The Sydney Sports Ground No. 1 was a

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 ...

and

Dirt track racing Dirt track racing is a form of motorsport held on clay or dirt surfaced oval race tracks often used for thoroughbred horse racing. Dirt track racing started in the United States before World War I and became widespread during the 1920s and 1930s ...

venue in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. The ground was located where the car park of the

Sydney Football Stadium The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier rect ...

(SFS) currently sits. The ground had two main grandstands and was surrounded by a grass covered hill, giving it a capacity of more than 35,000. It was demolished along with the smaller No.2 Ground in 1986 to allow the building of the SFS, which opened in 1988. During its lifespan the Sports Ground hosted

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

Rugby Union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

Motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

and

Speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

car racing. The Sports Ground was the home ground of

NSWRL The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...

team, the

Eastern Suburbs Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen ...

, the club playing 500 games at the ground from 1911 until 1986, with a 283-199-18 W-L-D record.

History

Sport

The ground's primary use was as the home venue for Eastern Suburbs, who began playing at the ground in Round 2 of the 1911 NSWRFL season with a 22–9 win over the

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in the ...

on 6 May in front of 5,000 fans. The Roosters played their last game at the Sports Ground on 29 June 1986, defeating North Sydney 21–14 in front of only 8,175 fans. The

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen pla ...

club also used it as a home ground from 1928 to 1947. The Roosters recorded their biggest ever win at the Sydney Sports Ground on 18 May 1935, when they defeated

Canterbury-Bankstown Canterbury-Bankstown is a customary region of Sydney, Australia, in the south-western suburbs. The area is located around the Bankstown railway line, to the west of the St George region and to the south of the Inner West region. The suburbs ...

87–7 in a Round 6 clash of the 1935 season. Easts ran in 19 tries to one with

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

test centre Dave Brown, the " Bradman of rugby league", scoring 45 points from 5 tries and 15 goals. Easts would win their 5th premiership in 1935 while Brown would go on to be the season's leading try scorer with 38 (still the league record for tries in a season as of 2017) and leading point scorer with 244 points (38 tries, 62 goals). The Sydney Sports Ground also hosted the 1951 NSWRL Grand Final with South Sydney easily accounting for

Manly-Warringah The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

playing in their first ever grand final by a score of 42–14 in front of 28,505 fans, the smallest grand final crowd since 1944. The Sports Ground was used as the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

was in use on that day.

and rugby league were among the sports held at the ground, but soccer teams also used the ground for major matches. It was also an important open-air boxing venue between the 1930s and 1960s. The champion Australian boxers Jack Carroll, Ron Richards and Jimmy Carruthers has memorable victories there. The Sydney Sports Ground was one of the venues used in the 1938 British Empire Games. The ground also hosted six matches the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship with a highest attendance of 28,932 for the double header with

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

defeating

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

1-0 and host nation

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

holding

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 ...

to a 1-1 draw. The average attendance at the Sports Ground for the tournament was 17,270. For many years the ground also hosted minor

Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

representative matches and the annual Sydney rugby premiership grand final. Among some of the most memorable of these games were wins by the Sydney team over more fancied visitors such as

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and a 13-all draw with the New Zealand All Blacks. Sydney's 18–16 win over Wales in 1978 featured one of the most famous field goals ever kicked in Australia when winger Laurie Monaghan's long range effort sailed over the crossbar in the dying minutes to seal a legendary victory. To raise money for Boys' Town - a Catholic home for troubled youths at Engadine, south of Sydney - the bookmaker George Nathan each Sunday organized a fund-raising carnival, with trotting, cycling and midget-car racing that packed the Sydney Sports Ground.

Speedway

From 1907 the Sydney Sports Ground was used as a Motorcycle racing track. The track that was later to become the dirt speedway was then concrete. The concrete was removed in the 1920s and replaced by a ¼ Mile, dirt track, and starting on 30 October 1937 the Sports Ground was a

Speedway venue hosting Solos,

Sidecars A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, making the whole a three-wheeled vehicle. A motorcycle with a sidecar is sometimes called a ''combination'', an ''outfit'', a ''rig'' or a ''hack''. ...

and Speedcars. The Sydney Sports Ground Speedway was officially opened in 1937 by Mr E. A. Buttershaw, NSW Minister for Lands. The ground held the first ever

Australian Speedcar Grand Prix The Australian Speedcar Grand Prix is an annual dirt track racing meeting held in Australia for Speedcars. The meeting has traditionally been held in Sydney, but on occasions has been held on tracks in Victoria and in 2000 the race was held a ...

on 12 March 1938 and was won by Sydney driver Les Dillon who was killed at the track only two months later becoming the speedway's first fatality. Between 1938 and 1953, eight Solo riders and four Speedcar drivers died as a result of accidents on the dirt track. The Sports Ground held its last speedway meeting on 25 March 1955.

's Speedway Star of the 1930s through to the early 1950s Jack Parker, stated that the Sports Ground track was "The best Speedway track in the World" after one of his visits to Australia to captain

in numerous test matches at the ground against the

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, several (or all) ...

who often had among their ranks Speedway World Champions

Lionel Van Praag Lionel Maurice Van Praag, GM (17 December 1908 – 15 May 1987) was an Australian motorcycle speedway champion, who won the inaugural Speedway World Championship in London on 10 September 1936. Van Praag's victory saw him established as Austra ...

Bluey Wilkinson Arthur George "Bluey" Wilkinson (27 August 1911 – 27 July 1940) was an international speedway rider. Wilkinson was Speedway World Champion in 1938 after narrowly missing out on winning the inaugural Championship in 1936 Individual Speed ...

, and later Jack Young. During its 18 years of operation, the Sports Ground Speedway also played host on occasion to the

Australian Solo Championship The Australian Solo Championship is a motorcycle speedway championship held each year to determine the Australian national champion. It is organised by Motorcycling Australia (MA) and is the oldest continuously running national speedway champion ...

, Australian Sidecar Championship,

Australian Speedcar Championship The Australian Speedcar Championship is a Dirt track racing, dirt track motor racing championship held in Australia each year to determine the Australian national champion in midget car racing. The single championship meeting, run over two nights ...

, NSW Solo Championship, NSW Sidecar Championship and the NSW Speedcar Championship. On 19 June 2004 a plaque was unveiled on the site of the former Sports Ground. It reads:

Fatalities

In an era when death was an accepted risk of the sport, 12 competitors lost their lives while racing at the Sydney Sports Ground. In the most tragic accident, close friends off the track Norm Clay and Ray Duggan both died after crashing together in a Solo race there on 21 January 1950. The 12 Speedway competitors who lost their lives at the Sports Ground are *Les Dillon - Speedcar (22 May 1938) *Claude Miller - Speedcar (25 April 1939) *Len Behrmann -

Solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Comics * ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series * Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...

(1945) *Jack Daly - Speedcar (5 January 1946) *Bob Hibbert - Solo (10 May 1946) *Norm Gillespie - Solo (2 April 1948) *Jack Sharpe (John Sharpe Gibson) - Solo (22 October 1948) *Norm Clay - Solo (21 January 1950) *Ray Duggan - Solo (21 January 1950) *Ken Le Breton - Solo (5 January 1951) *Bill Annabel - Speedcar (23 October 1953) *Noel Watson - Solo (6 November 1953)

Track records in 1952

(1 lap rolling start): 0:16.2 - Lionel Levy () *Solo (1 lap clutch start): 0:18.2 - Lionel Levy () *Sidecar (2 laps flying start): 37- 1/5 secs - Jack Carruthers () *Sidecar (2 laps clutch start): 39- 1/5 secs - Jim Davies () * Speedcar (1 lap rolling start): 16- 4/5 secs - Frank Brewer (/) *Speedcar (2 laps rolling start): 33- 3/5 secs - Ray Revell () *Speedcar (50 laps rolling start): 16:49.0 - Beale Simmons ()

References

External links

The Sydney Sportground SpeedwayBoxing contests at the ground
*http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page10876209?zoomLevel=5 {{NRL Grounds , state=collapsed Sydney Roosters Sports venues in Sydney Defunct rugby league venues in Australia Defunct speedway venues in Australia South Sydney Rabbitohs Balmain Tigers Sports venues completed in 1911 Sports venues demolished in 1987 1911 establishments in Australia Demolished buildings and structures in Sydney 1987 disestablishments in Australia Defunct soccer venues in Australia Defunct rugby union stadiums in Australia Demolished sports venues