Ground information | |||||
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Location | Brockton Point, Stanley Park, Vancouver | ||||
Coordinates | 49°17′59″N123°07′28″W / 49.29964°N 123.12446°W | ||||
Establishment | 1889 | ||||
Capacity | 2,000 to 3,000 | ||||
Owner | Brockton Point Cricket Club | ||||
Operator | Brockton Point Cricket Club | ||||
Tenants | Vancouver Cricket Club | ||||
Team information | |||||
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As of August 8, 2014 Source: Brockton Oval |
Brockton Oval is a playing area near the Brockton Point located on the north side of Coal Harbour in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The ground was established 1891 with 10 sport's groups joining together. In 1927, cricket and rugby fields were carved out. [1]
Brockton Oval has been visited by cricket players such as Donald Bradman, Fred Trueman and Geoffrey Boycott. Around 2,000 to 3,000 people arrived to see the match at the ground when Australians and MCC sides visited the ground. [2]
The Oval is the home of Brockton Point Cricket Club which was one of the 7 founding member clubs of the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League in 1914. Vancouver Cricket Club began their journey on this ground in 1889.
Before 1865, the point was utilised as a graveyard for early settlers who came to Vancouver. That year, Edward Stamp—a British businessman in the timber industry—cleared away part of the site in order to build a sawmill. However, he was forced to abandon his plans after realising the strong currents from the harbour impeded the construction of log booms. [3] He ended up moving the mill to Gastown, [3] becoming Hastings Mill. [4] [5]
The land cleared by Stamp was converted into sports fields by 1891. One of these, Brockton Oval, became a key amateur sports venue and was mostly used for cricket. [5] Donald Bradman and Fred Trueman both played at the Oval, [6] and after Bradman's visit in 1932, he called the venue the most beautiful cricket ground in the world. [7] Geoffrey Boycott also played at the grounds in September 1964 and echoed Bradman's sentiments and praise of the Oval. [8]
Most recently the ground hosted two matches in July 2012 when MCC visited Canada. They played against British Columbia Mainland League and British Columbia Cricket Association President's XI in Cliff Cox's Memorial Game.
The Men's Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Test win on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". The mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882–83 series played in Australia, before which the English captain Ivo Bligh had vowed to "regain those ashes". The English media therefore dubbed the tour the quest to regain the Ashes.
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. It was designed to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's leading batsman, Don Bradman. A bodyline delivery was one in which the cricket ball was bowled at pace, aimed at the body of the batsman in the expectation that when he defended himself with his bat, a resulting deflection could be caught by one of several fielders deliberately placed nearby on the leg side.
Sir Donald George Bradman, nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane Warne, among others, to make Bradman the "greatest sportsperson" in history. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 is considered by some to be the greatest achievement by any sportsman in any major sport.
Harold Larwood was a professional cricketer for Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team between 1924 and 1938. A right-arm fast bowler who combined extreme speeds with great accuracy, he was considered by many players and commentators to be the finest and the fastest fast bowler of his generation and one of the fastest bowlers of all time. He was the main exponent of the bowling style known as "bodyline", the use of which during the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tour of Australia in 1932–33 caused a furore that brought about a premature and acrimonious end to his international career.
James Charles Laker was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club from 1946 to 1959 and represented England in 46 Test matches. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire, and died in Wimbledon, London.
Stanley Park is a 405-hectare (1,001-acre) public park in British Columbia, Canada that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver's Downtown Peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. The park borders the neighbourhoods of West End and Coal Harbour to its southeast, and is connected to the North Shore via the Lions Gate Bridge. The historic lighthouse on Brockton Point marks the park's easternmost point. While it is not the largest of its kind, Stanley Park is about one-fifth larger than New York City's 340-hectare (840-acre) Central Park and almost half the size of London's 960-hectare (2,360-acre) Richmond Park.
Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers,, also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, he is widely considered to be cricket's greatest ever all-rounder and one of the greatest cricketers of all time.
The England men's cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club since 1903. England, as a founding nation, is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status. Until the 1990s, Scottish and Irish players also played for England as those countries were not yet ICC members in their own right.
Kenneth Frank Barrington, was an English international cricketer who played for the England cricket team and Surrey County Cricket Club in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a right-handed batsman and occasional leg-spin bowler, known for his jovial good humour and long, defensive innings "batting with bulldog determination and awesome concentration".
Frederick Richard Brown was an English amateur cricketer who played Test cricket for England from 1931 to 1953, and first-class cricket for Cambridge University (1930–31), Surrey (1931–48), and Northamptonshire (1949–53). He was a genuine all-rounder, batting right-handed and bowling either right-arm medium pace or leg break and googly.
John Brian Statham, was an English professional cricketer from Gorton, in Manchester, who played for Lancashire County Cricket Club from 1950 to 1968 and for England from 1951 to 1965. As an England player, he took part in nine overseas tours from 1950–51 to 1962–63. He specialised as a right arm fast bowler and was noted for the consistent accuracy of his length and direction.
William Eric Bowes was an English professional cricketer active from 1929 to 1947 who played in 372 first-class matches as a right arm fast bowler and a right-handed tail end batsman. He took 1,639 wickets with a best performance of nine for 121 and completed ten wickets in a match 27 times. He scored 1,531 runs with a highest score of 43* and is one of very few major players whose career total of wickets taken exceeded his career total of runs scored. He did not rate himself as a fielder but he nevertheless held 138 catches.
The Queen's Park Oval is a sports stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, used mostly for cricket matches. It opened in 1896. Privately owned by the Queen's Park Cricket Club, it is currently the second largest capacity cricket ground in the West Indies with seating for about 20,000.
Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of cricket matches that began in July 1806 and was abolished in January 1963. It was a match between a team consisting of amateurs and a team consisting of professionals that reflected the English class structure of the 19th century. Typically, the professionals were working class people who earned their living by playing cricket, while the amateurs were middle- and upper-class products of the public school system, who were supposedly unpaid for playing. The professionals were paid wages by their county clubs and/or fees by match organisers, while the amateurs claimed expenses. However, while rules to distinguish amateurs from professionals were established by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the system of allowable expenses was both controversial and complex, enabling some leading amateurs to be paid more than any professional for playing cricket.
The Prime Minister's XI or PM's XI is an invitational cricket team picked by the Prime Minister of Australia for an annual match held at the Manuka Oval in Canberra against an overseas touring team. The Australian team usually consists of up and coming grade cricketers from the Canberra region and state players.
Brockton Point is a headland off the Downtown Peninsula of Vancouver, on the north side of Coal Harbour. Named after Francis Brockton, it is the most easterly part of Stanley Park and is home to a 100-year-old lighthouse and several hand-carved totem poles made in British Columbia. Like the rest of Stanley Park coastline, Brockton Point is lined by the Vancouver Seawall.
The England cricket team toured Australia and New Zealand between October 1962 and March 1963 with a one-match stopover in Colombo, en route to Australia. The tour was organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and, in all matches other than Tests, the team was called MCC. In Australia, the tour itinerary consisted of 15 first-class matches, including the five-match Test series against Australia in which The Ashes were at stake. It was the last England cricket tour of Australia where the team travelled by ship.
The New Zealand cricket team toured England in the 1965 season, playing three Test matches in the first half of a damp summer. England later hosted a second three-match series against South Africa, the first time two Test series were played in a single English cricket season since the 1912 Triangular Tournament.
The British Columbia Mainland Cricket League (BCMCL) was founded in 1914 by seven founding member clubs. It is a competitive cricket league and is known for its scenic cricket grounds, most notably Stanley Park. According to the league's president, Inamul Desai, the BCMCL is the largest cricket league in North America.