Glenelg Oval
From Snoutslouts
The Glenelg Oval on Brighton Road at Glenelg has been the Home ground of the Glenelg Football Club throughout the Club's history.
It is also the home of the Glenelg Cricket Club, and hosts local school football matches. The ground has two seated grandstands holding 1,500.
The oval has a current capacity of 15,000 and the entire spectator area on the western side of the ground (where the grandstands are located) is concrete terracing while the entire outer consists only of grass banking. At 160m x 110m Glenelg Oval has the smallest playing surface in the SANFL.
In 2009 the oval was renamed to Gliderol Stadium @ Glenelg as part of a sponsorship arrangement between the football club and their major sponsor Gliderol Garage Doors. Previously the ground was named "Challenge Recruitment Oval" under sponsorship with employment agency Challenge Recruitment.
After a long legal battle with local residents the Glenelg Football Club had lights installed at the oval in time for the 2012 SANFL season. On 31 March the club christened their newly lit home ground with an 11.13 (79) to 7.15 (57) win over West Adelaide in front of 6,047 fans.
On Saturday 26 May 2012, Glenelg Oval hosted its first ever Interstate game when South Australia defeated Western Australia by 14 points (SA: 15.11 (101) d WA: 13.9 (87)).
History
In January 1920 The Register reported:
THE GLENELG OVAL.
EFFORT TO IMPROVE IT.
For the past 20 years the people of Glenelg have had the use of a pretty oval, situated to the east of the town, and abutting on the Brighton road. Public-spirited citizens, led by the late Mr. H. Y. Sparks, obtained a lease of the property, fenced it in, erected a pavilion and other improvements upon it, since when it has been the recognised recreation ground of the town. It was controlled by a body known as the Oval Association, whose members made themselves responsible for the annual rent, and by an effort this was met every year. Then came a time when the lease expired, and an attempt was made to secure it for the town, particularly as no other land in the town or neighbourhood was suitable for a recreation ground.
The owners of the property, the trustees of St. Peter's College, fixed a price, a poll of the ratepayers decided upon a purchase, and the Glenelg Oval became the property of the town. The foregoing, in brief, is the history of Glenelg's Oval. The area is exceptionally level, surrounded with well grown trees, possesses a pavilion, croquet lawns, and tennis courts, as well as other conveniences, and is a valuable asset to Glenelg.
—A Successful Fete.—
The town council handed it over to the care of the Glenelg Oval Association, and this body has set itself out in a business like way to make the oval worthy of the up-to-date town which owns it. Many improvements will be necessary before that position is reached, principal among which are the fencing of the playing arena, and the grassing and levelling off of same. With a view to the purchase of the necessary pickets, a fete was given on the oval on Saturday afternoon, in which the following bodies participated : Glenelg Croquet Club, Holdfast Bay Church of Christ, St. Leonards Methodist and Church of England Tennis Clubs, Glenelg Cricket and Football Clubs, and Glenelg Amateur Athletic Club. The weather was suitable, there was a large attendance, and the function proved a great success. Numerous attractions were provided, and icecream, cool drinks, cake, sweets, and jumble stalls did an excellent turnover. A cricket match between B grade players was fought out on the oval, and a capital programme of athletic sports was successfully fulfilled. The newly-formed Glenelg Municipal Band provided a good programme of music, and Capts. Loftus and Moore did "stunts" above the oval on their Sopwith Dove aeroplane.
— Honouring a Citizen's Memory. —
During the afternoon the Mayor of Glenelg (Mr. John Mack) unveiled a brass tablet to the memory of the late Mr. Henry Y. Sparks, a former manager of the South Australian Company and an ex-Mayor of Glenelg. The late Mr. Sparks, he said, was the gentleman through whose efforts Glenelg had secured the original lease of the oval, who had made himself personally responsible for it, and who had presented the pavilion and arranged for the planting of the trees. Three prominent townsmen — Messrs. G. A. Jury, G. K. Soward, and A. J. Roberts — had guaranteed the payment of the annual rent for years, and he desired to thank them on behalf of the town for their patriotic attitude. The oval had at last become the property of Glenelg. It was a valuable asset, and they intended to make it worthy of the town of which they were all so proud. It was now up to the citizens to complete the work which Mr. Sparks had so auspiciously begun. (Applause). The Mayor then unveiled the tablet, amid cheers. Ald. Kneebone briefly thanked the Mayor for his eulogistic remarks, on behalf of Mrs. Sparks and her family, and the proceedings terminated.
