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A Short History of the Marion Cricket Club
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For more than a
century, the Marion Cricket Club, in one form or another has
played cricket in the Marion area.
The book, "The History of Marion on the Sturt", written by
Alison Dolling, refers to the early history of cricket at the
Sturt Recreation Ground: "In the earlier years of the century,
two cricket clubs, Sturt and Marion, followed a long line of
local cricketers who were on the field from 1840, when they
played near Robert Bristow's 'Marion Inn'. With the added
entertainment that the winner of a raffle would receive an organ
which played sixty tunes." This oval was officially opened on
25th September 1909 by Mr G.K.Soward, who also opened the
pavilion on July 19th 1913, during a Gymkana which included a
football match, high tea, daylight fireworks and a concert. The
oval's name was later changed to the Sturt/Marion Memorial Oval
following the First World War.
The Sturt Cricket Club was formed at an inaugural meeting at the
Flagstaff Hotel in 1889 and played in the Mid Southern
Association against teams such as Blackwood, Brighton and
Edwardstown.
Early in the 1920's it split into the Marion and Sturt teams,
which played many matches against each other in this
Association, Marion playing on carpet over ashphalt and Sturt on
carpet over slate. Later on the Sturt team played mainly in
informally arranged one day matches, while the Marion team
continued played two day association matches. Reforming as the
Sturt Cricket Club, it joined the Adelaide & Suburban
Association beginning in the 1940-41 season, but it was not
until the 1959-60 season that the name was changed to the Marion
Cricket Club.
A
new turf pitch was laid in 1967 and Greg Chappell was one of the
first to use it, as he belted 90 runs off the Marion bowlers on
that opening day. We joined the Adelaide Turf Cricket Asociation
in the 1968-69 season and won a Premiership in our first season
in the A5 Grade.

The Gymkana held at the opening of the Pavilion at the Marion
Recreation Ground (Sturt Marion Memorial Oval) - July 19th 1913.
Marion cricketer Bill Ormond at rear on horseback, holding tin can.

Bob Millwood - Marion's leading batsman from 1921-1941 and Secretary
from 1940-1950.

A.T.C.A. Secretary Gordon Hayman bowls the first ball on the new Marion turf
pitch in 1967. Also pictured are Steve Gentle, Greg Gentle, Kevin Dale,
Bill Goodwin and "Pud" Parslow.

Terry Goodwin took 326 wickets and scored 2731 runs for Marion, before
ending his career with Payneham. He holds the record for our 1st XI with 79
wickets in a season, as well as scoring 166* to help Neville Pink add 299
for the third wicket against Brompton in 1967/68.

A superb action shot of Carl Kittel bowling at the Marion Oval in the
1987-88 season.
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