Thing of Beauty: The Founding of the Sydney Cricket Ground V1

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

A Thing of Beauty: The Founding of the Sydney Cricket Ground is an exquisite two-volume work that tells the remarkable story of how a small group of men turned land that was once a mix of sand and swamp into the finest cricket ground in the world. Both volumes are published in association with Venues NSW and the SCG and is written by Geoff Armstrong, who has been described as 'Australia's pre-eminent sports historian'. In Volume 1, Armstrong reveals how the men who grew the ground quickly learned that maintaining, let along improving, a major sports arena is an expensive business. They needed entertainment that brought money through the gate, which meant that from the start of the 1880s sports such as cycling and football and events such as school carnivals and fireworks displays took place alongside cricket from the 1880s. Some aspects of the story told in Volume 1 are familiar to SCG stalwarts, such as the ongoing battles with the NSW Cricket Association and the building of the iconic Members Stand. Other parts, such as the great cricket riot of 1879, Managing Trustee Philip Sheridan's crucial role in the birth of the Ashes and how rugby union and cycling rose to prominence in the 1880s are not.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Hardback
ISBN13: 9780648733171
Published: December 2025

Number of pages: 448
Width: 170 mm
Height: 247 mm
Depth: 45 mm

Publisher: Stoke Hill Press