Manuka Oval

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Manuka Oval
Location	Manuka, Australian Capital Territory
Opened	1929
Owner	ACT Government
Surface	grass
Construction cost	Unknown
Former names	None
Tenants	Canberra Comets, Cricket Australia Cup Eastlake Demons, AFL Canberra Canberra Vikings, Australian Rugby Championship
Capacity	15,000

Manuka Oval is a 15,000 capacity stadium (10,000 seated) located in the suburb of Griffith, adjacent to Manuka, a business district of Canberra, Australia's capital. The stadium is home to many events throughout the year, including cricket matches in the summer months and Australian rules football matches in the winter months.

Work began on Manuka Oval to erect a fence, along with other improvements made in 1929. The field had previously been used to casually play rugby league and Australian rules football. The first cricket pitch was played on in April 1930. In 2004, Manuka Oval celebrated the 75th anniversary of its formal establishment.

[edit] Sports Played

[edit] Cricket

The first cricket match to be played at the oval was on Easter Monday (13 April) 1930.^[1] The Prime Minister's XI is played at the oval each year, and in 1992 the ground hosted a One Day International between South Africa and Zimbabwe, as part of the 1992 Cricket World Cup. It's also home to the Canberra Comets who played in the Mercantile Mutual Cup from the 1997/98 season to the 1999/2000 season, they now play in the Cricket Australia Cup. Manuka is looking to host a test match in the year 2013 to celebrate Canberra's 100th anniversary, it would likely be against India or New Zealand. Manuka Oval held its second ODI on February 12, 2008 between India and Sri Lanka.^[2]

[edit] Australian Rules Football

The stadium was a home venue to the Kangaroos, a Melbourne based club in the Australian Football League who played three games at the ground each year. However 2006 was the final year with the Kangaroos playing at Manuka after playing games in Canberra since 1998, this is because they have agreed to play games on the Gold Coast instead of Canberra. The record crowd was set in 2006 when 14,992 people came to watch the Kangaroos play the Sydney Swans.^[3] Brent Harvey was the only player to have played all 18 AFL games featuring the Kangaroos played at Manuka. It was announced on the 16th of August 2006 that Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs would play one premiership match each, from 2007-2009. Manuka also hosts games in the AFL Canberra competition including all finals.

[edit] Other

Manuka has also hosted Rugby league with the Canberra Raiders, playing a home game there in 2001. The Canberra Kookaburras (Rugby union) played their home games at Manuka Oval when they competed in the Sydney competition from 1995 until they were kicked out in 2000. The Canberra team rejoined the competition in 2004 as the Canberra Vikings and played their home games at Viking Park instead, but were kicked out again after the 2005 season. A Canberra team has now been accepted into the Australian Rugby Championship that will begin in 2007 and the team will once again return to Manuka Oval. Hockey was also played at Manuka Oval until the National Hockey Centre was built.

[edit] 2008 Schedule

The following matches are scheduled for 2008 at Manuka Oval.

Date	Teams	Sport	Competition	Crowd
10-12 January	ACT Invitational XI v.  India	Cricket	Friendly	6,000*
30 January	Prime Minister's XI v.  Sri Lanka	Cricket	Friendly	7,148
12 February	Sri Lanka v.  India	Cricket	CB Series	6,207
23 February	St Kilda v. Geelong Cats	Australian rules football	NAB Cup	6,825
8 March	Sydney Swans v. Brisbane Lions	Australian rules football	NAB Regional challenge	2,264
22 June	Melbourne Demons v. Sydney Swans	Australian rules football	AFL premiership
3 August	Western Bulldogs v. Sydney Swans	Australian rules football	AFL premiership

*total 3-day crowd

The PM's XI is an annual cricket match at Manuka Oval. The curator's residence is on the right in the background.

[edit] Curator's residence

A two-storey curator's residence is attached to the oval. It was built in the 1930s in the style typically used by the Federal Capital Commission.

[edit] References

1. ^ Mr D. Selth. Manuka Oval. ACT Cricket. Retrieved on 2007-12-21.
2. ^ Australia alter summer schedule to satisfy India. Cricinfo (2007-04-20). Retrieved on 2007-04-19.
3. ^ Swans grab win from nowhere Out-pointed visitors storm home to leap over Kangas. The Canberra Times (2006-06-05). Retrieved on 2007-11-06.

[edit] External links

• Manuka Oval at Austadiums
• 75 year anniversary
• ACT Cricket history, including history of Manuka oval
• Satellite image of Manuka Oval

Coordinates: 35°19′06″S, 149°08′05″E