Manuka Oval

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manuka Oval

Location	Manuka, Australian Capital Territory
Opened	1929
Closed	N/A
Demolished	N/A
Owner	ACT Government
Surface	grass
Construction cost	Unknown
Former names
None
Tenants
Canberra Comets, Cricket Australia Cup Eastlake Demons, AFL Canberra
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 AFL football. The first cricket pitch was played on in April 1930. In 2004, Manuka Oval celebrated the 75th anniversary of its formal establishment.

1 Sports Played
2 2007 Schedule
3 Curator's residence
4 External links

[edit] Sports Played

[edit] Cricket

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.

[edit] Australian Rules Football

The stadium was a home venue to the Kangaroos Football Club, 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. Brent Harvey is the only player to have played all 18 AFL games 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 union and league with the Canberra Raiders playing a home game there, in 2001.

[edit] 2007 Schedule

The following matches are scheduled for 2007 at Manuka Oval.

Date	Teams	Sport	Competition	Crowd
24 February	Western Bulldogs Football Club v. Sydney Swans	Australian rules football	NAB Cup	5,557
3 March	Sydney Swans v. Richmond Football Club	Australian rules football	AFL pre-season	3,365
27 May	Western Bulldogs Football Club v. Sydney Swans	Australian rules football	AFL premiership
5 August	Melbourne Football Club v. Sydney Swans	Australian rules football	AFL premiership