The TCA Ground, or Tasmanian Cricket Association Ground, is one of two first-class standard cricket grounds in Hobart, Tasmania. It is located on the Queens Domain less than one kilometre from the CBD.
The TCA Ground is a picturesque ground with a village feel and white picket boundary which could easily belong in the English countryside, except for the typical Australian Eucalypt bushland which hugs the boundary line. Due to its elevated position on the Domain the ground has commanding views over the River Derwent and city, as well as being dominated by views of Mount Wellington. This elevated position also exposes the ground to strong sea breezes which can provide excellent assistance for bowlers.
During a match between the touring South African team and a Combined XI in December 1963, South African captain Trevor Goddard appealed to the umpires about the strength of the wind, which led to play being suspended.[2]
The ground is regularly used for local Grade competition cricket in the summer, and Australian rules football in the winter. It has both synthetic and grass nets, and an indoor bowling practice area.
The other first-class standard ground in Tasmania is the now preferred Bellerive Oval in the City of Clarence which has since the late 1970s overtaken the TCA Ground as the home of the Tasmanian cricket team and the TCA, and the ground which hosts Australia's international matches when they play in Hobart. No first-class cricket has been played at the TCA Ground since 1987.
It currently hosts Hobart Football Club (SFL) and DOSA Football Club (Old Scholars FA) and Southern Tasmanian Junior FA Australian Rules football matches each Winter and North Hobart Cricket Club matches in TCA cricket each Summer.
Cricket has been played at the venue since the early 1870s. On 8 September 1873, the TCA was granted permission to use the ground exclusively for cricket, and the TCA Ground officially opened in 1882 after about 10 years of development. The main grandstand, the H.C. Smith Stand, was completed in 1880 and extended in 1908. It has remained largely unchanged since then and is now heritage listed. The adjacent Ladies Stand, completed in 1894, originally stood in a different location but was relocated after being blown over by gales in 1946 and again in 1995, with the final reconstruction completed in 1999.
The ground's opening in 1882 featured a match between the TCA and a visiting Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) XI. Although the scorecard is lost, the TCA was reportedly defeated. The ground faced challenges such as drought towards the end of the 19th century, leading to difficult pitch conditions. Edward H. Butler, a Tasmanian fast bowler, famously took 6 for 1 on the challenging pitch during one such occasion. The ground also struggled with inadequate seating and changing facilities in its early years. The original Member’s Stand was relocated in 1906 to make way for a new brick addition, which opened in 1908 and was later named the H.C. Smith Stand.
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A "classic" style scoreboard was added in 1907 but was demolished in 1984 after years of neglect. Additional upgrades included a top deck in 1946 and a modernized press area in 1977. However, by that time, Bellerive Oval was being considered as a better option for future cricket developments.
In 1954, the Hobart Greyhound Racing Club built a smaller stand next to the H.C. Smith Stand, which was demolished in 2018. The Powell Pascoe Payne Stand, named after Hobart Football Club legends, was also opened in 1954. A roofed section at the southern end, built in 1951 to protect spectators from harsh weather, was removed in 2010 due to asbestos concerns.
The TCA Ground's golden era spanned from 1979, when a record crowd of 10,882 watched Tasmania win its first domestic cricket trophy, the Gillette Cup, until 1985, when 6,500 spectators saw the West Indies defeat Sri Lanka in the ground's only One-Day International. The ground record attendance is 11,002, set during a Tasmania vs. Australian XI match on 5 March 1948.
By 1999, the ground had fallen into disrepair. A National Trust restoration plan aimed to restore it as a Federation-style village ground, with the help of unemployed labor under a "work for the dole" scheme, combined with grants from the Federal Government and Hobart City Council. The stands were repainted in period colours, and modern ad-boards were removed.
Throughout its history, the TCA and Tasmanian representative teams have often dealt with small crowds and lower-quality teams, struggling for acceptance into the Sheffield Shield. By the time Tasmania was admitted to the Sheffield Shield in 1977, the TCA had moved to Bellerive Oval, leaving the TCA Ground with just 12 Sheffield Shield matches. Prior to that, Tasmania played 87 first-class games at the ground, mostly against Victoria and touring international sides, as well as 12 domestic one-day games, including the 1978–79 Gillette Cup Final. In a reversal of the previous season's result, Tasmania caused a major upset to win their first-ever domestic title by beating Western Australia by 47 runs.
The last state-level cricket match at the TCA Ground took place on 15 March 1987, when Tasmania faced South Australia in the McDonald's Cup final. South Australia won by 86 runs before a crowd of more than 8,000, marking the end of an era for Tasmanian cricket.
While the TCA Ground has primarily hosted cricket and Australian rules football, it has also been the venue for other sports. When the ground first opened in 1882, it featured two tennis courts, later moved to the Domain Tennis Centre, and a skittles alley. The TCA bowls club, established in 1911, still stands on the eastern side of the ground. Cycling events, baseball matches, and quoits were also popular in the 1890s.
A notable event occurred in 1902 when two Japanese warships arrived in Hobart. A "Japanese Sports Day" was declared, drawing a large crowd to witness competitions in martial arts, kendo, and sumo wrestling.
Australian Rules Football has been the most common alternative use of the TCA Ground, hosting numerous TFL Grand Finals and State Grand Finals until 1921. Hobart Football Club began playing home matches at the ground in 1946 but moved to North Hobart Oval in 1954 due to high rent costs. They returned in 1961 and played there until 1982 when the TANFL required clubs to use venues with better facilities. After a period of instability, the club returned to the TCA Ground in 1998 as part of the SFL.
The most recent non-sporting event at the TCA Ground was an AC/DC concert on 27 January 2001. Performing as part of the as part of their "Stiff Upper Lip" national tour, the concert attracted the largest crowd ever at the venue, with 15,300 people in attendance.
From 1935 to 1980 greyhound racing meetings were held at the ground. Visible remnants of that era include the dog kennelling quarters at the north of the ground (now home to the Hobart City Band), and a covered standing book-makers area which was removed in 2010 due to asbestos.
The Hobart Greyhound Racing Club (HGRC) used its considerable resources to build two grandstands at the TCA Ground which were both opened in September 1954 and the above-mentioned bookmakers area in 1951, at a time when the TCA were in considerable financial hardship. The first meeting at the ground was held on 30 January 1935. The principal event was the Hobart Cup (later the Hobart Thousand). When the HGRC left the ground in October 1980 they moved to the Royal Hobart Showground.[3][4]
Following a lengthy application process in March 2010 the Hobart City Council aldermen voted to reject an application for 25-metre floodlights suitable for night football and cricket matches. Only two out of the nine aldermen present voted in favour of the application, with those against concerned about heritage, light spill, the effects on Glebe residents and visibility from as far as Knocklofty Reserve.[5]Following on from this rejection, a new application was submitted by the ground's tenant the Hobart Football Club. This application was approved in May 2011, and the lights were installed. Hobart hosted five night matches in their stint in the Tasmanian State League until their return to SFL football in 2014 and hosted their first match on returning to the SFL under lights but have only hosted two Under-18 matches at night since then.[6]Works got underway following the close of the 2017 football season in order to completely resurface the playing field and to level it out. The small unnamed stand beside the H.C Smith Stand, erected by the Hobart Greyhound Racing Club in 1954, was demolished in April 2018. This is the first phase in a $5 million redevelopment of the ground over the next few years. In the coming years it is proposed to demolish the kiosk and bar area, the Hobart Football Club changerooms and build new multi-purpose buildings in their place with considerably more works also planned. A new electronic video screen scoreboard was installed by Solid Scoreboards in April 2018 at a cost of $122,000, replacing the manual scoreboard which was built by the City of Hobart in 2001.
One-Day Internationals (ODI): (1) West Indies defeated Sri Lanka by 8 wickets 10 January 1985
Domestic one-day: (12)
First-class: (87) (12 Sheffield Shield matches)
NB: Figures within brackets denote Sheffield Shield matches.