Hurstville Oval

Hurstville Oval is a multi-use sporting ground, located in the suburb of Hurstville, in Sydney's southern suburbs. Since its opening, it has held various sports at the venue – including Cricket, Rugby League, Cycling and Football. The oval also has a velodrome in the grounds, between the field and the stands.

The ground was opened in 1911. Since 2015 it has been one of the home grounds of JLT Cup team Cricket Australia XI.

Sports used

Cycling

The St George Cycling Club, originally known as Hurstville Bicycle Club, started competition at the oval in 1906 on grass. They later built a cinders track prior to the amalgamation of several small clubs into St. George Cycling Club in 1920. The club benefited from the membership of Dunc Gray, the Olympic champion, who also established his home and business just a kilometre away from the track.

St. George Cycling Club staged national titles at Hurstville in the 1950s and under the guidance of Charlie Manins as an administrator and legendary coach Joe Buckley, developed into a powerful and ultra-competitive club.

Since 1956, the club has had representation in every cycling team that has represented at Olympic or Commonwealth Games (28 in succession) and continues to develop outstanding talent on an annual basis. On some occasions 40 per cent of the national team were St. George members. The names have been great legends of Australian cycling including Dunc Gray, Warren Scarfe, Frank Brazier, Ian Chapman, Max Langshaw, Dick Paris, Gary Sutton, Kevin Nichols, Martin Vinnicombe, Shane Sutton, Brett Dutton, Graeme Brown, Steve Wooldridge, Julie Speight, Kathleen Shannon, Clayton Stevenson, Ben Kersten, Ian Christison, Ben Brooks, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Steve Griffiths, Kaarle McCulloch – all have stood on the podium at the Olympics, World Titles, or Commonwealth Games.

Rugby Union

The St. George Rugby Union Football Club used the Oval from 1928 until 1939, and then again from 1950 until 1988. The club produced 18 Wallabies in that period, starting with Dan Carroll being the first in 1908, two years after the club was formed. Prior to 1928, the club played at Brighton Le Sands, Arncliffe and also used Kogarah Oval.

Rugby League

During the NSWRL competition, the St George Dragons club used the ground as their home-ground matches, from 1921 until 1924, before moving to Earl Park in 1925. The club later returned to the ground in 1940, and remained there until 1949. The Dragons moved to Kogarah Oval in 1950, where they remained for many years.

The Dragons' Jack Lindwall has two club records for the club – scoring ''most points in a match'' and ''most tries in a match'' – both records were held at Hurstville Oval (on 3 May 1947, against Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.

Cricket

The St George Cricket Club, who currently play in the Sydney Grade Competition, use the Ground as their home ground, ever since 1921, when the club joined the competition. Famous Australian Cricketer, Don Bradman, played for the club from 1926 until 1933. He played numerous games at the ground.

Hurstville Oval was one of the host venues of the 2013–14 Ryobi One-Day Cup, the major interstate one-day cricket competition in Australia. The first game at the ground saw New South Wales defeat Western Australia by 5 wickets on 13 October. The second and last game at Hurstville saw Tasmania defeat Queensland by 2 wickets on 15 October. Since 2015 it has been used as one of the home grounds of Cricket Australia XI in the JLT Cup. It is also used to host various other games in the competition taking place in New South Wales.

References

* http://www.hurstville.nsw.gov.au/Hurstville-Oval.html
* http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/stadiums.php?id=291
* http://www.stgeorgecricket.com.au/files/270/files/stgeorge_history2.pdf
* https://web.archive.org/web/20151007135753/http://www.sydneysixers.com.au/news/2015/07/10/ellyse-perry-sydney-sixers-womens-big-bash-league-wbbl

{{Sydney Grade Cricket

Cricket grounds in New South Wales
Rugby league stadiums in Australia
Sports venues in Sydney
Velodromes in Australia
St. George Dragons
1911 establishments in Australia
Sports venues completed in 1911
Women's Big Bash League