RUGBY FOOTBALL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22205, 7 March 1934, Page 4

RUGBY FOOTBALL

PIRATES CLUB ANNUAL MEETING. The fifty-second annual meeting of the Pirates Football Club was held in the Returned Soldiers' Association rooms last night. The president (Mr S. G. Styche) occupied the chair, and there was a large attendance of members. The chairman said that before commencing the evening he would like to express their regret at the death of Mr G. M. Thomson, who had, at the annual meeting last year, been appointed the first patron of the club. A motion of sympathy with the relatives of the deceased was carried in silence.

Moving the adoption of the annual report ana balance sheet, the chairman said that the past season had proved a very enjoyable one. He desired to thank the coaches of the various teams. They deserved their thanks for the able manner in which they had looked after the players, as a result the season had been a better one than had been anticipated. He thought they were very lucky to have such a capable body of coaches. Whether their teams had been successful or not, one could not but commend the spirit in which they played the game. Winning a competition was not everything. He (the speaker) said that the club was gratified at the inclusion of W. R. Allen and J. Taylor in the Otago representative team. He thought they could look forward with confidence to the coming season. They had a number of young players joining, and it was to the young members that they must look to build up their senior teams. The speaker concluded by congratulating the club's hon. treasurer (Mr A. G. Hill) on the satisfactory position of the club s finances. They had a credit balance of £l2 18g Id.—(Applause.) '■% |C Mr D. M. Stuart, seconding) the motion, said he was glad to see that the club was at last getting its share of ex-Hign School -players. He referred to the excellent spirit of comradeship amongst members, and said.he thought the prospects ,for the coming year were very Messrs T. O'Shea arid C. M'Phee also spoke. • The motion was then carried. OFFICE-BEARERS.

On the motion of Mr Styche Mr Crosby Morris was elected patron of the club. Returning thanks Mr Morris said that Le had been present at the first .meeting of the club 52 years ago. The club had been started by old High School boys. The bulk of the players lived at the south end, round about High street and Eglinton, but there were members from all over Dunedin. The first meeting had been held in what was now known as the Criterion Hotel. It waß then the Coffe*; Palace. Mr G. M. Thomson had been in the chair and had been elected their first president. The ground on which they had played was the Asylum Ground, f.nd he thought .'they played there for either two or three years. Carisbrook had been started before this, but purely as a cricket ground. Some of the strong supporters of the cricket club thought it would be a mistake to allow football to be played on the ground. The finances of the cricket club, however, had become straitened and to improve the income it had been decided to allow football to be played on the ground in winter. The Pirates Club had obtained the first lease of the ground and it had been there ever since. He was not sure whether they had to pay £7O a year for the use of the ground. They, however, were allowed to take the gates at the matches played by Pirates. The gates in those days were not very large as compared with what they were to-day. He thought they averaged from £5 to £7 a Saturday. Later on the Otago Rugby Union had decided to assume control of all grounds. The Pirates CluV had had its good years, and also its bad years. He did not know, however, whether the first team had ever got down as low as their Fourth Grade, whjch last season had played 11 matches and lost 11 matches. But they were sometimes very close to it. He had been pleased to hear Mr Styche'R remark about the Fourth Grade team. He had rightly congratulated them on sticking together despite their defeats, because after all it took some of the pleasure out of the game to be beaten every Saturday; but if a team were beaten now and again he thought it was a very good thing.. There had always been a fine spirit in the club, and lie was very glad to hear that night that it continued to exist. He sincerely hoped that the future of the club would be as successful as it had been in the past.— (Applause.) The other offices were filled as follows: —President, Mr S. G. Styche; immediate past-president, Mr D. M. Stuart; vice-presidents—Messrs C. M'Phee, Douglas Spedding, G. M'Kellar, and Reginald Dawson; club captain, Mr J. Robilliard; deputy club captain, Mr P. Hurring; committee —Messrs H. Lawless, W. K Allen, L. Giles, H. G. Gordon, lan Glendining, H. Grant; delegate, to the Sports Protection Society, Mr A. G. Hill; delegate to the Accident Fund, Mr 0. M'Phee; hon. secretary. Mr L. M. Wright; lion, assistant secretary, Mr Ben Stuart; hon, treasurer, Mr A. G. Hill; delegates to the Otago Rugby Union—Messrs D. M. Stuart, Douglas Spedding, L. M. Wright.