Essendon Golf Club

In 1896 a group of the social and financial elite of Essendon got together and built a golf course on land just south of the railway line near Essendon Station.  They also acquired or built a club house on Buckley St, just south of St Columba's Convent School.  The suburb, however, was developing quickly, necessitating a number of moves, until the club amalgamated with the Moreland Golf Club, and a golf course and club known as the Northern Golf Club was firmly established in Glenroy.

Further details are available on the Time Travellers website.

Essendon Boys' Lacrosse Team, 1934

Essendon Boys' Lacrosse Team, 1934.  Museums Victoria Collections https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/1688848  Accessed 24 April 2018

This team includes John Hawksworth in the top right hand corner.  If you can identify anyone else in this photo, please get in touch.  This photo has been added to the Essendon Lacrosse Club page on the Time Travellers website.  It has also been dropped into the webpage for the Dover Studios when it was operated by Frank Rider - the woolly rug, the lino and the studio backdrop give that away, though Museums Victoria didn't record that detail.

Tennis? My serve.

Here is a nice photo of the St John's Tennis Club.  Otto Reiher is the man on the far left. Photo courtesy of Ian Reiher.    If you go to the website you will see another photo of the club, both featuring the bluestone walls of the original St John's Prebyterian Church, Essendon.

I have created a page of links for the sports clubs, and plan to be adding more club photos in the next week, so keep an eye out.    If your relatives lived in the vicinity of Essendon and Flemington, and were sporty types you may be able to find them in a club photo.  Please let me know if you do.

Did your aunty play for Kensington Meths?

Kensington Methodist Basket Ball Team, circa 1930s, courtesy of the Kelvin Edwards Collection, State Library of Victoria Collection.

The Kensington Methodist Basket Ball Club fielded two teams in the Methodist Basketball League from the early 1930s.   Two further photos of the teams can be found on the Time Travellers website, one of which includes the initials and surnames of the Premiership Team of  1935.  The surnames included Cox (3), Smith, Hocking, Thomson, Williamson and Cameron. The sport is now more familiarly known as netball.

If you can't find your relatives in the Kensington Methodist teams, you might try the Ascot Vale West Basket Ball Club of 1928 and 1928, or  the Flemington Basket Ball Team of 1937.

Any identifications welcome. Please get in touch.

Flemington Lacrosse Club, 1896

Flemington Lacrosse Club, courtesy of the State Library of Victoria.

This sharply dressed team of lacrosse players from Flemington won the B Division Championship in 1896, the first year in which they played in the Victorian Lacrosse Association competition.  The short-cropped ties and the dinky little peak caps set off their spiffy attire.  Their home ground was in Royal Park.  If anyone can identify the buildings in the background of this photo, please get in touch.  Does anyone know who the players were?

You can see a further photo of the club from 1897 on the Time Travellers website.

Ascot Vale West State School Basket Ball Team, Premiers 1928

This basket ball team from Ascot Vale West State School won the  Fitzgerald Cup, donated by Essendon Councillor Fitzgerald for a competition of the northern district State Schools, 1928,  Alice Lane is in the front row on the left.  If anyone knows the names of any of the other players, please get in touch.  You can see this photo and one for 1929 on the Time Travellers website.

Is this Edward Webster Dodgshun of Moonee Ponds?

Most likely the Essendon Lacrosse Club circa 1914.  The man who may be Edward Webster Dodgshun is seated third from the left in the front row.

This photo shows a duffle bag in the foreground labelled E W Dodgshun. It is by no means certain that Dodgshun is in the photo, but the man with the arrow over his head looks similar to the man in the lacrosse team.

This detail from the above photo shows the head of the man possibly Dodgshun straightened for purposes of comparison.

The man in the lacrosse team  on the top photo who may be Dodgshun is evident in several other photos of the Woman Haters' Club.  He is shown to be quite tall in photos where he is standing, and Dodgshun's height according to his WW1 service record was 5 feet 11 and a half inches or 181.6 cm.

Here he is again, third from the left, taller than his friends at the Women Haters' Club.

These and other photos associated with the Woman Haters' Club, have been kindly loaned for scanning by Jenny Ryssenbeek, and will find their way onto the Time Travellers website in the next few weeks.  Identifying and dating the people in the photos will be a challenge, and I warmly welcome any assistance with this.

Flemington Basket Ball Team, 1937

This delightful studio portrait shows the Flemington Basket Ball Team,  Runners Up in the Victorian Women's Basket Ball Association, BZ Grade in 1937.  There is only one known (at this stage) identity - Nancy Crook, aged about 14, standing fourth from the left.  Nancy lived at 18 Byron St, Moonee Ponds, and attended Flemington Girls School.  This may be her connection to a Flemington team.  The portrait was in the studio of Edward A Roberts, Moonee Ponds.  Follow the links to read more about them.