Perusal of early newspapers, dating back to the 1870’s indicate that a Police Cricket Club existed at Brisbane City Police. The players travelled far and wide to participate in organised cricket matches of a calibre sufficient to warrant the attention of the local press;
The Queenslander, February 19, 1876: Police Club v Second Alberts in a match played at Queen’s Park,
The Brisbane Courier, February 10, 1902: Police Playing Cricket – the club connected with the City Police Force journeyed to Rocklea to play a match with the Rocklea Cricket Club,
The Brisbane Courier, February 5, 1903: Police Picnic at Dunwich – A cricket team representing the Brisbane City Police journeyed to Dunwich to play a match against an eleven chosen from the official staff at Dunwich and Myora.
Group photograph of the Queensland Police Cricket Club team of 1925-26. Back row: C Townsend, V Noonan, J Rochford, BC O’Sullivan, SP Sheehan, W Borghardt. Front row: MJ Aspinall, G Townsend, GL Lewis, William John Gooch, CD Sullivan, C Hagner. Image No. PM1839 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
Official records reveal that a Queensland Police Cricket Club didn’t appear until much later. In a letter dated November 12, 1920, from Plain Clothes Constable George Keeffe, representing several members of the police in the Brisbane District requested permission from Police Commissioner Frederic Urquhart to form a Queensland Police Cricket Club. Permission was granted and the club played its first match against a team from the Light Street Tramway Depot. The police team won by 5 wickets and 90 runs.
On October 22, 1921, a meeting of the QPCC unanimously elected newly appointed Commissioner of Police Patrick Short, Patron of the club. The appointment was graciously accepted. In July 1928 application was made for the laying of a practise cricket pitch at the Petrie Terrace Police Depot. An inspection of the proposal revealed ample space on the oval in the depot grounds, and it would not in any way interfere with the use of the oval for police purposes, such as ceremonial functions, parading or police remounts. Approval was granted.
Request by the Secretary of the Police Department Cricket Club to the Commissioner for a pitch to be laid at the Petrie Depot, 1928.
Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
Mr Ivan Clark, Secretary of the QPCC wrote to Police Commissioner Cecil Carroll on September 22, 1945, advising that due to the exigencies of war the club had not operated since 1941, and with the end of hostilities the club had been revived and registered for competitive play in the forthcoming season. A request for the Commissioner to become Patron was accepted and he returned with a donation of £0-10-6 for the club’s funds.
In 1975 the Queensland Police Cricket Association was established and has been running an outdoor competition on turf wickets for police teams in Brisbane since that time.
Team photo of Queensland Police Cricket Team on railway platform in 1961, some standing on a luggage trolley!
Image No. PM2990a courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
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The article was written by Ian Hamilton, former Police Museum Assistant, from the best resources available at the time. The Police Museum is open from 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT- Queensland Police Cricket Club” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode