Hobart’s Bellerive Oval (pictured) may not officially be playing a part in this summer’s men’s Test match Ashes series against England which begins in late November but the venue will play a key role in shaping some early key selection headaches for the Aussies.  

Ahead of an action-packed summer of cricket at the facility (25 matches will be played at the ground, including three white-ball internationals), a crucial Sheffield Shield clash on October 15 between Tasmania and Western Australia in the lead-in to the Ashes will have international eyes fixed firmly on the 22-yards of grass in the middle.

It is likely potential Test players Beau Webster and Jake Weatherald (Tasmania) and Cam Green (Western Australia) will feature in the clash with selectors keeping a close eye on how they perform. 

Long-time head curator at Bellerive and president of the Tasmanian Sports Turf Managers Association president Marcus Pamplin and his hard-working grounds crew - fresh off an Australian rules season - are finalising preparations for the ryegrass surface to be in tip-top shape.

Unlike some other cricket venues in Australia, there are unique challenges that face the grounds team as they prepare for the summer ahead.

“We’ve got the cloths on the wickets that we primarily want to get up quickly. It’s been pretty windy recently and if you’ve got a wet wicket as well and it’s blowing a gale and if the cloths come off you’re in trouble, it’s like a windscreen wiper as it just takes away all your seeds and your levels,” he said.

“The heat lights have been on, they do a good job but they kind of make the grass elongated and a bit weaker. You might get your grass up, but it’s all reaching for the light.

“It's a lot colder because we’ve started a lot early. Last summer we started towards the end of September and we had six weeks and we had six again last year but the trade-off is we’re starting early and it’s been freezing. But we still go through the same steps every year, we pre-germinate our grass seed on the wicket table and about 350kg on the outfield as well.

“We fling it all out, top-dress and then we put another seed on top of the wicket table as well and the same on the outfield. With the coldness and trying to get some germination quicker, it’s got a bit more body in the top-dressing sand this year and we’ll see if it promotes it (growth) a bit quicker.”

Bellerive Oval is the only first-class cricket venue in Australia with a ryegrass wicket table, plus more than 40 practice wickets for the Tasmanian men and women to utilise.

It has often come with a stigma of being a tough place to play cricket for touring teams due to the climate and wicket profile but Pamplin believes the tide is turning.

Despite the year-long maintenance of the ryegrass providing a unique challenge he believes it’s what sets the Hobart venue apart from the others. 

“It’s Premier 3 ryegrass and I’ve been working with Premier 3 for 30 years now, even when I started out in Geelong, I had the same up there as well. For this climate in Tassie it’s ideal, you just don’t have enough of a window for Couch grass to survive down here. 

“If you do have Couch down here you have to bring it in from the mainland and establish it, we don’t have the luxuries of drop-ins here, so we go with the ryegrass, it’s less stress and it plays just as good. There’s a lot more maintenance, you do have to reseed after games but it’s the way it is down here.

“I still believe our wickets provide a really good contest between bat and ball. The only thing I think has changed is the teams on the mainland are a little bit wiser in how they approach a pitch made for four-day cricket down here. 

“The teams have got smarter and you see the results, it’s not as in favour of Tassie as it used to be and I think other grounds have gone a little bit the other way, kind of like Adelaide Oval but that’s obviously a drop-in so it doesn’t deteriorate as much.”

Pamplin, a winner of the ASTMA Sports Excellence Award back at the 2022 conference, said the crew had recently finished some renovations at the stadium with an eye on the future, particularly with the Tasmanian Devils entering the VFL in 2026 after a cold and often harsh Tasmanian winter from a climate perspective.

At this stage, the club will play some VFL matches at the ground next season before entering the AFL in 2028 (on the proviso the new state-of-the-art stadium in Hobart is built).

“We closely cored down to 150 and took out maybe 25-30 cubic metres which is quite big because the (Tasmanian) Devils have got to train out here too next season,” he said. “We’ve got to increase training by about five hours a week and then you’ve got games on top of that every week, some of them will be double-headers. So it’ll be interesting moving forward, it’ll be a bit of russian roulette.”

Pamplin, who works for Green by Nature, said it’s a wonderful time to be involved in Tasmanian sport particularly with the AFL looming and the success of the Hobart Hurricanes’ maiden BBL title last season.

“It’s a really good time to be involved in Tasmanian cricket. I’ve been here for 18 years and having that title for the Hurricanes last year really did lift the whole place,” he said. “You couldn’t have asked for a better script with the local boy (Mitch Owen) winning it for us and then you’ve got the Devils on top of that so overall there’s a lot of excitement when it comes to sport in Tassie.

“Ït’s great to play a part in it. Because the high performance centre for the Devils won’t be ready next year they’ll be training out of here and that’s exciting. It gives us a bit more hard work as curators but it’s really important to get that new high performance centre and we’re happy to play out part.”

To check out the full schedule for Bellerive Oval in 2025-26, CLICK HERE.

Story and pictures by Nick Creely