The Club Rebuilds (1947 to 1959)
Rugby was slow to resume in Melbourne after the war as returning servicemen and women tried to rebuild their lives and come to terms with a world that had changed forever. Relationships had to be reactivated, jobs found, and some normality regained. Fortunately a core of pre-war members was keen to restart the club and in 1947 the first season of a completely new era was to begin. The key men were: Ron Bolton, Vice-President; Harry Baldwin, Hon. Secretary, Treasurer and First Grade Captain; Donald Strang (later to be a great benefactor to the Club); D.B.Taylor and Harry Nelson. The first season was once again disappointing from a playing perspective as we were able to beat only Footscray and Power House draw with Footscray and finish last in the competition.
With Ron Bolton elected President, the 1948 season saw many improvements in the club's fortunes. Firstly, we acquired our home ground in 1949 when we agreed to share Fawkner Park with a soccer club. This unfortunately did not result in any improvement in facilities. The changing shed comprised two separate rooms, one for Harlequins and the other for the opposition. Each room had one cold shower for the entire team. Just as before the war Harlequins favourite matches were against Navy at Flinders, RAAF at Point Cook and the Army Officers Training College at Portsea, because they had hot showers and provided an afternoon tea in the mess. Ex-pat Britons, who joined the club after the war and who were used to hot plunge baths and showers at their clubs in the UK, found the Melbourne facilities bracing! But at least it was "our ground". Secondly, our playing results improved greatly with our first and second teams sides each finishing fifth, just outside the four, and Faram, Calwall and Naylor selected in the first post-war Victorian side. Brian Faram was a notable acquisition for the club, as he went on to be a Wallaby trialist, and many believed (although they were mainly Harlequins!) that he was unlucky not to be selected for Australia. Though intergenerational comparisons are very difficult, most experienced Harlequins agree he was one of the most talented backs ever to pull on the Harlequin jersey. This improvement was reported in an article in the Argus in September 1948;
Surprises: Close of the Rugby Union competition (the
Thirdly and most importantly a famous match was played which later became an important tradition in the club the Jersey Match.
The Hobart Harlequins were founded in 1934 when rugby was first introduced to Tasmania, with only two teams playing, University and Harlequins. Fortunately the game prospered with more teams joining the competition, and the Hobart Harlequins had more competition success in Tasmania than we did in Victoria, which led to some good-natured rivalry between the two clubs. In 1948 a match was played to test this rivalry on the playing field. Hobart had won the Tasmanian Premiership, while Melbourne had finished in 5th place just outside the finals, and to finish the season the Melbourne Harlequins flew to Hobart to play their first ever interstate match. The match against the Hobart Harlequins was played on 2nd October at the Clare Street Oval. Much to our relief we won as reported in the local Hobart press.
Adapting itself better to the greasy conditions the Victorian
The match was celebrated in some style at the Imperial Hotel, Collins Street, Hobart, where the Melbourne Harlequins stayed for the weekend. By some strange quirk of fate a few London Harlequins were visiting Melbourne at the same time, but were unable to fly to Hobart for the match. To demonstrate their solidarity with the spirit of the match they sent the following telegram to the Melbourne Harlequins at their Hotel.
On on you noblest English whose blood is fet from Fathers
See Henry Fifth Act three Scene One Line seventeen
The Lords Tritton Taylor Edser.
Now 56 years later it is hard to know whether those Shakespearian lines would have spurred the players on, but our players of today would probably not understand a word! Nevertheless, it seemed appropriate for the birth of a great club tradition. The match, the associated socialising and the generally good feeling about the occasion gave Ron Bolton, the club President the inspiration to turn a once-off match into an institution. After the 1948 Annual General Meeting (and recovering from the news that the club was now affiliated to the London Harlequins after believing it had been since the early thirties!) it was agreed that Ron Bolton write the following letter on 16th December, 1948 to his counterpart at the Hobart Harlequins.
M.Masland, Esq.,
The President'
Harlequin Club,
Hobart, Tas.
Dear Max,
By special courier from Melbourne, you will be handed a tankard,
Yours sincerely
R.S.Bolton
President
The promise of the 1948 season was followed by an altogether more successful 1949 with the club entering its first golden playing period. Active recruitment from the many Britons migrating after the war improved the overall playing strength, an excellent coach, Dud Soane raised fitness and tactical skills leading to that that magic ingredient confidence, which is so important to being successful. Arthur Marsh, a big (by 1949 standards) 16 stone, 6ft 4ins forward who had played for Metropolitan Police, Middlesex and London Counties joined the club after being recruited by the Victoria Police. Big, skilled and aggressive he went on to represent Victoria and captain the Harlequins and was a Wallaby trialist. He also introduced another four policemen to the club. Nevertheless, the club members were still enjoying themselves, and the following article appeared in the Argus newspaper in June 1949.
Rugby Quins: A 50-50 correspondent who saw a game of rugby at Fawkner Park last week and was surprised at its thrills, although he
This year our first team finished in the four for the first time and played in the finals for the first time. The second team finished fifth, while the third team finished fourth, putting the Harlequins into third in the Club Championship. This represented a huge improvement as, for most of the previous 14 years of competition, we had been occupying the bottom (or very close by) rungs of the ladders. Another innovation was the establishment of “The Harlequin Old Boys", a team, which comprised older former players, who no longer wanted to play seriously and who played ad-hoc matches during the season. This predated the Victorian Veterans Competition by some 30 years and indicates the far-sightedness, that has been a feature of the club throughout its history. Interestingly Max Penwill, the son of founder member Bert Penwill, played for the "Old Boys" in 1949 while his son John began his Harlequins playing career with the second team.
The first team’s results were excellent, playing 18 for 12 wins, 5 losses and 1 draw. Our first ever finals match was against Kiwis who had finished third to our fourth. In an exciting game we won 15 points to 13, which put us in the elimination final against Melbourne who had won the Minor Premiership. In a hard fought game we were beaten 19 points to 6, and Melbourne went on to beat Navy in the Grand Final 29 points to 12.
With the V.R.U. Competition over there was only one game left for us, and that was the Jersey Match. Hobart Harlequins had accepted our challenge to come to Melbourne to try to win the Jersey legitimately. The game was played on Saturday 24th September 1949 at the Scotch College ground in Hawthorn on the kind invitation of the Headmaster, Colin Gilray, an Oxford Blue and Scottish International, who had been well known to the London Harlequins in the Stoop era. The match was preceded by a curtain raiser between the Melbourne Harlequins second team and the Harlequins Old Boys. Ron Bolton played his last game in that match for the "Old Boys" wearing his 20-year-old jersey, which was then nailed to the cross-bar for the first Jersey Match between the two clubs. The Jersey was thus beginning its transformation into an almost religious relic, for Harlequins at least!
The match was refereed by John Grant, London Harlequins and was won comfortably by Melbourne 20 points to 0.
The 1949 Annual General Meeting held at Mercantile Rowing Club (as usual) expressed great satisfaction after the most successful season in the club's history. Four life memberships were awarded to Charles Moses, W.J.Christie, Darrel Brewin and D.G.Vance. Life membership is the highest honour the club can bestow and should reward contribution on or off the field of play, far above normal expectations of membership. The honour has to be proposed and seconded by two financial club members, approved by the club committee and then approved at an Annual General Meeting by 75% of financial members in attendance. These first four Life Members were worthy recipients of the honour and subsequent "lifers" have contributed to the development of the club and its unique culture.
Clubs depend on the recruitment of members who not only play well on the pitch but, in the case of Harlequins, must also be good value off the pitch. Bill "Cody" Parker joined the club in 1949 and was one of those particular characters for whom the Harlequins are so attractive and vice-versa. Bill was a South African and a real clubman. He was a self-confessed conman but no party was complete without Cody. When the South African soccer team was in Melbourne to play Victoria Cody managed to get 8 of them to the Harlequins for a drink. The brother of one of the soccer players had played for the Springboks in that famous match against London Counties at Twickenham in 1952 and our Reg Wilkinson had been there. By some strange coincidence Reg had also seen that South African soccer player at Stamford Bridge playing for Chelsea. The world of rugby is very small! Reg Wilkinson was himself a great character and one of the policemen who joined the club after the War and would continue to feature in the club’s activities until his death in 2005.
The huge improvement in on-field performance in 1949 was maintained in 1950. We again ran three sides, with only University and Melbourne also to do so, and started the season brilliantly with the first team winning its first 8 matches and losing just 2 out of the 16 home and away games. Both losses were to Melbourne. We won the First Grade Minor Premiership for the first time which represented a major milestone and achievement in the club's history. B.J.Faram, A.J.Marsh, R.Robinson and D.Wombell were selected to represent Victoria. The second team did not have much success, winning 6 and losing 8 matches, while the third team won 5 and lost 5. This enabled us to come second in the Club Championship, one place better than in 1949.
For the first team the finals were rather disappointing, losing 6 points to 11 in the semi-final against Melbourne then beating Footscray 6 points to 5 in the elimination final to set up yet another game against Melbourne. In the Grand Final Melbourne beat us 19 points to 11. Melbourne were certainly our nemesis as they were the only side to beat us, and they unfortunately did it four times!
The second Jersey Match was played in Hobart and we duly achieved our objective of maintaining our possession of the Jersey beating Hobart 28 points to 11. Another Harlequin character, Tony Slocock joined the club in 1950 and went on to play many games for the club in all grades, including veterans. He was made our inaugural Club Captain in 1980. Tony was also unofficial club dentist-he is qualified-although some members have doubted it and have never forgotten their consultations with Tony! He later retired from dentistry to own and run a winery on the Mornington Peninsula. Wine and Harlequins have been good bedfellows both from a consumption as well as a production viewpoint. Thanks to Ron Bolton's influence (as an outstanding oarsman and member of The Mercantile Rowing club) Harlequins had maintained influence and relationships outside rugby and cricket. Indeed the club donated trophies for many years to Mercantile for the Harlequin Time Trial rowed from the Henley Marker to the Spencer Street Bridge and back. Thus the strong relations between the two clubs were maintained, and training continued to be held at the rowing club, as did Annual General Meetings. One Harlequin tradition, the swim from the Mercantile club house on the south side of the Yarra to the north side and back was started at the 1950 AGMand lasated to the late 1960’s. Considering the substantial quantities of alcohol consumed we have been very lucky not to have lost any members in almost 20 years of Yarra crossings.
After the disappointment for the first team in 1950 the club was keen to improve on its near miss. Dud Soane was reappointed coach and key players from the previous year such as Marsh, Faram, Parker and Wombell formed the core of the 1950 side. We started well winning 7 of the first 10 matches of the season, while the second team could only win 3 of their first 10. The third team played in a smaller competition with a 7 wins, 6 losses, 1 draw result for the season. This enabled us to come second again to Melbourne in the Club Championship but left us rather brittle when it came to the first team finals. We maintained our high level of State representation with B.Faram, J.Lewis and J.Starling being selected during the season. Our Captain and former Victorian representative A. Marsh asked not to be considered for State selection because of work commitments.
The first team was able to win a further 4 out of 8 matches to finish in fourth place in the First Grade Competition and meet the Army Apprentices in the semi-final. We were well-beaten 24 points to 5 and exited the finals at the first hurdle because a weak second team was unable to provide sufficient replacements for injured first team players. The services sides were now becoming quite dominant in the Victorian rugby competition winning in 1951 the First, Second and Third Grade Premierships.They were fitter, had better facilities and were allowed more time for training. The players in the other clubs, however, always enjoyed playing away matches against the services because they too could enjoy those superior facilities.
For the 1952 season some important changes were made. Brian Faram replaced Arthur Marsh as first team Captain and Dud Soane, the first team Coach was appointed to the General Committee. In quite an unusual event for the club a general committee member, Malcolm McDonald was appointed Coach of the third team. Malcolm, who became a stalwart of the club and was made a Life Member, was a legendary coach. Whilst Ron Bolton once made Harlequin history in his role of President, by ordering a Harlequin player from the field for foul play that the referee had missed, Malcolm sent off a third team player for being drunk. This was not appreciated by the player concerned but it did have the desired effect, because the third team played good rugby and finished third in the competition, playing 15 matches for a 9, 5, 1, win, loss, draw record for the home and away season. The second team, obviously motivated by the huge improvement of the thirds, came third in their competition playing 17 matches winning 12 and losing 5 behind R.A.A.F. College (Point Cook) and R.A.A.F. Frognall. Not to be outdone the first team had its most successful season since the founding of the Club. It recruited well. D.Shawcross, an outstanding wing three-quarter for the Club, who was to go on to tour Ceylon with the Australian team in 1953, joined us, as did Ken Austin. Ken Austin later played for Victoria and was a champion of junior rugby at Harlequins. Both his sons played for the club and he and his family were great contributors for many years. Ken was tragically killed in a car accident in 1972 when he typically went to the assistance of a motorist, who’s car had broken down. 1952 was a good year for the club but we still lacked that all-important First Grade Premiership. Was 1953 finally going to be year?
The club made a great start to the new season by winning the VRU seven-a-side pre-season competition at Olympic Park. Harlequins A, B and C sides participated and by the semi-finals Harlequins A and C were still in the competition. The final was played between Harlequins A and Power House with us winning 10 points to nil to take the D.J.Strang trophy (donated by Harlequin D.J.Strang). This victory started a long and successful sevens tradition for the club. Our team was a very powerful one with exceptional backs; Ken Austin a fast and elusive half-back, Brian Faram the State full-back and Derick Shawcross, the prominent amateur sprinter.
The absence of Derick Shawcross for the last three matches of the home and away season brought our first team coach, Dud Soane out of retirement to play at inside centre. The feelings of the second team inside centre about Dud Soane's unexpected return are not known but the club's fortunes were not adversely affected. The club's strength in depth in the sevens competition was also evident in the regular V.R.U. competition. We had teams in the First and Second Grade competitions and were able to field two sides in the Third Grade competition. At the end of the home and away matches the first team was 2nd, the second team was 3rd and Third Grade A and B teams were 1st and 5th respectively. Not surprisingly the club was the winner of the V.R.U. Club Championship and with the early success in the sevens competition we were, in our own opinion, clearly the top club. All we needed was the First Grade Premiership to put the icing on the cake. The finals started well for us. We beat University in the first semi-final 11 points to 3, to advance straight to the grand-final, while Navy, who finished third in the home and away competition, managed to defeat Kiwi's 21 points to 14 after 30 minutes of extra time. In the elimination final Navy beat University 15 points to nil to set up the grand-final with Harlequins. Having had the week's rest we felt genuinely confident that 1953 was finally to be our year. With 5 minutes to go we still held our 8 points to 6 points lead, which had been established 20 minutes earlier, and the celebrations were being cautiously anticipated. But to quote the match report in the Argus;
Then nippy Navy and Australian Services five-eighth Cox found a
No sooner had Harlequins kicked off again then the final whistle
Whilst, according to reports, Navy were deserving winners, there was a genuine feeling in the minds of our supporters and players of the Premiership, that "got away". The fact that Navy also beat us in the Third Grade grand-final and the Second Grade semi-final did nothing to lighten the gloom after a season that, otherwise had been an outstanding one for Harlequins. There was alas no Jersey Match to restore our spirits.
The disappointment of the 1953 season carried over into 1954 when our playing results were poor. Not one side reached the finals, and the First Grade competition was rather controversial in that two sides played 15 matches and the other seven including Harlequins played 14. Melbourne, who played 15 matches, finished the season with 1 point more than us in fourth place, thus denying us the opportunity to play in the finals. We wrote to the V.R.U. advising, that having played one match fewer than Melbourne we were unfairly kept out of the finals. This, not surprisingly, was not accepted by the V.R.U. The only moment of note that season was the conferring of the fifth Life Membership to Harry Baldwin at the Annual General Meeting in November. Harry had joined the club in 1933, captained the first team in 1937 and 1947, had been V.R.U. delegate since 1935 and was a dynamic Hon. Secretary. Six Harlequins represented Victoria.
The various Harlequin cricket teams continued to play in the 50’s with Colin Kirkwood, then club Treasurer and later club Auditor, the mainstay. The matches were played on a friendly basis with no formal competitions. We were singularly under-equipped and usually borrowed equipment from the opposing teams. We were evidently popular opponents never having any difficulties finding teams to play, such as Navy, the Victorian Police and Air Force.
After such an unsuccessful 1954 season Harlequins approached a new season with confidence and high expectations. A well-credentialed young Englishman, David Shepherd had arrived in Melbourne during the summer and was quickly snapped up by Harlequins. Little did we know that one of our greatest players had arrived. Shep went on to play for Victoria and Australia. Another arrival in that year was Tony James who would make a greater impression off the field in later years as Secretary and President. Reg Wilkinson was appointed captain with the mandate to make Harlequin forward play a little more uncompromising. This was no surprise as Wilkinson was well known as a no-nonsense policeman who had few difficulties at work getting others to accept his point of view. Dud Soane had been reappointed coach, Ron Bolton remained President, and the club committee had plenty of experience.
Before the start of the season Max Marsland, President of the Hobart Harlequins wrote to Ron Bolton challenging us to come to Hobart for the Jersey Match, complaining that the challenge had not been played since 1952 and hinting that we, perhaps, had concerns, that Hobart would finally wrest the jersey from our possession. The challenge thus made was immediately accepted and rather than wait until the end of the season it was decided to travel to Hobart during the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June. Hobart Harlequins had won the 1954 Tasmanian championship and had almost all of that team’s premiership players available in 1955. In short they fancied their chances. We saw the match as an extra benefit to help prepare for the Victorian championship. We sent a good team over and the result at the end of an excellent match was a 14 points to 14 draw. The hosts had prepared a very entertaining programme of events for the Saturday night and Sunday with the usual singing, drinking contests and eating. As expected, both clubs enjoyed the post match proceedings and literally entered into the spirit of things. For the Melbourne Harlequins there was a “sting in the tail” because the committee had arranged a further match for them on the Monday public holiday against a representative Hobart team. Despite their active participation in the Hobart Harlequins’ hospitality the Melbourne Harlequins were able to beat the Hobart team 9 points to 6, although they too may have been just as appreciative of that hospitality. Our coach Dud Soane was alleged to have remarked that if we could get through that weekend without losing we could win anything!
At the end of the home and away matches we had finished second with record of: played 16, won 10, lost 3 drawn 3, points for 324, points against 131. Our new approach in the forwards had paid dividends but the winners of the Minor Premiership, Power House looked to be in a class of their own. Their record of: played 16, won 15, lost 1, points for 364, points against 62 was very impressive. In the semi-final they beat us convincingly 12 points to 3 to qualify immediately for the grand final, while we had to play University, who had beaten Melbourne 6 points to 3 in the other semi-final. The game against University was very dour as the report in the Argus confirms.
Harlequins proved too strong for University and narrowly
Harlequins’ confidence was not particularly high as we had only just beaten University, and Power House had the benefit of a week’s rest to prepare for the Grand Final. The club committee must have believed the first team would not even make the grand final because the Annual Ball, the premier social event of the year, was held the night before. In fact we were feeling more confident that the second team would be the team to succeed, particularly as they had beaten Three Base Workshops 15 points to 9 in the first semi-final earning them an immediate berth in the Grand Final and the invaluable week’s rest. This all meant nothing because in the grand final we played Three Base Workshop again and on this most important occasion we were well beaten 20 points to 6. It was now all down to the first team and the report in the Argus said it all in their headline.
Surprise Win by Harlequins
Harlequins shocked Power House with their tenacity and
For Harlequins the win was extra sweet, because we had finally got the First Grade Premiership monkey off our back. From our pre-war and immediate post-war reputation as good fun socially, but “easy beats” on the football field we had become in the 50’s a club to be feared on the pitch. The premiership meant we had arrived and our potential had been realised. The 1955 AGM was a raucous affair with much celebrating of the Premiership win. The general feeling within the club was that we needed another and quickly. The first First Grade Premiership was won 27 years after our founding and during our 21st season playing in the Victorian competition.
Expectations were therefore high with most of the 1955 team available and a new coach, Colonel S.T.G. Coleman. The appointment of Col. Coleman as coach was rather unusual, at least from today’s viewpoint. He was a New South Welshman, had been posted to Victoria and was a keen follower of rugby. Someone had suggested he watch Harlequins. The committee was evidently impressed with this and when Dud Soane resigned after the 1955 premiership, they believed they had the ideal replacement; career soldier, obviously a leader of men and from the rugby state of N.S.W. Pre-season training was a fairly haphazard affair with the first team largely training itself particularly as they were experienced and had played together for some time. The first match was played against Melbourne and at half-time, 12 points to 3 down the players were waiting for the first tactical observations and the second half game plan from the new coach. First he separated the forwards from the backs and addressed the backs, “Men, it is looking OK, but we need a little more tiger”, then over to the forwards and, “ OK men, I am reasonably happy so far, but you need to demonstrate a little more tiger”. David Shepherd, who had heard the comments for both the forwards and the backs, asked his captain Reg Wilkinson, “what the f*** is this tiger, tiger business”. From then on the coach was known as Colonel “tiger tiger” Coleman. The season was a disappointment. We finished fourth wining 10 and losing 7 matches and were beaten 13 points to 6 by Kiwis in the second semi-final. Our fourth position was secured only by our better percentage than Melbourne, who had also won 10 and lost 7 matches. Colonel Coleman did, however, do the club one favour in that he ordered J. van Gelder to join Harlequins when he was posted to Victoria. He was quite an acquisition, playing for the State as well as us.
After the interesting experiment with Colonel “Tiger Tiger” Coleman Dud Soane was reappointed coach for the 1957 season. More important for the development of the club, however, was the decision to develop junior rugby. The original idea came from President Ron Bolton. He was keen to foster rugby in Victoria and was well aware of the need to “get them young”, and the first manifestation of this development were the junior coaching classes held on Saturday mornings during the season. The classes were open to boys in the 10-13 years age group and the coaching was provided by Harlequins. The boys were classified as trainees and their annual subscription was 50 cents. The Harlequin Club also provided administration and jumpers. They were not registered as players with the V.R.U. but we organised matches with schools in Melbourne starting with a match against Scotch College. From this small beginning we have come to the thriving junior section of The Harlequin Club that now has teams in the Under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 age-groups.
The main season was unexceptional with the first team in 4th position and ready for the finals again. A win against Melbourne in the semi-final put us once more up against Navy in the elimination final which we went lost 19 points to 5. Five Harlequins, W.R. Ellis (Morrie Ellis was a founder member of the Friday lunch club in the mid sixties and is still an active member of the club), P.B. Gill, W.D.A. McKenzie, J.R.B. Penwill and D.J. Shepherd were selected for the State team which had a fixture against the All Blacks. Not surprisingly the All Blacks won 27 points to 3. The game was notable for several reasons; firstly it was the first game of rugby to be televised in Victoria and secondly, seven Harlequins played. As well as the five Melbourne Harlequins in the Victorian team All Blacks Ian Clarke and Ron Hemi were members of, The New Zealand Harlequins our affiliated club from Hamilton. Dick Everest, the Asst. Team Manager was also a Hamilton Harlequin. Ian Clarke was a formidable prop forward but also had a very famous brother, Don Clarke, who was arguably the All Blacks’ greatest-ever full back. Don was not a Harlequin Club member, and we can only assume Ian did not want to play in the same club side as his more famous brother. At a brief ceremony at the V.R.U. Ball held on the day of the match the three were made honorary members of Melbourne Harlequins and were presented with club ties and membership cards.
In 1958 Mike Plumbridge played his first games for the first team and thus began his long association with the club as rugby player, cricketer, administrator, Life Member and club legend. Playing on the wing he was famous for his “tally-ho” calls during his leadership of the Harlequin Cavaliers (veterans) and for carrying his rugby kit in a fruit box. Rugby clubs need eccentrics and Mike is one of our finest. John Penwill of the Penwill clan was now captain and with David Shepherd was part of a formidable back row. The first team was the only team to make the finals finishing second to University. In the first semi-final we convincingly beat them to advance to the grand final to meet Power House in a repeat of the 1955 grand final. Unfortunately there was no repeat of our famous first Premiership win and Power House were deserved victors 15 points to 9.
There was a playing silver lining for us at the end of the season; the V.R.U. seven-a-side tournament held on Sunday 21st September at the Flinders Naval Base. We entered three teams and enjoyed success as reported in the VRU News.
SEVEN-A-SIDE COMPETITION
Owing to the fact that four grounds were available for play and
The Harlequins sevens players, Ian Barnes, David Gee, Peter Gill, John Penwill, Peter Ryder, David Shepherd and Brian Steele were evidently rather bemused by their heaviness being a deciding factor in a sevens final. They nevertheless took the opportunity to celebrate in style at the Officers Mess.
The major rugby event of the year in Victoria was the Test Match played between Australia and the NZ Maoris at Olympic Park on 5th July. International test matches were a rarity in the fifties in Victoria, and the NZ Maoris won 13 points to 6. The V.R.U. Ball held in their honour at the Federal Hotel was organised by The Harlequin Club, and we took the opportunity to award honorary membership to two New Zealand Harlequins Morris Davis and Morris Rauretti.
The final season of the fifties was rather a mixed bag for the club. Harry Baldwin was still Hon. Secretary, having taking on the role in the first post-war season in 1947. Ron Bolton had been President since 1948, John Penwill was in his second season as Captain and the club had found a new coach in Harry Cessford who was to prove to be a great Harlequin for more than 20 years until his unfortunate death in a road accident.
For the first time since 1948 the first team failed to finish in the four and play in the finals. To make matters worse neither did the second team. This was despite the fact that Harlequins were trying to expand and develop the game via their juniors coaching and playing programme and their support of the new Colts Grade. The first team had no shortage of good players, with J.Hartigan, W.Gahan, P.Maroney, J.Penwill, D.Shepherd, M.Van-Gelder and M.Woods being selected for Victoria.
Harlequins were not navel-gazers so off-field activities became more important then playing success. 1959 was very important for us because the Lions, the British Isles touring team, were coming to Melbourne to play against Victoria as part of their Australia tour. David Shepherd, who later represented Australia, played against the Lions and the Lions jersey he swapped is in our collection of international jerseys in the Ashwood Clubhouse.
Just as we had entertained the 1930 Lions team, we invited the two London Harlequins in the Lions squad to a party at the home of Garry Gray in May. The two Harlequins were David Marques and John Young. Marques was a famous second row forward, who paired John Currie in the England side for many years. Young was an exceptionally quick winger who was the British 100 yards sprint champion and had gained blues at Oxford University for rugby and athletics. Our reputation for “putting on a good turn” must have lasted the 29 years gap because over 20 of the touring party attended. In by then a Harlequin tradition Ron Bolton conferred honorary membership on five distinguished guests:
| David Marques & John Young | Members of the Touring Lions and London Harlequins |
| Fred Dunkley | Member of the London Harlequins and ex-player of note, who "happened to be in Melbourne at the time" |
| Vivian Jenkins | Former Werlsh International, travelling as a journalist with the touring party who wrote a wonderful book of the tour |
| Howard Tuck |
A member of the Harlequin Club in Hamilton, New Zealand, who happened to be visiting Melbourne on holiday |
Around this time the Harlequin song began to be sung by us. We do not know who first suggested it be ours but we do know its origins. It was a version of the “whiffenpoof song” with subtle changes to make it Harlequin specific. Our song is sung to celebrate victories on the pitch, to bring the Friday and Saturday lunch club sessions to a close and on any other occasion we deem suitable. The song begins; “To the tables down at Mory’s, to the place where Louie dwells, to the dear old Temple Bar we love so well”. Some senior Harlequins thought the Temple Bar referred to the gate, which was one of the access points into the City of London, thus conferring a link to our London cousins. Nothing could be further from the truth. The song is the signature tune of the Yale University “Whiffenpoofs”, a group of male seniors who constitute the University singing group. Founded in 1909, the "Whiffs" began as a senior quartet that met for weekly concerts at Mory's Temple Bar, the famous Yale tavern. So far from being the entry to the City of London the Temple Bar was a Connecticut University ale-house! The tune was written during the early years of the 20th century in America, but the lyrics are something else again. In 1907 one of the “Whiffs” heard a rendition of Kipling’s “General Rankers” which depicts a group of young aristocrats, disinherited perhaps, serving as enlisted men in Her Majesty's forces and drinking themselves to death as one of their number sings a verse:
To the legion of the lost ones,
To the cohorts of the damned,
To my brethren in their sorrow overseas,
Sings a gentleman of England
Cleanly bred, machinely crammed,
And a trooper of the Empress, if you please."
[All join in the chorus:]
We're poor little lambs who've lost our way,
Baa! Baa! Baa!
Little black sheep who've gone astray,
Baa-aa-aa!
Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to Eternity,
God ha' mercy on such as we.
The Yale version was a much more optimistic and positive and entirely suitable for their glee-club type singing. When we further adapted and adopted the song as “ours” we had little knowledge of its origins, particularly the grimness of the Kipling original. Nevertheless it has been sung with passion ever since and David Bray, who joined the club in 1968, has made it his own ever since as official Harlequins choirmaster.
The decade plus of rugby since the restart of the club, after the Second World War had seen an affirmation of the original values of the club. Despite the truly “Victorian” licensing laws and six-o-clock closing, which created many resourceful ways of circumventing the restrictions, and the very primitive playing and training facilities the club prospered. Ron Bolton as President and Harry Baldwin as Hon. Secretary/Treasurer had served for almost the entire 13 post-war years and had provided the stability and continuity required to successfully re-establish the club. The playing standard improved greatly, junior rugby was being fostered Harlequins still loved a party and we had our own song. With the “swinging sixties” to follow there was much to look forward to.
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