Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

[Boris]

Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

Just wondering on the best/strangest/worst places everyone has played cricket.

The worst for me would have to be a ground at Mooloolaba in south east Queensland.

The ground is made entirely of sand - literally. The pitch is pretty much just black soil place onto of sand, so bouncers bounce about the height of one's knees.

It has a grass covering across the whole field, but only fine.

Great place for fielding though!

 

[brickwaller99]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

Pyramids don't work very well. Almost as uneven as The Oval.

 

[macca]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

Here in Newcastle 40 years ago one of the junior grounds was located within the lunatic asylum at Watt street. I still can remember some of the strange things i heard and saw fielding on the boundary

 

[a for effort]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

Pyramids don't work very well. Almost as uneven as The Oval.

Didn't think there was any pyramids in Brisbane.


Best place I've played was on a small pocket of the MCG, in a super 8s state final about 6 or 7 years ago. Hit a few sixes into the southern stand (which was about 40 yards away!)

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

There is a thread somewhere else on here I'm sure somewhere asking for people to link to the nicest and ugliest pitches they know of. I think the Telegraph newspaper here had a competition a couple of years ago trying to find Englands prettiest cricket ground. Ours is pretty grim..... Wrist Spin Bowling: Shocking 6-0-61-2 we have 'Chav's' walking across the pitch smoking cannabis with their kids in push chairs followed up by their Pit Bull terriers right across the square almost when we're playing matches.

 

[rorymathews]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

i have visited the most beatiful ground voted by wisden which was in one of the valleys of the lake district, however i can't remember the name :S

 

[Boris]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

These are only google maps images, but this is where I play most of my cricket now. They are pretty reasonable looking conditions, Albert Park being the place where A Grade Cricket happens in town. Pretty nice looking place.

One Mile Ovals

Albert Park

You can use streetview the whole way around them.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

These are only google maps images, but this is where I play most of my cricket now. They are pretty reasonable looking conditions, Albert Park being the place where A Grade Cricket happens in town. Pretty nice looking place.

One Mile Ovals

Albert Park

You can use streetview the whole way around them.

I zoomed out - Jesus that is such a big country it's inconceivable for me to imagine how big Australia is - it is vast.

 

[Boris]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

Maroochydore Cricket

And that one is one of the grounds I used to play on when I played in a different region. That ground is brilliant, the Australian team practices there every couple of years.

The backdrop of most Australian regional grounds is countless trees and a road, we don't quite have the spectacularly old buildings and scenic backdrops of England.

 

[lewissaffin]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

The nicest venue I've played at is easily Shere CC, here in Surrey. A lovely picturesque backdrop and a half-decent pitch to match

 

[brickwaller99]

Re: Best/Strangest/Worst Place You Have Played Cricket

I zoomed out - Jesus that is such a big country it's inconceivable for me to imagine how big Australia is - it is vast.

What I can't work out is how you can all fit on that island without stacking on top of each other and yet still fit in thousands of footy and cricket grounds.

Oldest Cricket oval in Australia i've seen/played on is in tasmania, circa 1835 can't remember where now which is nothing compared to england.

 

[someblokecalleddave]

Along this theme I'm taking photographs of Pavilions all over England as and when I can get to them. I noticed that when I started playing the bigger the town the worse the facilities and in comparison tiny little villages in Cornwall where you've got populations of 100-300 they have virtual places and beautiful grounds and that go me thinking what's going on and why? So I started to photograph them and talk to people and in the end I figured it out. You'll have to look at and follow the blog!

The news is over the last couple of days I've been driving around West Sussex and have shot 11-12 pavilions of varying types and again they follow that kind rule ... Big town = crap pavilion. Small village = beautiful pavilion and pitch. Check the rest out here... http://mpafirsteleven.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cricket-pavillions-typology.html


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