the

Devonport Football Club Devonport Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Devonport, Tasmania. The club currently competes in the North West Football League (NWFL). The club previously competed in the Northern Tasmanian Football League, but from 20 ...

in the

Tasmanian State League The Tasmanian State League (TSL), colloquially known as the "Tasmanian Football League (TFL)" (formerly known as the "Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL)" and several other short-term names) is the highest ranked Australian r ...

(TSL) and for the

Devonport Cricket Club Devonport Cricket Club commonly known as Devonport Orions, or simply Devonport, is an Australian amateur cricket club based in Devonport, Tasmania. Devonport Cricket Club represents the third largest city in the state of Tasmania by population. Th ...

in the NWTCA competition. The oval also hosts the Devonport Athletics & Cycling Carnival each year and regularly attracts interstate competitors. The stadium has a capacity of 13,000 people, and has recently undergone upgrades for increased lighting to be used for night football matches in the TSL in 2009. There has been recent talk of selling the Devonport Oval, along with the East Devonport Oval and two other local recreation facilities, to fund a new sporting precinct in Devonport.

History

The Devonport Oval is positioned next to Mersey Bluff in Devonport overlooking

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...

. The stadium has two stands, the Frank Matthews Stand, which is a long wooden Main Stand on the wing, and a newer concrete stand with bucket seats in the pocket, as well as a pavilion and a grass hill. The ground is tiered on one side. After the Devonport City Council's decision to upgrade the unused Devonport Oval in 1937, a

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

practice match was played there between Collingwood and Geelong, and the redevelopment was a winner for the fans, with a crowd of more than 10,000 attending. In 1959, Devonport's population was just under 14,000 people, in that same year an interstate Australian football match between Tasmania and Victoria was played there and the attendance was 13,500; three years later, an interstate match between Tasmania and the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

drew 20,000 spectators. The Devonport Oval hosted one

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

cricket match in the 1986–87 season between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. It also hosted many

Tasmanian ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...

cricket matches and domestic one-day matches for Tasmania. The ground also hosted two Tasmanian State Grand Finals and six TFL Statewide League finals between 1988 and 2000 and hosted the

North West Football Union The North West Football Union (NWFU) was an Australian rules football competition which ran from 1910 to 1986. In its time it was one of the three main leagues in Tasmania, with the Tasmanian Football League and Northern Tasmanian Football As ...

Grand Final on several occasions.

References

External links

* Cricket grounds in Australia Sports venues in Tasmania Sports venues in Devonport, Tasmania Sport in Devonport, Tasmania Sports venues completed in 1937 {{Cricket-ground-stub