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Cygnet hang on by Chris Rees

Southern Football League Tasmania Grand Final

I started taking an interest in the Hobart Tigers during Covid shut down. Top level footy here was put on ice but community footy continued. 

The Tigers had a rough time and as recently as 2023 they were only fielding a team in the reserves comp. They now have four teams; and unexpectedly won their way through to the 2026 men’s senior Grand Final. 

They were expected by all to cop a flogging against Cygnet, a battle-hardened country team; in fact they stayed in touch all day and were only beaten by the clock in the end; went down by four points. Stirring stuff.

Cygnet’s Nathan Duggan was named best-on-ground and Archie Watt kicked four goals. Ned Shaw scored four goals for Hobart.

• Photos by Chris Rees.

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A concrete cricket story

• The Marian concrete pitch. Photos by John Lloyd.

Test cricket moves to Queensland this week when Australia takes on Bangladesh in Mackay. 

I decided to feature pitches from that state on the abandoned cricket pitch site on Instagram and went to the vaults where I found the pitch at Marian nicely located West of Mackay. The photos came to us via John Lloyd via Spirit of Cricket.

A quick visit to Trove to get some historical information unearthed a gem. A story about the revamped pitch at Marian in which the word concrete is used six times. It’s from the Daily Mercury and was published on 21 April 1922.

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Abandoned cricket pitches milestone by Les Everett 

• Shackleton: the original abandoned cricket pitch. Photo by Les Everett

The idea was hatched at the Western Australian Wheatbelt town of Shackleton in October 2019. Forty or so years earlier I’d played cricket at the place. The pitch was still there along with the practice nets and even the footy goalposts but live sporting action had long since ceased.

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