For many years the pinnacle event on the Croquet calendar was the Metropolitan Pennant competition.
Most metropolitan clubs fielded a team and sometimes multiple teams, sometimes in divisions and occasionally divided by region to keep travel down.
Clubs had played ad hoc events for a number of years and once the WACA came into existence this became officially organized. This was often difficult when done by phone calls and letters.
Clubs going to wrong venues and/or on wrong dates happened from time to time and strict rules regarding format and forfeits were enforced.
All play was doubles, usually over two untimed matches with scores added together, thus ties were common.
Most years the winner received a wooden shield and the runner-up a certificate, but on rare occasions something different was offered, in one year a mirror, which still exists in the archive.
In the beginning, there was an A and B Division but this expanded over time to include A2, A3, B2, B3, C and c2.
In 1965, everything changed and so it became Div 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the Tray (Best performance by a team from any grade)
The first recorded winners of the Metropolitan A Pennant Shield were Euston in 1906. Located in Havelock Street, Euston was one of our very first clubs having been established in 1905 . The competition consisted of teams from Perth, Guilford, Subiaco, Lakeside and Leederville.
The earliest photo we have of any pennant winning team is from the 1907-08 season. Subiaco were the winners of both the A and B Grade Pennants.
One of my favourite photos is of the Bassendean Club who won the C Grade Pennant in 1961-62 and then followed it up with the B Grade pennant in 1962-63 whilst still winning the C Grade Pennant that year with a whole new group of players.
Perhaps the most successful team can be attributed to Mt Lawley. The team of E.Baldwinson, K. Sayers, M. Smith, E. Reay and A. Bevis won the A Pennant title in 1933-34, 1934-35, 1935-36 and 1938-39.
By tracking the results over time, it provides solid evidence of the ebbs and flows in the popularity of croquet.
The pennant photos have also been an excellent resource in helping us put a face to many of those who went on to represent Western Australia in the EIRE CUP.
Over time, we hope to keep adding images to the collection.
