When We Was Fab – The Sydney Cricket Ground in the 1980s

40 or 50 years ago the SCG was probably the best place in the world to watch cricket.

Sure Lord’s was more dignified and places like the MCG and Eden Gardens were bigger but this was it. It held about 45,000 and there were a few purple nosed twats in the members area but it was fun.

At the time it was a big old rambling place surrounded by decaying grandstands and that shrine for drunk cricket followers – The Hill.

An expansive grassy bank populated by the sort of wildlife that would make slums in Honduras look like a safety zone near a primary school.

When I first went at the back end of 1979 there was still one of those old mechanical scoreboards – a massive thing at the back of the Hill . If they got the score wrong everyone stood up and threw beer cans at it until corrected.

Can fights were also popular. Two groups of blokes ( and it was always blokes) throwing cans at each other. This is fine as long as they’re empty. Being hit on the head by an empty can is pretty harmless. If it’s 3/4s full that’s quite another thing and likely to do serious damage.

The cans went away with the introduction of a big screen in the mid 80s. Can’t have people shattering that with beer cans.

The test matches were generally ok – could get in on the day but Packer (Australian rival to Murdoch) had revved up the 50 over games and the SCG had floodlights. Not only did Packer’s World Series Cricket introduce day-night 50 over matches it also introduced the white ball, fielding circles and coloured clothing. The quality of camerawork improved dramatically – cameras at both end of the ground making a big difference

Minor teams like India (very different with them now), Pakistan , NZ and Sri Lanka didn’t attract much attention at the time but if it was England or the West Indies – Game on!!

These things started at about 2:30. Pubs opened at about 11am so a couple of hours in a nearby one like The Cricketers or Captain Cook or Bat and Ball was the way to start.

Tooheys New was the stuff we all drank. A schooner is 2/3 of a pint. Obviously in the ground it was  in plastic cups

Once in the ground drinking could recommence. Australian lager has a reputation for being fizzy piss but most of it is quite strong so you can imagine what state the more belligerent attendees were in even before the first ball was bowled. A few schooners of New was more than enough to get them going.

So you’re several beers to the good and sat on the grass waiting for the game to start. It’s hot ( certainly over 30C) and humid. Most people are wearing clothes they won’t get too bothered about binning once they get home at midnight. I used to wear a vest top, shorts and flip flops. And you were packed in.

The fun begins

I’ve never seen many coppers at Lord’s but there was always plenty at the SCG (along with a few meat wagons)  and with good reason.

In the afternoon the main problem was fights. Someone would come back from the bar with an armload of beers and then either inadvertently kick over someone else’s or give them an unintended hop flavoured shower.

The victim would then stand up and they’d have bit of a to do. The rest of us would stand up, cheer and throw things until a couple of rozzers forced their way through the crowd and the combatants were marched  into a nearby wagon.

I went to one game where 99 people were arrested. This was over and above people who just got kicked out. To be clear this was not mass violence but usually two people fighting. Those caught throwing things were usually just ejected from the ground.

As the afternoon wore on their forms of bad behaviour could be observed.

A lot of the girls wore shorts and bikini tops. One naïve young lady asked a male companion to retie the string at the back of the top. Naturally he just dropped the thing. Cue the poor young lady scuttling off to the bogs with her arm across her chest to readjust her clothing.

Another particularly inebriated individual took up position near the rear of the bank where the ladies who needed the loo would have to pass by. He regaled them with the cry “As long as I’ve got a face you’ve got somewhere to sit”. Age was no consideration although to be honest there were very few people over 35 on there. Come to think of it there were very few under 16s as well. Eventually someone complained to the police and he was swiftly taken away.

Half time was about 6pm.

A short word about night cricket before we start on the evening’s festivities. The SCG was the first cricket ground to hold day night games and through to the mid 80s the only ground in the world to do so. I think Australia remained the only country to have them for at least another decade. What I thought was normal was not available to the rest of the world. Nowadays of course everyone has them.

After a 45 minute break people were – in no particular order – hot, pissed and bored. No power plays in those days so the first 15 overs of the second half were about getting to 40-0.

By this time it was Bedlam on the Hill and the food fights started.

Most of the time it was fine. Remember being hit by a barbecued chicken carcass which had already been picked clean. Sandwiches, plastic bottles, half eaten hot dogs, bananas – people through whatever they could lay their hands on

There were traps for young players though.

Apples were a serious danger particularly if thrown in a sideways motion and just skimmed across the crowd. Similarly plastic water bottles if they were full

One guy had managed to steal a large vat of ketchup from one of the kiosks. I was at the back of the Hill at the time. He appeared next to me and then took the lid off. Spinning round like a discus thrower he then launched the item over the crowd.

People were then not only hot, sweaty and pissed but they were covered in this sticky shit as well. When I got home at about midnight my first port of call was the shower.

One game the authorities decided to help out bargoers by providing cardboard stencils to help carry drinks. It might have been 6 beers you could carry in each hand with them but I think it was  8. Certainly more than you could carry in hand.

Bad move. Pretty soon we worked out the stencils could work like frisbees or boomerangs (overarm throwing motion for those unfamiliar)

Next thing you know a 20 yard corridor  had opened up on the Hill and guys were running down it trying to throw these stencils a far as they could. One got into the fielding circle. There were dozens of them on the field.

The stencils lasted one match.

Then there was the Bicentenary Test in 1988 where 6 of us had 138 halves. It’s not as much as it sounds but my sweat had froth on it and rain stopped play at 5:00pm.

Last game I went to I had to leave because I couldn’t read the scoreboard. Middle class English mate brought his wife along to the Hill for the evening session. They were dressed for a nice day in a grandstand at Lord’s. She looked terrified and made him go home after an hour

I’m quite surprised that I never got kicked out.

On the day I was leaving Australia I bought a newspaper at Sydney Airport. The front page featured a photo from the previous days game with the caption “This can’t go on”. Three blokes standing at the front of the Hill with their arms around each other holding their beers up to the camera… and their trousers and underwear round their ankles.

The authorities responded and, amid a general programme of modernisation the grassy bank was replaced by seats. The stand on the right in the picture below is what the Hill looks like now.

It probably still has plenty of drinking and is no doubt a pleasanter and more family friendly place to watch cricket now but I will never forget the 10 years or so I sat on the grass of the Hill for matches.
 

© ArthurDaley 2026