Puneet Varma (Editor)

The Showgrounds, Wangaratta

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Former names
  
Showgrounds Oval

Surface
  
Grass (Oval)

Capacity
  
11,000 approx.

Location
  
Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia

Owner
  
Rural City of Wangaratta

Record attendance
  
11,000 (2nd March, 2013: AFL Pre-Season: Essendon vs. Richmond)

The Showgrounds Oval (also known as the Norm Minns Oval) is a cricket and football ground in Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia.

The first recorded cricket match on the ground came when Wangaratta played the touring Fijians in 1908. The ground held its first first-class match in 1986 when Victoria played Queensland in the Sheffield Shield. Ten years later a second first-class match was played there between Victoria and the West Indians. A List A match was played there in the 2005/06 ING Cup between Victoria and New South Wales.

The Showgrounds Oval serves as a football ground in the winter. It is the home ground of the Wangaratta Football Club, and is one of the Ovens & Murray Football League's main two venues, alongside Lavington Sports Ground, Albury. The venue secured the rights to host five Australian Football League pre-season games between 2012 and 2021; however, the first of those matches, to have been played between St Kilda and Essendon in 2012, was cancelled after Essendon's chartered flights were unable to land in or near Wangaratta due to flooding throughout northern Victoria. The venue also hosted two matches in the 2005 Australian Football International Cup.

The venue also has a bicycle track, and floodlighting suitable for night matches. The oval was renamed the Norm Minns Oval in honour of Norm Minns, who played in four consecutive O&MFL premierships with Wangaratta from 1949–52, won another O&MFL flag as captain-coach of Benalla in 1953, and went on to the committees and selection boards for both the Wangaratta and the O&MFL interleague teams.

References

The Showgrounds, Wangaratta Wikipedia