Kensington Oval, Adelaide

From an area originally known as Shipsters Paddock, Kensington Oval was officially opened on Saturday, 10 July 1875.[3]

The ground was originally used for a range of sports including Australian Rules Football. The Kensington Football Club and the Norwood Football Club played at the oval between 1875 and 1897.[2]

The Norwood Cycle and Motor Club, now Norwood Cycling Club, the oldest cycling club in the southern hemisphere, had its opening day celebrations at the oval on 4 February 1884.[4]

As the home ground of the Kensington Districts Cricket Club, Sir Donald Bradman played there often after joining the Kensington club upon his move to Adelaide from Sydney in 1935.[2]

In addition to the Norwood Football Club the oval was regularly used by all SAFL clubs for matches up until the 1897 season after which games were played at the newly opened Jubilee Oval in Adelaide. However, SANFL matches were still played at Kensington until the 1963 season. The last game being Glenelg vs North Adelaide on 31st August 1963.

From 1963, the ground was converted into an athletics stadium, featuring a rubber-bitumen track. In 1975, the track was upgraded to tartan track.

As Olympic Sports Field, the ground was home to Athletics South Australia's interclub athletics competition from October to March and the South Australian Championships. A number of Australian Championships; in 1967, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1986 and 1992, were also held at the venue.[5]

The ground was also home to the Adelaide City soccer club and, in 1977, a game against Sydney Marconi saw a record crowd of 13,132.[2]

In the 1990s, a new home for South Australian athletics, Santos Stadium, was built and the oval was returned to a sports playing field, which is held in trust by the City of Burnside and is currently leased for specific hours of (school term) use by the nearby Pembroke School. The running track was removed in 1997 and the ground was redeveloped as a cricket ground. Its original name of Kensington Oval was revived and the ground now plays host to grade and women's cricket matches.[2]

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