Hanging at Adelaide Oval

We were in Adelaide on a Sunday looking around the city and wandered over the Adelaide City Bridge to the revamped Adelaide Oval. We had seen plenty of footage of the oval in use with day/night cricket test matches, T20 Big Bash games and AFL games played against the Adelaide Crows and cross town rival Port Adelaide.

So when we had the opportunity to wander in to look around, we didn't hesitate to view the final day of a four day Sheffield Shield match between South Australia and Tasmania. There was no charge as the result was inevitable with Tasmania only requiring a handful of wickets to clinch victory.

Regardless, these two state teams were playing to an empty house which is sad for a state level professional sport. Also, a number of international players were involved and even though they were not currently selected for national duties, this is the competition where players must perform to gain national selection to represent their country internationally.

Regardless of the patronage on this particular Sunday, next week was to host the 2nd test between Australia and England to fight for the Ashes, one of the greatest international sporting rivaly in any sport in terms of history, patronage and emotion. The Barmy Army, that is the English supporters so elegantly named who travel from city to city across Australia to attend the test match providing enthusiasm and support for their team.

The Adelaide Oval was booked out the following weekend and despite the sad attendance for the local state level match was booked out for the five days of 2nd test. Fortunately we were departing on the Thursday and very lucky as pretty much all of the accommodation was booked out for this important test match.