The Oval
is an international cricket ground in Kennington, London. It is often referred to as the 'Kennington Oval' (not to be confused with Kensington Oval in Barbados), but in recent years has been officially titled as the 'Fosters Oval', 'AMP Oval,' and, currently, as the 'Brit Oval' due to various commercial sponsorship deals. It is located in the London Borough of Lambeth.
It is the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club, and also traditionally hosts the final Test match of each English summer in late August or early September. The Oval was the first ground in Britain and second in the world (after the MCG) to host Test cricket.
The nearest tube station is also called Oval, but the ground can also be easily reached from Vauxhall.
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BRIT OVAL TICKETS
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History
In
1844, Kennington Oval was a
market garden. The Oval was (and still is) owned by the
Duchy of Cornwall.
Surrey County Cricket Club was set up in
1845. The Duchy was willing to grant a lease of the land for the purpose of a cricket ground, and, on
10 March,
1845, the Club signed a lease with the Otter Trustees, who held the land from the Duchy of Cornwall, 'to convert it into a subscription Cricket Ground', for 31 years at a rent of £120 per annum plus taxes (£20 more). The original contract for turfing the Oval cost £300; 10,000 grass turfs came from
Tooting Common.
In
1868, 20,000 spectators gathered at the Oval for the first game of the
1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England, the first tour of England by any foreign side.
Thanks to
C. W. Alcock, the Secretary of Surrey from 1872 to 1907, the first ever
Test match in England was played at the Oval in
1880 between
England and
Australia. The Oval thereby became the second ground to stage a Test, after
the MCG. In
1882, Australia won
the Ashes Test by seven runs within two days.
The Sporting Times
printed a mocking obituary notice for English cricket, which led to the creation of
The Ashes trophy, which is still contested whenever England plays Australia. The first Test double century was scored at the Oval in
1884 by Australia's
Billy Murdoch.
The current pavilion was completed in time for the 1898 season.
[1]
In
1907,
South Africa became the 2nd visiting Test team to play a Test match at this venue. In
1928,
West Indies played its first Test match at this venue followed by
New Zealand in
1931. In
1936,
India became the 5th foreign visiting Test side to play at the Oval, followed by
Pakistan in
1954 and
Sri Lanka in
1998.
Zimbabwe and
Bangladesh are yet to play a Test match at the venue.
During the
Second World War, the Oval was intended for use as a
prisoner of war camp, although it was never employed as such. The Oval is referenced by the poet
Philip Larkin in his poem about the
First World War,
MCMXIV.
[2]
The first
One Day International match at this venue was played on
September 7,
1973 between England and
West Indies. It had the privilege of hosting matches of the
1975,
1979,
1983 and
1999 World Cups. It also hosted five of the fifteen matches in the 2004
ICC Champions Trophy, including the final. No floodlit day/night international match has been played here to date, although Surrey have played several floodlit one-day matches. In fact, Surrey's ground is noted as having the first floodlights at a sport arena in the form of gas-lamps dating back to 1889
[3].
The ground also had a
zeppelin and later a
hot air balloon employed for aerial views during tests but this was never commercially viable and was gone by the turn of the
millennium. Several other British grounds had this feature also such as
Edgbaston. The Oval once held the record for the largest playing area of any Test venue in the world, but that record has since been surpassed by
Gaddafi Stadium in
Pakistan (though it is still the largest in Britain).
The billionaire
Paul Getty, who had a great affinity for cricket and was at one time
Surrey CCC President built a replica of The Oval on his
Wormsley Park estate.
[4] The famous gasometers at The Oval are actually younger than the ground by several years, having been built circa 1853. There has been much speculation of late as to whether they should be demolished, however many believe they are part of The Oval's landscape and therefore their future looks secure.
End names
The names of the ends are the Pavilion End and the Vauxhall End.
21st century redevelopment
At the end of the
2002 cricket season, Surrey started redeveloping the Vauxhall End. The development included knocking down the outdated Surridge, Fender, Jardine and Peter May north stands, and creating in their place a large, state-of-the-art, four tier grandstand known as the OCS Stand. This work was completed in May
2005, increasing ground capacity to around 23,000.
In January 2007 Surrey announced plans to increase capacity by a further 2,000 seats, this time by redeveloping the Pavilion End. This is subject to the planning application being approved by
Lambeth Council. The Lock, Laker and Peter May South stands will be replaced with a new stand, which will have a hotel backing on to it. The Surrey Tavern at the entrance to the ground will be demolished and a new pedestrian plaza will be created in its place, improving access to the ground and opening up views of the historic pavilion. However, these plans have been delayed due to fears over health and safety as the ground is very close to a
gasometer. There will be an inspection in October 2008 and this means that, even if the inspection is satisfactory, the work will not be complete for the 2009 Ashes and T20 World Cup, as previously hoped.
[5]
Football
The Oval was also an important site in the historical development of
football, before the game had its own separate national stadium. On
March 16 1872,
The Wanderers beat the
Royal Engineers 1-0 to win the first ever
FA Cup.
C. W. Alcock, Secretary of the
Football Association, was the prime mover of the competition. He had just become Secretary of Surrey, so that The Oval was the natural choice of venue for the final. Alcock also captained the successful Wanderers side. The Oval hosted all subsequent FA Cup finals (
1873 excluded) up until
1892.
A year after that first FA Cup final, on
March 8 1873, the
England national team played its first home match at the Oval, against
Scotland. Their 4-2 win was the first victory in international competition. England would continue to play occasionally at the Oval until
1889.
The Oval is one of two grounds (
Bramall Lane in
Sheffield being the other) to have staged both England Football and Cricket internationals, and also FA Cup Finals. The Oval also hosted the second ever
Rugby Union international between England and Scotland in 1872 (the first was hosted at
Raeburn Place a year earlier).
In recent years, the Oval has held an
exhibition match for
Australian rules football in October each year, between better performing Australian teams or to show the rivalry between certain clubs. In
2005, a record crowd for Australian rules football in England (18,884) saw the
Fremantle Football Club defeat the
West Coast Eagles.
Results of FA Cup Finals at The Oval
| Year
| Attendance
| Winner
|
| Runner-up
|
| Notes
|
| 1872
| 2,000
| Wanderers
| 1
| Royal Engineers
| 0
|
| 1874
| 2,000
| Oxford University
| 2
| Royal Engineers
| 0
|
| 1875
| 3,000
| Royal Engineers
| 1
| Old Etonians
| 1
|
| Replay
| 3,000
| Royal Engineers
| 2
| Old Etonians
| 0
|
| 1876
| 3,500
| Wanderers
| 1
| Old Etonians
| 1
|
| Replay
| 1,500
| Wanderers
| 3
| Old Etonians
| 0
|
| 1877
| 3,000
| Wanderers
| 2
| Oxford University
| 1
|
| 1878
| 4,500
| Wanderers
| 3
| Royal Engineers
| 1
|
| 1879
| 5,000
| Old Etonians
| 1
| Clapham Rovers
| 0
|
| 1880
| 6,000
| Clapham Rovers
| 1
| Oxford University
| 0
|
| 1881
| 4,500
| Old Carthusians
| 3
| Old Etonians
| 0
|
| 1882
| 6,500
| Old Etonians
| 1
| Blackburn Rovers
| 0
|
| 1883
| 8,000
| Blackburn Olympic
| 2
| Old Etonians
| 1
|
| 1884
| 12,000
| Blackburn Rovers
| 2
| Queen's Park
| 1
|
| 1885
| 12,500
| Blackburn Rovers
| 2
| Queen's Park
| 0
|
| 1886
| 15,000
| Blackburn Rovers
| 0
| West Bromwich Albion
| 0
| 2-0 in replay at Racecourse Ground, Derby
|
| 1887
| 15,500
| Aston Villa
| 2
| West Bromwich Albion
| 0
|
| 1888
| 19,000
| West Bromwich Albion
| 2
| Preston North End
| 1
|
| 1889
| 22,000
| Preston North End
| 3
| Wolverhampton Wanderers
| 0
|
| 1890
| 20,000
| Blackburn Rovers
| 6
| Sheffield Wednesday
| 1
|
| 1891
| 23,000
| Blackburn Rovers
| 3
| Notts County
| 1
|
| 1892
| 32,810
| West Bromwich Albion
| 3
| Aston Villa
| 0
|
The ground has hosted many other events, including
hockey fixtures, as well as concerts.
See also
- List of cricket grounds in England and Wales
- List of Test cricket grounds
- History of Test cricket (to 1883)
- History of Test cricket (1884 to 1889)
- History of Test cricket (1890 to 1900)
- Gasworks Gallery, next to the ground
Notes