TOPIC:

Half of McLean oval in Denmark in the eighties was a giant swimming pool because some idiot on the shire raised the far part of the oval which gave no drainage at all.

Albany Royals won a grand final on their paddock as the ball FLOATED thru the goalposts for the winning goal after 3 inches of rain during the game.

Try playing on those ovals with a turf cricket pitch in the middle of winter. Many a time you tackled your own teammate cause you couldn’t tell them apart. Gil Fraser was a classic example.

By winters end Bassendean oval hadn’t much grass left and it was just black on a dark day. You just passed the ball to the bloke in front hoping he was one of yours cause you couldn’t tell by his jumper.

Devonleigh wrote: Half of McLean oval in Denmark in the eighties was a giant swimming pool because some idiot on the shire raised the far part of the oval which gave no drainage at all.

Albany Royals won a grand final on their paddock as the ball FLOATED thru the goalposts for the winning goal after 3 inches of rain during the game.

Try playing on those ovals with a turf cricket pitch in the middle of winter. Many a time you tackled your own teammate cause you couldn’t tell them apart. Gil Fraser was a classic example.

By winters end Bassendean oval hadn’t much grass left and it was just black on a dark day. You just passed the ball to the bloke in front hoping he was one of yours cause you couldn’t tell by his jumper.

Oval at Denmark no better now, as the drains that were put in , now are either blocked or just useless. Royals oval after the Pitch was taken out was better until they top dressed it with Blue Metal dust, mercurochrome sales in Albany were up 1000% that year. Mt barker before an upgrade was a swamp when wet, and Railways ground when they extended, still had the gravel of the car park, and flooded on wet days. Only one ground in that League has held the test of time and that is North Albany

Guildford Grammar flats ovals down by the rivers edge. Once wet were the equivalent of a jet black field of sewerage. Had a smell that never leaves you

Royals’ Centennial oval was a Chinese market garden way, way back. When they played Denmark the mungbeans in the Magpies forward line used to get so bored they would try and find if any poppies were growing.

Kirbs, Souness Park would be better now since the refit and the synthetic and turf pitches are gone?

Filled in for a game in Carnarvon one time and we were ready to go out when the Shire greenkeeper came in and said he was calling the game off because of rain the previous night and he didn’t want the oval damaged by us. How much rain do you ask? One quarter of an inch. True story. He must have been related to the idiot from Denmark!!