East Melbourne Cricket Ground
Encyclopedia
East Melbourne, Victoria
East Melbourne is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, adjacent to Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne. At the 2006 Census, East Melbourne had a population of 4,330....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The ground adjoined the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
(MCG) and was not that far from Richmond Football Club
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
's Punt Road Oval
Punt Road Oval
Punt Road Oval is a sporting ground located in Yarra Park, East Melbourne, Victoria situated only a few hundred metres to the east of the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground....
, all three grounds being cited in the area formerly known as Captain Lonsdale
William Lonsdale (colonist)
William Lonsdale supervised the founding of the official settlement at Port Phillip from 1836 and went on to serve under the Superintendent La Trobe from 1839 to 1854.-Early life:...
's Cow Paddock, now Yarra Park.
History
The ground was opened in 1860 and closed in 1921, after which it was demolished to make way for an extension of the Jolimont YardJolimont Yard
Jolimont Yard was an array of railway lines and carriage sidings on the edge of the central business district of Melbourne, Australia. Located between Flinders Street Station, Richmond Junction, the Yarra River and Flinders Street they were often criticised for cutting off the city from the river,...
railway sidings. The site has now been taken over by a housing estate, a feature of which is a semi-circular housing block with a tower, obviously designed to look like an ersatz football pavilion.
Four first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
games were played at the ground in the 1880s, including the Smokers v Non-Smokers
Smokers v Non-Smokers
A Smokers v Non-Smokers cricket match with first class status was held on two occasions in the late 19th century. The first of these was staged at Lord's in 1884, and resulted in a resounding nine-wicket win for the Non-Smokers, due in great part to an innings of 124 from George Bonnor and eight...
match on 17–21 March 1887, in which the Non-Smokers made 803, at the time a world record innings score.
East Melbourne Cricket Club was the most successful member of the Victorian Cricket Association during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, winning more than half of the VCA's Premierships during that period. The club was formed in 1857 as the Abbotsford Football Club but they soon changed their name as part of a putsch to use the EMCG. The team mainly consisted of Scotch College old boys. When the club lost the use of the ground in 1921, they amalgamated with the Hawthorn Cricket Club to form the Hawthorn-East Melbourne Cricket Club and moved to Hawthorn's Glenferrie Oval.
The ECMG was also used for Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
. The ground hosted the first ever interstate football match
Interstate matches in Australian rules football
Australian rules football matches between teams representing Australian colonies/states and territories have been held since 1879. For most of the 20th century, the absence of a national club competition and international matches meant that football games between state representative teams were...
, on 1 July 1879, between Victoria (represented by the VFA
Victorian Football League
The Victorian Football League which evolved from the former Victorian Football Association , taking its new name as from the 1996 season, is the premier Australian rules football league in Victoria The Victorian Football League (VFL) which evolved from the former Victorian Football Association...
) and South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. The match was attended by more than 10,000 people, a big crowd for a weekday at that time.
After EMCG closed, one of its wooden stands was moved to the HEMCC's Glenferrie Oval where it stood until 1965 when it was replaced by the Dr A.S. Ferguson Stand.
The ground record crowd for the EMCG was 18,000 which was set twice during the 1921 VFL season
1921 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1921.-Premiership season:In 1921, the VFL competition consisted of nine teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their...
. The first time was on May 28 when Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
defeated Essendon by 17 points. The next was set just two weeks later on June 11 when Carlton
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
defeated Essendon by 57 points.
Tenant clubs
Tenant football clubs of the ground included:- East Melbourne, who used the ground until the club disbanded in 1881.
- EssendonEssendon Football ClubThe Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
, who used it from 1882 to 19211921 VFL seasonResults and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1921.-Premiership season:In 1921, the VFL competition consisted of nine teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their...
. (Because of the loss of their ground in 1921, Essendon Football Club amalgamated with Essendon Association Football ClubEssendon Association Football ClubEssendon Association Football Club was an Australian rules football club which played in the Victorian Football Association from 1900 until 1921. The 'Dreadnoughts', who wore black and red, played their home games at the Essendon Recreation Reserve...
who played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), and moved to Essendon Association's home ground, the Essendon Recreation Reserve (now colloquially known as Windy HillWindy Hill, EssendonWindy Hill is an Australian rules football ground located in Essendon, a northwestern suburb of the Melbourne metropolitan area....
).
- UniversityMelbourne University Football ClubMelbourne University Football Club, often known simply as University is an Australian rules football club.The club achieved prominence by being a member of the game's most elite competition in the early 20th century, the Victorian Football League between 1908 and 1914.Although there are no records...
, who used it from 19081908 VFL seasonResults and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1908.Both Richmond Football Club and University Football Club were admitted to the VFL competition .-Premiership season:...
–19101910 VFL seasonResults and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1910.-Premiership season:In 1910, the VFL competition comprised ten teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their...
.
- 30 VFA finals were played at the popular East Melbourne ground between 1903 and 1921.
- Melbourne City, a VFA club nicknamed The Citizens used the ground during their two years in the VFA (1911–12). Melbourne City lost all the games they played.