Club History
The Williamstown Lacrosse Club was founded in 1898 at a meeting in the Williamstown Baptist Sunday School called by Arthur Whitley (son of the Minister). Arthur became the first Captain and Fred Scott the first secretary. Historians Indicated that the club quickly became the largest sporting club in Williamstown.
In the first 40 playing seasons in which the club fielded teams, 23 premierships were won and we were runners up 27 times. Our first first premiership was not achieved until 1902 in B grade. The club established a record in 1936, we fielded 8 teams and had 139 registered players making us the largest sporting amateur club in the southern hemisphere. This has been exceeded on numerous occasions in subsequent years.
The club commenced playing its games at the Williamstown Cricket ground at which stage the famous Williamstown Australian Rules Football club had only one team. We moved to the Gardens Reserve in 1910 whilst the bike track still circled the ground. The Gardens ground was later renamed the Fearon Reserve and maintains that name today.
Captain James H Fearon, commonly known as "the skipper" and the Sea Scout Commodore of Victoria, Sea Pilot, member of the Marine Board and Sea Lawyer supreme, kept the Club running often at his own expense, in those early years. He was Club president from 1903-43, Victorian Amateur Lacrosse Association President 1934-5 our state league team and our ground bear his name in perpetuity.
For many years Lacrosse has been a major sport of the area providing an avenue for like minded people to gather to achieve group and individual goals.
Apart from our success within lacrosse the club has been fortunate in producing many influential community leaders over many years. Alan Deacon, Lionel Burgoyne, Laurie Parker, Max Robertson all fine players who served long terms as councilors were also appointed Mayors of the city. Lindsay Caithness, a tower of strength in Williamstown Hospital activities and Arch Fowler, local solicitor and historian, were players of distinction and long service. Lionel Garnsworthy, 1988 Williamstown Citizen of the year, as a player, participated in one of the Clubs many interstate lacrosse trips under the direction of long time Williamstown resident, Howard Balmer and the sponsorship of Captain Fearon.
Since the second world war a number of people have made significant input to the continuation of the club. None more than Mal Taylor who was a junior player prior to WW2 and was described as "officer in charge of everything" up until his retirement from lacrosse in the late 80's. Our current Best Clubman annual award is named after Mal.
Peter Hogg , a Williamstown player of the 50s and 60s, recalls how the club addressed the problem of protective gear.
In 1955, the club won it's first Under 14 premiership, which was the start of building a team to challenge the A Grade premiership.
The 1961 club visit to Nedlands/Subiaco in Perth.
1963 began the golden years of the Club when we won our first A grade premiership 22-14, against arch rivals Malvern. Then followed premierships in 1965-7-8-9, 1970-1-3-5-6-7-8-9, 1980-2-3-5-6, 1990-1-2-8-9, 2000-1-3. During this time two coaches: Frank Hogarth 1967-71 and Alec Inglis 1975-80 hold the impressive records of five and six consecutive premierships respectively. Malvern still hold the record for total premierships won in A grade, but our club during these years hold the record for 105 consecutive wins in A grade.
The Clubs current home at the Fearon reserve was previously the rooms from the Esplanade Tennis Club. the Lacrosse Club took over these rooms as we outgrew the old rooms adjacent to the Football clubs. The occupancy of these rooms heralded an innovative era for lacrosse in Australia as in 1973 new Box Lacrosse courts were built enabling the club to run a regular statewide summer competition for many years. This culminated in the staging of the first Australian Box Lacrosse Championships in 1978.
Another first for the club was in 1978 when we saw the first ever televised highlights of the match of the day by the then ATV0 television channel. Williamstown won that match by 20 goals.
The amount of success experienced by the club on the field, and the quality of the coaching personnel and administration within the club, have ensured excellent representation in all Victorian State teams over the years. This has been extended to all Australian teams that have played at either the World Field Lacrosse Championships or the World Box Lacrosse Championships or national touring teams as players, coaches or officials.
In 2006 the club boasts 3 senior teams and 5 junior teams:
STATE LEAGUE
DIVISION 1
DIVISION 2
UNDER 17
UNDER 15 FEARONS & CITIES
UNDER 13 FEARONS
UNDER 11 (MODCROSSE)
These statistics continue to reflect the strength of the club as we still field 9 teams with over 150 registered players and continue to experience success on the field. Many ex Williamstown players have aligned themselves with other Victorian Clubs over the years thus continuing to spread the influence of the Williamstown Lacrosse Club. These include the Altona. Footscray, Glenroy, Newport, Surrey Park, Chadstone, Essendon, Melbourne University, Monash University, Latrobe University, Caulfield, Eltham, Camberwell and Malvern Lacrosse Clubs. Many Club members have been appointed to administrative roles within the Victorian Lacrosse Association from the early days until now reflecting the involvement of our Club in the continued development of lacrosse.
It is quite special when you consider that Williamstown Lacrosse Club has maintained such a high level of success in all facets of the game over 100 years.
Thanks to Gus Garnsworthy for this information.
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