History
The ground was opened in 1860 and closed in 1921, after which it was demolished to make way for an extension of the Jolimont Yard railway sidings. The site has now been taken over by a housing estate, a feature of which is a semi-circular housing block with a tower, obviously designed to look like an ersatz football pavilion.
Four first-class cricket games were played at the ground in the 1880s, including the Smokers v Non-Smokers match on 17–21 March 1887, in which the Non-Smokers made 803, at the time a world record innings score.
East Melbourne Cricket Club was the most successful member of the Victorian Cricket Association during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, winning more than half of the VCA's Premierships during that period. The club was formed in 1857 as the Abbotsford Football Club but they soon changed their name as part of a putsch to use the EMCG. The team mainly consisted of Scotch College old boys. When the club lost the use of the ground in 1921, they amalgamated with the Hawthorn Cricket Club to form the Hawthorn-East Melbourne Cricket Club and moved to Hawthorn's Glenferrie Oval.
The ECMG was also used for Australian rules football. The ground hosted the first ever interstate football match, on 1 July 1879, between Victoria (represented by the VFA) and South Australia. The match was attended by more than 10,000 people, a big crowd for a weekday at that time. It also hosted the first intercollegiate football match in Melbourne, played on 21 July 1881 between teams from Trinity College and Ormond College from the University of Melbourne.
After EMCG closed, one of its wooden stands was moved to the HEMCC's Glenferrie Oval where it stood until 1965 when it was replaced by the Dr A.S. Ferguson Stand.
The ground record crowd for the EMCG was 18,000 which was set twice during the 1921 VFL season. The first time was on May 28 when Collingwood defeated Essendon by 17 points. The next was set just two weeks later on June 11 when Carlton defeated Essendon by 57 points.
Read more about this topic: East Melbourne Cricket Ground
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