The current De Winton Park redevelopment is expected to retain the oval’s natural slant, just like the one at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. Sources from within the team doing the work on the oval have confirmed that retrofitting was a key part of the plans, as both the Macleod Football Club and Rosanna Cricket Club insisted that the slope was part of their heritage.
As anyone who’s ever tuned into a live broadcast from Lord’s for more than five minutes will have been told, the iconic cricket ground has a slant that runs from the north end of the ground to the south end with a drop of 2.5 metres. The odd geographical feature is so ingrained in cricketing folklore that it has its own Wikipedia page (for reals), and commentators working at the ground are mandated to mention it on air at regular intervals.
While the De Winton Park slope is less well-known, it’s no less pronounced, with the ground’s co-tenants growing to love the feature, and occasionally claiming it as part of their home ground advantage. And now that it’s been included in the redevelopment plans, local sports fans claim it’s only a matter of time before the gradual gradient change is officially protected by the National Trust.
The Watsonia Bugle 