Marion Cricket Club

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.