LINWOOD CLUB

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25273, 27 August 1947, Page 4

LINWOOD CLUB

DIAMOND JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS

The club had firmly established traditions, and through the loyalty and energetic support of many famous players, and hundreds of the rank and file and past officials, who had given their time freely, was in a flourishing state to-day, said the president .of the Linwood Rugby Football Club (Mr W. J. Cowles), speaking at a diamond jubilee dinner on Monday evening. The club had gained representation in the international sphere this year that must have come to few clubs, he said. The captain, vice-captain, and the best wing three-quarters of the 1947 All Blacks were all products of the Linwood Club. Mr V. L. Jensen (president of the Canterbury Rugby Union) proposed a toast to the club, and paid a tribute to the outstanding service Linwood players and officials had given to the Rugby Union code. The club, he said, must rank as one of the strongest football institutions in the Dominion.

Foundation members present included Messrs J Hadley, C. Wolsey, H. J. Bowlker, R. Broadbelt, and W. Bailey. Organisations represented at the dinner included the Canterbury and Buller Rugby Unions, the Canterbury Rugby Referees’ Association, the Canterbury Coaches’ Association and Junior Advisory Board, the Union Club (Dunedin), and the Zingari Club (Timaru). Former Linwood players from Auckland, Wellington, Otago, South Canterbury, and the West Coast were also present. Before the start of the main senior fixture at Lancaster Park on Saturday a parade of 400 past and present members of the club marched round the Oval,, headed by the Christchurch City Pipe Band. Immediately behind the band came a number of foundation members of the club and officials, followed by groups of past members, decade by decade, and present members of the club in football jerseys. A church parade was held on Sunday, a concert was put on for the juvenile grades last evening, and a ball will be held to-night. The celebrations will continue with a visitors’ evening tomorrow night, and an informal gathering at the club rooms on Friday evening, and will conclude with a picnic to the New Brighton Racecourse on Sunday.