Cricket official calls out Bayside Council on ‘poor’ Elsternwick Park

An official has called on Bayside Council “to do some work” after an inspection ruled out Elsternwick Park indefinitely as it “looked the same” as post-footy season.

The fallout of Elsternwick Park continues with the VSDCA ruling out the oval indefinitely for one of the oldest cricket clubs in the country.

Since the devastating VAFA Premier B grand final, the ground has not recovered with the Sub-District revealing it could “take a long time” for the ground to reach an appropriate playing standard.

VSDCA secretary Ken Hilton and chairman Philip O‘Meara inspected the ground on Wednesday morning and ruled it out indefinitely stating “we really need Bayside Council to do some work on the ground.”

“It’s indefinite, you couldn’t play firsts and seconds,” Hilton said.

“Our view today was you couldn’t play cricket on the ground in its current state.

“You couldn’t even play thirds and fourths.”

The VSDCA have ruled out Elsternwick Park indefinitely.

Elsternwick Cricket Club have had its first grade side playing all games away so far in the first four rounds this season.
The club’s second ground next door was being used by the thirds and fourths on Sunday’s and by the second grade on Saturday’s.

Elsternwick asked the Association if the ground could be reintroduced to cricket through the third and fourth grades although it was turned down with another inspection to occur next week.

“The club asked us to consider playing thirds and fourths but we walked the ground this morning and we don’t think you could play thirds or fourths,” he said.

“But it's miles away from playing firsts and seconds cricket.”

Hilton said the ground “looks better than what it was” but was concerned with the amount of work that had been done.

“I can only view it from what I saw this morning with the chairman and to us it didn’t looked like any work had been done on the ground at all.

“It pretty much looked the same to when we viewed it straight after the football season.

University Blacks and Old Haileybury players shake hands before their VAFA grand final last season. (Picture: VAFA)

Hilton said the number two ground looked like it had been top dressed but the main Elsternwick Park oval “just didn’t look like any work had been done at all, now I may be wrong about that but that is just what it looked like to us this morning.”

“I know it’s been very wet, it’s probably restricted their ability to put heavy machinery on the ground.

“We understand that but hopefully if we get a stretch of dry weather that they can progress these works and we can get cricket back up on the ground as quickly as possible.”

It comes as it was revealed Bayside council had plans to spend $80,000 of ratepayers’ money on a sculpture for Elsternwick Park South in October which divided the community.

Hilton said there were specific areas of the ground that were concerning and required attention.

“The eastern side of the ground is in pretty poor condition, very poor condition,” he said.

“There are still substantial bare patches on the ground and in places it is still very rough.

“There is nothing wrong with the wicket table, obviously the wickets table hasn’t been used, it looks lovely.

Eastern side of Elsternwick Park on November 9.

Eastern side of Elsternwick Park on November 9.

Southern side of Elsternwick Park on November 9.

“As soon as the outfield is OK, they will be able to play cricket on it straight away but there was several areas of the ground that we were concerned with.

“So we really need Bayside Council to decide what corrective action they need to take and get that action completed as quickly as possible so we can get cricket returning there.”

Hilton said the VAFA football club who also use the ground, Old Melburnians, would also be impacted.

“Walking it this morning, it’s a long way away from having any football training or anything on it,” he said.

“It’s still in a pretty poor condition so this ground is going to take a long time to recover and that’s why we really need the council to support cricket and get whatever work needs to be done, completed as quickly as possible.

Hilton said Elsternwick Park deserved some respect considering their rich history since establishment in 1901.

“I think people forget Elsternwick is one of the oldest clubs in Australia and they have been at Elsternwick Park since day one,” he said

“I think they deserve the right to be using the facility, they have been the longest serving tenant down there.

“It must be very frustrating for them, they are a good club and it’s very disappointing when you can’t get your home base.

“It’s a lovely setting now, council have done a brilliant job in upgrading the facilities and everything.

“It’s really disappointing that we have got a ground with such great surrounds and we can’t use it because it’s in such poor condition.

“We are nearly at the end of November and I don’t think there has been anything done on it and we need some work done on it as quickly as possible.”

In response Bayside Council said: “due to the record rainfall in October 2022, we have been unable to commence works to improve the sportsground surface at Elsternwick Park Oval 1.”

“An intensive maintenance program is scheduled to begin on Monday 28 November depending on weather conditions over the weekend.

“Council is committed to getting cricket back on the ground as quickly as possible.”

The council said they recently installed hybrid turf on high use areas of Elsternwick Park Oval 1.