The Stadium Bar That Houses a Gun: Adelaide Oval’s Unusual Piece of Cricket History

From the infamous 1932–33 Bodyline series to the iconic Bodyline Bar at Adelaide Oval, explore how cricketing history, memory, and atmosphere collide at one of the game’s most haunting grounds.

Bodyline bar adelaide oval history (Image Source: Google)

Australia defeated England in the Adelaide Test and ensured possession of the Ashes. For England the survival at the Adelaide Oval always remains an issue as the atmosphere at the stadium acts as a ghost reminder of the past and every Ashes Test here opens old wounds.

It’s a modern stadium but never allows forgetting the old and retains its sense of history. You will be surprised to note that there is a Bar, inside the stadium, named the Bodyline Bar. This Bar at Adelaide Oval was opened in December 2017, in memory of the infamous 1932-33 Bodyline cricket series and provides panoramic views, historic memorabilia and of course drinks. No other Bar in any of the stadiums in the world connects to the cricket's past, in the same way.

This Bar was opened on the first day of the Adelaide Ashes Test, in 2017. There is another popular Phil Ridings Bar in the stadium, at the opposite end, almost a mirror image but the history and the atmosphere are quite different. The Bodyline Bar creates the ambience of a Long Room at the MCG or Lord’s and has a room that recognises the history of Adelaide Oval. The corridor leading to the Bodyline Bar is a gateway into the past. See how it’s unique:

*On walls, there are giant portraits of all the players who took part in the Bodyline series including the main antagonists, the Australian captain and opener Bill Woodfull who was struck over the heart by a ball while batting and uttered one of cricket's most famous lines: ‘There are two teams out there. One is trying to play cricket and the other is not.’

*Incidentally the portraits of Douglas Jardine, Don Bradman and Harold Larwood are hanging together. The English captain Jardine had planned this ‘Bodyline’ and Larwood was the chief executor of the instructions to aim short-pitched deliveries at the Australia's batsmen. This tactic was called Bodyline. The plan was to force the batsmen to play defensive shots resulting in caught on the leg-side.

* The strategy was designed particularly to stop Don Bradman, 24 at that time, from repeating his 1930 series performance. Bradman was such a run machine that the England captain devised this special plan to put brakes on his scoring.

* The conflict peaked during the Adelaide Oval Test, resulting in near-riots inside the ground as well as a diplomatic row. Australia highlighted England's tactics as ‘unsportsmanlike.’ Woodfull’s injury started the tension and when wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield’s skull was fractured by a Larwood lifter, the onlookers lost patience. Police were on duty to prevent the normally peace loving Adelaide crowd who were on the verge of revolt. ‘One or two of the England cricketers were looking at the stumps, which they were going to use as defence weapons. Madness was close to breaking out,’ David Frith summarised

*That match is remembered through this Bar as it is a part of history and happened at the Adelaide Oval.

*The South Australia Cricket Association (SACA) searched for the memorabilia for display at the Bar and from their storage unearthed various items such as bats, baggy green caps, cricket whites, a blazer (belonging to leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmett with the Australian emblem), as well as tour books, old turnstiles, archival footage, and one rather unusual item ie a shotgun.

*This shotgun was of the curator, who had procured it to protect the pitch overnight from vandalism. The gun was with the curator’s family and in 1996 when firearms reforms were introduced in Australia, the curator’s son handed over the weapon. The Police, instead of destroying it, just disarmed it and donated it to SACA for its museum.

*English batsman Eddie Paynter's cricket bat in a cabinet is also there.

*The original materials salvaged from the 1880s Bradman Stand were used in the making of Bar, to pay homage to the Bodyline Series. The same 200-year-old recycled timber was used to create the connection with the past.

So Adelaide Oval’s Bodyline Bar has immortalised one of Cricket’s most infamous Test series while fully exhibiting the mood of the Oval’s history. The Adelaide Oval has kept its old scoreboard and the hill and the Bar also has a history.

Wisden reported that the Test will go down to history as probably the most unpleasant ever played.

England made a dreadful start but then managed to score 341. Australia in reply finished 119 behind. On the fourth day, England wound up with six men out for 296 and were thus 415 runs ahead. England in the end put together a total of 412 so that Australia were left to get 532 to win. Although Australia lost by 338 runs the greatest effort was made by Woodfull who for the second time, in his Test career, carried his bat through the innings. Match Details:

Adelaide Oval, January 13 - 19, 1933, England won by 338 runs

England: 341(Maurice Leyland 83, Bob Wyatt 78, Tim Wall 5/72) and 412 (Wally Hammond 85, Les Ames 69, Bill O'Reilly 4/79, Bert Ironmonger 3/87)

Australia: 222/9 (Bill Ponsford 85, Bert Oldfield 41*, Gubby Allen 4/71, Harold Larwood 3/55) and 193/9(Bill Woodfull 73*, Donald Bradman 66, Gubby Allen 4/50, Harold Larwood 4/71)