A convincing ground was the name or journalistic euphemism for a place where sports were contested, having limited currency in the nineteenth century, predominantly in Australia and New Zealand.
It has been used to describe a boxing arena in Australia, [1] a social sports ground in 1891, [2] a cricket ground in New Zealand in 1862, [3] and a trotting track in New Zealand in 1904. [4]
Two placenames in Australia retain the name: Convincing Ground Road at Karangi, New South Wales, and the Convincing Ground, a flat coastal area at Allestree near Portland, Victoria where a massacre of Aboriginal Gunditjmara people by whalers is thought to have occurred in 1833 or 1834.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as The 'G, is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, with 95,000 seats and an additional 5,000 capacity in standing room for a total of just over 100,000 it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the 11th largest globally, and the second-largest cricket ground by capacity, after the Narendra Modi Stadium. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre and is served by Richmond and Jolimont railway stations, as well as the route 70, route 75, and route 48 trams. It is adjacent to Melbourne Park and is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct.
Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union or rugby league.
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the Super 12 in the 1996 season with 12 teams from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, building on competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986. The Super 12 was established by SANZAR after the sport became professional in 1995. After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competition to split into three, the reformed competition in 2021 only included teams from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands.
Bellerive Oval is a cricket and an Australian rules football ground located in Bellerive, a suburb on the eastern shore of Hobart, Australia. Holding 20,000 people, it is the largest capacity stadium in Tasmania. It is the only venue in Tasmania which hosts international cricket matches.
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby league, rugby union, soccer, tennis among other sports as well as regularly being used to hold concerts. Austadiums.com described Adelaide Oval as being "one of the most picturesque Test cricket grounds in Australia, if not the world." After the completion of the ground's most recent redevelopment in 2014, sports journalist Gerard Whateley described the venue as being "the most perfect piece of modern architecture because it's a thoroughly contemporary stadium with all the character that it's had in the past."
Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of twenty overs. Together with first-class and List A cricket, Twenty20 is one of the three current forms of cricket recognised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) as being at the highest international or domestic level.
The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in the Moore Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is used for Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and association football. It is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team, the Sydney Sixers of the Big Bash League and the Sydney Swans of the Australian Football League. It is owned and operated by Venues NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales who also hold responsibility for Stadium Australia and the Sydney Football Stadium.
The Basin Reserve, also known as the Cello Basin Reserve for sponsorship reasons, and commonly referred to as the Basin, is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It is used for Test matches, and is the main home ground of the Wellington Firebirds first-class team. The Basin Reserve is the only cricket ground to have listed status with Heritage New Zealand, in recognition of being the oldest first-class cricket ground in the country. Historically, the ground has also been used for events other than cricket, such as association football matches, concerts and cultural events.
The New Zealand men's national football team represents New Zealand in men's international football competitions. The team is governed by the governing body for football in New Zealand, New Zealand Football (NZF), which is currently a member of FIFA and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). The team's official nickname is the All Whites.
Eden Park is a sports venue in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland. The main stadium has a nominal capacity of 50,000, and is sometimes referred to as New Zealand's national stadium. The stadium is used primarily for rugby union in winter and cricket in summer, and has also hosted rugby league and association football matches, as well as concerts and cultural events. It is owned and operated by the Eden Park Trust Board, whose headquarters are located in the stadium.
Bowen Hills is an inner north-eastern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Bowen Hills had a population of 4,898 people.
The WACA Ground is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. The stadium's name derives from the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA).
Newcastle International Sports Centre, known as McDonald Jones Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose sports stadium located in Newcastle, Australia. The ground is home to the Newcastle Knights and Newcastle Jets FC (A-League). It is owned by the Government of New South Wales and is administered by Venues NSW. Due to past sponsorship deals, the ground has been previously known as Marathon Stadium, EnergyAustralia Stadium, Ausgrid Stadium and Hunter Stadium. Newcastle International Sports Centre is also known as Newcastle Stadium when in use during AFC competitions due to conflicting sponsorship reasons.
Lancaster Park, also known as Jade Stadium and AMI Stadium for sponsorship reasons, was a sports stadium in Waltham, a suburb of Christchurch in New Zealand. The stadium was closed permanently due to damage sustained in the February 2011 earthquake and demolished in 2019. It has since been transformed into a public park with facilities for community sport, and was re-opened in June 2022.
Perth Rectangular Stadium is a sports stadium in Perth, the capital of the Australian state of Western Australia. Located close to Perth's central business district, the stadium currently has a maximum capacity of 20,500 people for sporting events and 25,000 people for concerts, with the ground's record attendance of 32,000 people set during an Ed Sheeran concert in 2015. The land on which the stadium was built, known as Loton Park, was made a public reserve in 1904, with the main ground developed several years later.
Australian rules football in South Africa is a team sport played at amateur level in the country with a small audience. The governing body is AFL South Africa.
The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF).
The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand from 14 February to 29 March 2015, and was won by Australia, defeating New Zealand by 7 wickets in the final. This was the second time the tournament was held in Australia and New Zealand, the first having been the 1992 Cricket World Cup. India were the defending champions having won the previous edition in 2011, but they were eliminated by eventual champions Australia in the semi-finals.
The 1909 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the second season of Sydney's top-level rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Eight teams contested during the season for the premiership and the Royal Agricultural Society Challenge Shield; seven teams from Sydney and one team from Newcastle, New South Wales.
The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it shares some history of the original league with the Claxton Shield awarded to winners of both competitions, it is considered to be a separate competition.