It has been a long time coming, but Glenelg District Cricket Club say hosting last week’s Sheffield Shield opener between South Australia and Queensland was definitely worth the wait.
Amazingly, the high-scoring draw was the first ever Shield home game for South Australia to be played away from the Adelaide Oval, with that statistic dating back to the start of the competition in 1892.
The reason; Adelaide Oval is currently being readied for next month’s second Ashes Test match following a major redevelopment.
Those present at the Gliderol Stadium (Gliderol is a Garage Door company who hold the ground’s naming rights), situated in the picturesque seaside suburb of Glenelg just nine km away from Adelaide, saw South Australia post 387, Queensland respond with 465 and South Australia finish on 9-194.
They would have seen first-innings centuries for Tom Cooper and Peter Forrest, a second-innings haul of 7-68 for visiting leggie Cameron Boyce and possibly a glimpse of Australia head coach Darren Lehmann.
Lehmann, a former player with SA and a former coach of the Bulls, was present at the ground on a scouting mission and was a guest speaker at a combined president’s luncheon on Friday’s third day for the presidents of Glenelg’s Cricket and Australian Rules clubs.
“It was a very successful week,” said Glenelg’s secretary and cricket operations manager Alan Scholz, who admitted that hosting a Shield game has been a long-term ambition. “The game went the whole four days, the weather was brilliant and we had about 1,000 people attend on day three.
“Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane all have alternate grounds to their main stadiums, and we were aiming to set up Gliderol Stadium as an alternative first-class venue to Adelaide Oval.
“The crowds far exceeded the normal attendance for a Shield game. Normally you would expect maybe 100-200 attend a day, but we averaged about 500. In fact, the football club took more over the bar than it does for a home football match.”
Locals and holidaymakers enjoy the sun at Moseley Square, Glenelg. Photo credit: World Cricket Badger
Hosting an event such as this is no mean feat, and will have taken a huge amount of hard work from all corners, especially with it coming so early in the Australian summer.
“At this time of year (only six weeks after the football season), the ground would look very average, and the centre square would just have grass beginning to grow as the ground warms up,” continued Scholz. “There is usually only one groundsman who maintains the oval and wickets. But for the past six weeks, we have had up to seven people working on the ground, led by world-class curator Les Burdett (former Adelaide Oval curator).
“The pitch played so good, the game could have gone into a fifth day. Normally even on the second day, a Glenelg pitch would be breaking up badly. Les made the difference.”
As aforementioned, with this being the first Shield game to be played away from the Adelaide Oval, it would suggest that the fixture was just a one-off. But maybe not.
“If SA had taken the last wicket to beat Western Australia last year, we would have hosted the Shield final. It would be the same arrangement if it happens this season as well,” said Sholz, who was extremely appreciative of the gesture from both teams to hand over a signed shirt that will take pride of place in the clubrooms.
Glenelg, who count Ian, Greg and Trevor Chappell amongst their vice presidents, headed into the 2013/14 season as the reigning champions of their A Grade competition.
“The win last year was the culmination of a lot of hard work in the background, including recruiting, ground improvements and strong off-field personnel,” said Scholz.
“We were also fortunate to have Johan Botha available for the finals, and his steely resolve helped our younger guys in moments of crisis. Recruiting our captain Cullen Bailey, who has similar traits to Botha, was the coup that brought together this premiership team.
“The money we received from SACA for hosting a Sheffield Shield game will go into developing our practice facilities to ensure they too are at first-class level.”
And seeing a whole host of professional playing at close quarters will have no doubt inspired the club’s future stars to achieve great things?
Adelaide Oval. Photo credit: Wikipedia
“I would think so,” added Scholz. “Remember that Ryan Harris was the only Queensland Bull who had played at Glenelg before when he played grade cricket for Northern Districts in our competition before he moved to Queensland. Also, Darren Lehmann played for Northern Districts (formerly Salisbury) before he moved interstate, so he had played at Glenelg too.
“It’s very hard to judge what influence the game would have on the youngsters, but I would hope it would be positive.”
There is no doubt that after a successful and historic week, all involved at Glenelg can give themselves a huge pat on the back. We thank Alan Scholz for his time and wish the club all the best on and off the field.
PHOTO CREDIT: The photograph on the main page is of Ryan Harris bowling the first ball in the Shield match. It has been kindly provided by Alan Scholz.
James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
He is also the presenter of the Cricket Badger Radio Show on Radio Yorkshire every Tuesday evening between 7-9pm UK time.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author, a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications and a complete cricket badger!
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