Fans have a ball without watching one

The Adelaide Oval has resurrected the summer of cricket with its trademark combination of elegant tradition and booze-fuelled partying.

Chefs Dominic Weber, Nick Carabine and Luke Gray on The Hill at Adelaide Oval for the first day of the second Test against the West Indies. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

After a sluggish start to the Test series with a paltry turnout in Perth, the Adelaide Oval has resurrected the summer of cricket with its trademark combination of elegant tradition and booze-fuelled partying.

While barely a single West Australian saw a ball bowled last week, daily crowds in excess of 20,000 are expected in Adelaide. But many of them won’t see a ball either, with the Oval’s Village Green now firmly established as the go-to party spot for those who pride themselves on spending no time watching the game.

The Adelaide Test has become one of the must-do social events in South Australia, with its appeal stretching across both sides of the state’s cultural divide.

The Village Green – known by locals simply as “out the back” – lays on a typically classy selection of local wines, confirming the South Australian capacity for turning pretty much anything into an opportunity for a vertical tasting. But the competition for a spot is just as hot in the cheap seats in front of the old scoreboard on the Northern Mound, which everyone calls The Hill, the last lawned and licensed location at any major city stadium in ­Australia.

Culturally and sartorially, The Hill and the Members might seem poles apart, with Adelaide’s eastern suburbs doing the heavy lifting numbers-wise out the back while the yobbos make beer snakes under the scoreboard.

Bananas George Beith, Callum Allen and Tom Mactier. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

But for those who give it a real nudge – and many do – at the end of the day the only real question is whether you end up befouling your RMs or your thongs.

Former defence minister and long-time SACA president Ian McLachlan tells a story which ­encapsulates the raffish diversity of the Adelaide game.

“A few years ago a few of us were walking through the outer in our fruit-salad-coloured SACA ties and this bloke walked up to me, blind drunk, and said: ‘Are you lost? I bet you wouldn’t take me to lunch where you’ve been to lunch.’

Mr McLachlan replied: “I would if you had any shoes on.”

Mr McLachlan is credited as the architect of the redeveloped Adelaide Oval which struck the perfect balance between retaining its colonial feel and preserving its iconic Moreton Bay figs and ­cathedral view, while also modernising the ground.

There are other little touches which combine modernity with history – the ground’s official ­capacity is 53,334, which includes 50,000 allocated seats and 3000 at the Northern Mound. “I added the 334 because it was Bradman’s top score,” Mr McLachlan says.

For his efforts, the chief function room in the members’ stand rightly bears the McLachlan name.

But as a lifelong member and former first grade cricketer, Mr McLachlan revels in the everyman quality the oval provides, and is unashamedly proud of its status as a party venue. “That Pimms tent out the back holds a world record as selling the most Pimms in the world outside of Wimbledon,” he says. “The staff there bring the jugs out two at a time. It’s a good party all right. A lot of people pride themselves on not watching a single ball.”

As the first ball was bowled at 2.30 yesterday, there were already hijinks on The Hill, with an array of fans who had mystifyingly enough come dressed as Roman centurions, bananas and chefs.

The group of chefs included mates Stefan Klepp and Josh Eckersall who are part of a gang of nine who come from Melbourne every year for a few days of ratbaggery. They had their first beer at 10.30am and declared they were on for a big one. “This is the third year we have come over, we are mainly old schoolmates but the numbers keep getting bigger every year,” Mr Klepp says.

“We thought after last year that we should get into the dressing up thing because so many people here do it.

“We’ll be here for a few days, it’s just bloody great fun and everyone lets their hair down a bit being away from their girlfriends and their jobs for a while. It’s great here on The Hill.”