Albert Cricket Ground, also known as the Albert Reserve and previously as the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground, is a cricket ground in St Kilda, Victoria. It is operated by the

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, ...

(MCC), and used as its primary home ground in the

Victorian Premier Cricket Victorian Premier Cricket is a club cricket competition in the state of Victoria administered by Cricket Victoria. Each club fields four teams (firsts through to fourths) of adult players and usually play on weekends and public holidays. Match ...

competition.

Cricket

The

has held the lease for the Warehouseman's Ground since 1890. It has been the primary home venue for its cricket team in the Victorian District/Premier Cricket competition since that time. The venue is one of the primary finals venue in the premier cricket competition, and hosted the first XI district/premier cricket final almost every year from 1953/54 until the early 21st century; it currently hosts the final of the second XIs. The venue has never hosted a

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

match; in 2003, it was to have hosted its first List A match, a tour match between Australia A and South Africa A, but the match was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain. Top level women's cricket has been played on the ground. One women's Test match was played at the ground between Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in January 1979, and the

Rose Bowl series The Rose Bowl series is a series of Women's One Day International cricket matches between Australia and New Zealand that has been running since February 1985. It was originally known as the ''Shell Rose Bowl''; the name was changed to the ''Ros ...

Women's One Day International Women's One Day International (WODI) is the limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 overs, equivalent to the men's game. The first women's ODIs were played in 1973, as part of the first Women's World Cup which was ...

matches in 1988–89, 1990–91, and on three occasions in 1999–2000. The venue has one pavilion, the Clive Fairbairn Pavilion, named after MCC player, administrator and life member

Clive Fairbairn Clive Lindsay Fairbairn (25 August 1919 – 12 May 2010) was an Australian cricketer. He played one first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricke ...

Tennis

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia ( Shostakovich's 11th Symphony ...

, the tennis courts at the Warehouseman's Cricket Ground were the venue of the first Australasian Tennis Championship, the tournament which later became the Australian Open. Lawn tennis at that time was administered in Victoria by the

Rodney Heath Rodney Wilfred Heath (15 June 1884 – 26 October 1936) was an Australian tennis player. Personal Heath was the second son of F. W. Heath who was the official timekeeper at the Victorian Racing Club and Victorian Amateur Turf Club. Rodney's ...

defeated fellow Australian Arthur Curtis in four sets to claim the inaugural title. The venue hosted the Australasian Championships under the auspices of the MCC, and later the Lawn Tennis Association of Victoria, a total of four times: in 1905,

1911 A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...

and

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

, as well as the

1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 4 ...

and 1912 Davis Cup finals, after which Kooyong became the primary venue for lawn tennis in Melbourne. A set of public tennis courts remains available at Albert Reserve to the north of the cricket ground.

Other sports

The Melbourne Cricket Club lacrosse team has its training and playing base at the Albert Cricket Ground; the club's baseball team also used the venue until 1976. Football has been played on the ground in the past. The original

Prahran Football Club Prahran Assumption Football Club (), nicknamed The Two Blues, is an Australian rules football club based at Toorak Park in Orrong Road between High Street and Malvern Road, Armadale, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The club is currently in D ...

, which played senior football in 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 ...

in 1886 and 1887 before amalgamating with , played its home matches at the ground in 1886; and the Melbourne Football Club (which was a part of the MCC) played some games there after 1890. The ground is not used for football today. In the early years of cycling in Victoria the ground was used to host races. On 24 May 1880 it was the scene of the first 25 Miles race of the

Melbourne Bicycle Club Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metr ...

on the occasion of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

's birthday celebrations.

Notes

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External links

Albert Cricket Ground
at Cricinfo Cricket grounds in Victoria (Australia) Sports venues in Melbourne Sports venues completed in 1890 Cricket in Melbourne St Kilda, Victoria