Brockton Oval is a playing area near the

Brockton Point Brockton Point is a headland off the Downtown Peninsula of Vancouver, on the north side of Coal Harbour. Named after Francis Brockton, it is the most easterly part of Stanley Park and is home to a 100-year-old lighthouse and several hand-carve ...

located on the north side of

Coal Harbour Coal Harbour is a section of Burrard Inlet lying between Vancouver's Downtown Peninsula and the Brockton Point of Stanley Park. It has also now become the name of the neighbourhood adjacent to its southern shoreline. Neighbourhood Coal Harbou ...

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada. The ground was established 1891 with 10 sport's groups joining together. In 1927, cricket and rugby fields were carved out. Brockton Oval has been visited by cricket players such as

Donald Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. His cricketing successes have been claimed by Shane ...

Fred Trueman Frederick Sewards Trueman, (6 February 1931 – 1 July 2006) was an English cricketer who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team. He had professional status and later became an author and broadcaster. Acknowled ...

and

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

. Around 2,000 to 3,000 people arrived to see the match at the ground when

Australians Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizenship, citizens, nationality, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Aust ...

and MCC sides visited the ground. The Oval is the home of Brockton Point Cricket Club which was one of the 7 founding member clubs of the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League in 1914.

Vancouver Cricket Club Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The Met ...

began their journey on this ground in 1889. Brockton Oval

History

Before 1865, the point was utilised as a

graveyard A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

for early settlers who came to Vancouver. That year,

Edward Stamp Captain Edward Stamp (5 November 1814 – 20 January 1872) was an English mariner and entrepreneur who contributed to the early economic development of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.Lamb, W. K. (2000). Stamp, Edward. ''Dictionary of Can ...

—a British businessman in the

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

industry—cleared away part of the site in order to build a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

. However, he was forced to abandon his plans after realising the strong currents from the harbour impeded the construction of

log boom A log boom (sometimes called a log fence or log bag) is a barrier placed in a river, designed to collect and or contain floating logs timbered from nearby forests. The term is also used as a place where logs were collected into booms, as at th ...

s. He ended up moving the mill to

Gastown Gastown is the original settlement that became the core of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and a national historic site and a neighbourhood in the northwest section of the Downtown Eastside, adjacent to Downtown Vancouver. Its ...

, becoming

Hastings Mill Hastings Mill was a sawmill on the south shore of Burrard Inlet and was the first commercial operation around which the settlement that would become Vancouver developed in British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1865 by Captain Edward Stamp, Edward S ...

. The land cleared by Stamp was converted into sports fields by 1891. One of these, Brockton Oval, became a key

amateur sports Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. The distinction is made between amateur sporting participants and professional sports, professional sporting participants, who are paid for the time t ...

venue and was mostly used for

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and

both played at the Oval, and after Bradman's visit in 1932, he called the venue the most beautiful cricket ground in the world.

also played at the grounds in September 1964 and echoed Bradman's sentiments and praise of the Oval. Most recently the ground hosted two matches in July 2012 when MCC visited

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. They played against British Columbia Mainland League and British Columbia Cricket Association President's XI in Cliff Cox's Memorial Game.

References

External links

brocktonpavilion
{{Portal bar, Canada, Cricket 1889 establishments in British Columbia Cricket grounds in Canada Sports venues in Vancouver Stanley Park