This image is courtesy of the ACA Online Magazine – Spring Edition 2021
Founded 1906
Club colours Brown and Gold
Claremont club featured many of the movers and shakers of the sport in the 20’s and 30’s but had little success in pennants competition, winning its only A grade title in 1938.
Reproduced with permission from State Library of WA 009577PD & 009578PD
Other success was limited also, B grade in 1910, 1916, 1926 and A2 1931.
Claremont is most famous for the so called Claremont dispute, the Bowling club reacted to a build up of small issues by expelling the croquet members in 1938. The council responded by asking the Governor to suspend the Bowling club lease but settled instead for a committee to look into and resolve the issues. It was hoped to bring the two clubs back together.
The issues that had brought on this rift revolved around the croquet ladies being less active in supporting bowling club events, they had been previously expected to assist with catering and functions as part of the offset on the courts being kept to a standard.
Other issues included non ratepayers being members of the club.
The bowling club is further upset by the Town Clerk writing them an inflammatory letter.
The mayor was placed in a very difficult position as his wife had been the Croquet Club President until her death in December of 1938. A vote of no confidence was put forward but the meeting was closed down before it could be taken.
Eventually a compromise of sorts is reached and the Croquet is accepted back, but this is found to be a breach of the Bowls club rules as a ballot for each membership was not held. It’s further pointed out that the Croquet club ladies have in fact been signed in as guests not members for 20 years !
After the ballot 20 members are accepted, 8 are barred and 7 have lost interest or passed away during the dispute. These 20 members now miffed about the barring of their fellow members choose not to use the venue.
The council responds by fencing off part of the park for 3 years, so that the croquet may continue separate from the bowls club, this infuriates some ratepayers who have lost part of the children’s playground. The result is screws, nails and pieces of road metal are scattered on the lawn to stop mowing and maintenance !
The bowling club also attempts to start and affiliate rival croquet clubs, firstly as the Claremont Recreation Club ( 1939 ) then as the Bayview Croquet Club ( 1940-41 ), these are rejected by the state Croquet Association.
Things seem to calm down just a bit as the war wears on, then in 1946 the nearby Tennis club is relocated and Croquet moves there briefly before disbanding in 1953.
Modern day usage of park adjoining Claremont Bowls Club (21st June 2022) Martin Clarke.
Another photo found!
BACK ROW : Ian Dumergue, Daniel Anderson, Martin Clarke (Captain), Gwen Anderson, Judith Faulkner, Carl Robertson, Alan Sands.
FRONT ROW : Irene Wardell-Johnson, Susan Wharton, Meryl Garrod (Vice Captain.)
WA players were once again to the fore in the lead up to the EIRE Cup. Martin Clark and Alan Sands won the Doubles for the second time (1st in 1997), Daniel Anderson won the Mens Singles and Ian Dumergue won the Gold Medal.
Update: Still looking for the following photos.
AC: 2001,2003,2005,2011,2015
GC: 2009,2012,2013 2015
Como C Grade Singles
The Como GC C Grade Singles John Lewis Trophy tournament was held on Sunday 19th June 2022. A few showers but nothing to deter the 12 eager entrants; six of which were playing in competition for the first time which is great to see.
Congratulations to the winner Richard Cook who won every game and the runner-up Jenny Millar in the final. Runners-ups in the two blocks were Ian Grieve and Diana Dalzell
Full results can be found on Croquetscores.
Pictures and text courtesy of Como’s Facebook page.
Gosnells – LeComte
10 players competed at Gosnells today for the LeComte event. The name certainly intrigues me.
The final was a tightly fought contest with Eric McCurdy prevailing over Maura Doyle 7/6.
Full results can be found on Croquetscores.
It has taken a while but……..
Moorabinda’s newly sealed carpark!
Many thanks to the Bunbury City Council.
GC Training Session
State GC training day was held at Nedlands on Saturday with Judith receiving the highly prized Number 1 trophy.
If you are like me and couch bound for the weekend, there could be worse things to fall asleep too 😉
I came across another State Team photo today to add to my collection.
After an unsuccessful 1996 competition, the WA team came back strongly and finished 2nd in 1997. The state coach was Hartley Slater and the team was made up of:
| L- M.Garrod, P.Hunt, D.McCready, J.Speers, H.Thurston |
| M- M.Clarke, T.Hamersley, J.Newcombe*, P.Ross, A.Sands |
Individually, Alan Sands and Martin Clarke played very well to win the Doubles. Helene Thurston was runner-up in the Ladies singles, and Jeff Newcombe reached the semi-finals of the Open.
Helene Thurston was also selected in the Ladies Trans Tasman team and named as Captain.
The balls are represented in the diagrams by the following letters:
B = Blue, R = Red, K = Black, Y = Yellow.
The circles drawn around the hoops have radius 1 yard, 2 yard, etc., and the playing side is at the bottom of the page
After yellow ran the first hoop blue played a shot which finished very near the second hoop but too wide to be able to run the hoop. Even sitting in the hoop from there would be close to impossible. Red then played to a position about four yards from blue roughly between blue and the western boundary. Red is not wired from blue. Black took up very good hoop running position and yellow played to the position shown. What should blue do?
Suppose the position was the mirror image of the one shown in the diagram so that it was possible for blue to clear red to the far eastern boundary, not just the nearby western boundary. Would your choice of shot be different for blue?
The Experts: Scenario 6 Suggestions
The early history of the Fremantle croquet club is a little murky still.
The first mention of a club in Fremantle is in 1900 as the Victoria club presumably named after the Victoria Hall in Victoria Street.
Other attempts to start a club appear to have taken place at the Oval in 1903, North Fremantle in 1905 and as Nithsdale in the Queens Square in 1902.
Most likely the Victoria club was the precursor to Fremantle and probably began officially at the bowling club in 1904.
The club appears in the metro pennant competition until 1913 as Victoria, winning the A grade in 1911 and 1913.
The club colours were listed as Rose and White.
In 1913 the first mention of a name change to Fremantle comes into the picture with a corresponding change of club colours to Pale Blue and White
Fremantle won the A pennants in 1917, 1919 and 1920 ( winning B in the same year ), the 1920 win is the last time Fremantle won the A grade.
Further pennant wins were in the minor grades;
B 1923, 1955, 1956
A2, 1945
B2 1950
C 1955, 1956, 1957
Division 3 1988
Division 4 1989, 1990
The club changed its colours to the Royal Stuart Tartan in 1949
The venue was used for practice by visiting dignitaries and international players travelling via ship into and out of the country for major events.
Notably the 1937 Australian MacRobertson Shield team and a 1934 match between the visiting English players and WA.
The WA team was Mesdames Baldwinson, Brown, Sayers, Gallagher with Farmillo as reserve.
Fremantle disbanded in 1997 and the space was used as a car park for the bowling club and festivals in the nearby park.
