The Kensington Oval, formerly known as the South Dunedin Recreation Ground, is a park and sports ground in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

.Herd, J., and Griffiths, G.J., (1980) ''Discovering Dunedin.'' Dunedin: John McIndoe. . p. 90 It is also known as just The Oval, although this name has become less common in recent years due to the potential confusion with the University Oval in the north of the city.

Geography

The Kensington Oval is officially regarded as the southern end of the city's Town Belt. The park, which is actually roughly triangular in shape, covers . It is bounded by

Princes Street Princes Street () is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three quar ...

, the northern end of Anderson's Bay Road, and the

Dunedin Southern Motorway The Dunedin Southern Motorway is the main arterial route south from the South Island city of Dunedin, part of New Zealand's State Highway 1. Despite its name, only a portion of the route is officially classified as motorway. The route is the so ...

. Its name dates from 22 March 1864, when it was decided to enclose the main cricket pitch within a formal oval. From that time the former name rapidly fell out of use, and has been rarely used since the beginning of the twentieth century. The city's

Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic an ...

memorial, which stands at the northern corner of the Oval, was designed by Carlo Bergamini and erected in November 1906.

History

The first

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

match in New Zealand was held on the ground in February 1864, when

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

played

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

. Otago played eight further first-class matches there, the last of which saw them play Canterbury in February 1878. The condition of the playing surface was generally unsatisfactory, with old tree roots protruding from the ground and the pitch unpredictable and at times dangerous to batsmen. In 1879 the Otago Cricket Association requested that the

Dunedin City Council The Dunedin City Council () is the Local government in New Zealand, local government authority for Dunedin in New Zealand. It is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority elected to represent the people of Dunedin. Since O ...

make improvements to the ground. When the Council decided not to make improvements, and refused to restrict access to the ground to cricket only, the Association decided to find another venue to play at. The enclosing bounds of the oval were removed in about 1899. Although representative matches are no longer played at the Kensington Oval, it is widely used for club, grade, and social cricket, and has two grass and three artificial wickets, as well as a pavilion. It is also used for softball in summer, and for football and rugby union in winter. In mid-May 2024, Dunedin's growing homeless problem led to the emergence of a tent encampment consisting of 11–22 tents in Kensington Oval.

References

External links

* * {{coord, 45, 53, 15.42, S, 170, 29, 53.36, E, type:landmark_scale:2000_region:NL, display=title 1860 establishments in New Zealand Cricket grounds in New Zealand Sports venues in Dunedin Parks in Dunedin