Melbourne Cricket Club Library, MCG

118/150 – June 26, 2024 – Rugby League State of origin related items from Lateral Files The library lateral files contain a range of material that are not kept on the open shelves, like small books, programs, individual magazines, manuscript articles, press clippings, fixtures, and other ephemera. It is an extensive collection of items housed in the cupboards underneath the Rare book cases in the library foyer. In celebration of the NRL State of Origin match returning to the MCG for the sixth time we highlight the programs for the first five Rugby League State of Origin matches to be held at the MCG An example is the program for the first match from 1994. “Tooheys State of origin game 2 souvenir, Melbourne Cricket Ground, June 8, 1994” [by] New South Wales Rugby League [MCC Rec # 4262] RUGL 923.71 1994 #melbcclibrary150years150treasures

117/150 – June 21 – Telegram to John Landy from Roger Bannister, congratulating Landy on breaking his World Mile Record.

70 years ago today John Landy set the world record for the mile at Turku in Finland, recording a time of 3:57.9. Landy became the second man, after Roger Bannister, to achieve a sub-4-minute mile.

117/150 – June 21 – Telegram to John Landy from Roger Bannister, congratulating Landy on breaking his World Mile Record. 70 years ago today John Landy set the world record for the mile at Turku in Finland, recording a time of 3:57.9. Landy became the second man, after Roger Bannister, to achieve a sub-4-minute mile. The Melbourne Cricket Club Library is extremely fortunate to have acquired a substantial donation of unique and personal material from John Landy, AC, CVO, MBE, champion Australian athlete and former Governor of Victoria. The material traces his athletics achievements from schoolboy days to retirement from sport. The collection is spread across many formats and comprises over 1700 individual items. John Landy enjoyed a distinguished athletics career, winning the bronze medal in the 1500 metres race at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, and the silver medal in the one-mile event at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver. Included in the collection are 114 telegrams sent from around the world to congratulate Landy on his achievement in Turku, Finland on June 21, 1954, when he set world records for 1500 metres – 3:41.8 and for one mile – 3:57.9 (rounded up under the rules of the day to 3:58.0) in the same race. Among those who offered their congratulations were Robert Gordon Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia; Hubert Opperman; Maurice Nathan; Roger Bannister; Franz Stampfl; Landy family members; Harry Hopman; Wilfrid Kent Hughes; Geelong Grammar School, and numerous athletics clubs. [MCC Rec # 199127953] ATH 915.2 LANDY #melbcclibrary150years150treasures

43/150 November 15 - Rules of the Melbourne Cricket Club November 15, 1838 is taken as the foundation date of the Melbourne Cricket Club, based upon the date of the invoice from that date for “two batts, balls & stumps” purchased for the Club’s first match. So happy 185 Anniversary to the Melbourne Cricket Club! #melbournecricketclub The MCC Museum holds two early publications by the Club. The Laws of 1841 and the Rules of the Club in 1846. The earliest copy in the library collection is from 1861. At the end of 1860-61 season the MCC had liabilities of £323/19/6 & were owed £500 from overdue subscriptions. Thus the committee made many of the rules more stringent, eg. if a member had not paid his subscription fee (of 2 guineas) by November his name would be placed on the notice board. The rules in this booklet are the first to reflect this increased strictness. The copy of the 1898 rules in the MCC Library collection was the MCC Secretary’s copy and contains a hand written list of revisions to the rules from 1847 to 1909. The current rules of the Club are available online at https://mcc.org.au/about-the-club/club-structure/club-rules They were last revised on September 16, 2022. The by-laws are also online. 921A MELB (d) [MCC Library Rec # 2705] #melbcclibrary150years150treasures

41/150 November 10 – Ron Barassi : chronicling his career using his scrapbooks & memorabilia / Ron Barassi; editor: Glenn McFarlane (2008) Springwood, NSW: HyperActive, 2008. A guide to Ron Barassi's life presented through his personal scrapbooks & memorabilia with Barassi's own notes providing revealing insights into the highs & lows of his extraordinary career. Signed by the author: "To the MCC Library, connoisseurs of sport - fabulous job you do. Ron Barassi 17410 31" 17410 - refers to 17 grand finals for 10 premierships. Also refers to the 4 clubs which Barassi played for or coached. RARE 815.2 BARAS. [MCC Library Rec # 37311] #melbcclibrary150years150treasures Today the Ron Barassi State Memorial Service is being held at MCG, we remember Ron with a Vale display in the two cases at the Library entrance. Today’s treasure was gifted by Ron when he held a book signing at the Library in 2009. This was one of many events at the library with Ron. We are also posting images of many of the Barassi items on display, including the definitive biography by Peter Lalor, and some other landmark works like John Power's The Coach. Our online Vale display is on the library catalogue page at https://mcc.softlinkhosting.com.au/liberty3/libraryHome.do #valeronbarassi Vale Ronald Dale Barassi

Our Vale Ronald Dale Barassi AM fact sheet is also available for @MCC_Members from the library. For those at home, it is online at... https://tinyurl.com/ywtyq4gf

Our special 4-page @MelbCCLibrary fact sheet for #GrandFinal2023 match #AFLPiesLions now available @MCC_Members can collect from: library L3; 50yr members room & newsstand L2; or membership office L1. If following at home, download from @MCG App. The @MelbCCLibrary Grand final Fact Sheet includes our bumper 40 question quiz.

and we are open for @AFL Grand Final Day @MCG for any @MCC_Members & Media until start of third quarter. We look forward to seeing our regulars & those discovering the library. Hope your day goes smoothly.

5/150 September 12 – 1858-1908 - Australasian Football Jubilee invitation Image 1: Invitation card on which is written, "The Victorian Football League request the pleasure of Mr Albany G. Taggart [&] company at the celebration of the Jubilee of the Australasian Game". It is written on a map of Australasia, which is bordered by a pink scroll with Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New Zealand, New South Wales and Queensland written on it. To the left of this is a collection of Australian native plants, a Star of Federation, two Australian red ensigns, and two footballers in Victorian uniform. Journalist Hugh Buggy wrote on the origins of Australian national Football Carnivals on page 8 of the Argus on Tuesday June 17, 1952, http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/23186361 "1908 - The Birth of carnival football OUR Australian game may be said to have reached its maturity both in technique and prestige by 1908, when the first Australasian Football Jubilee Carnival was staged in Melbourne. This gathering of footballers from all six States and New Zealand was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the game in 1858. Victoria easily won the first and only Australasian championship. No other side could get within eight goals of the Victorians." [MCC Library Record # 34951-01 or view online at https://tinyurl.com/yofefhas ] Image 2: There is a copy of the programme from the 1908 Carnival in the Australian Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum collection, registration 1986.1209 Image 3: QR Code to view the programme on their catalogue. Or use https://tinyurl.com/1908Jubilee Image 4: QR Code to the story of the 1908 Carnival on the very informative AustralianFootball.com website. You can also use https://tinyurl.com/Carnival1908 to visit. #melbcclibrary150years150treasures

4/150 September 11 – The Footballer The Australian game of football’s earliest annual was The Footballer. It was established in 1875 and edited by Thomas Power, the Carlton Football Club’s secretary (1870-77) and treasurer (1870-79). Modelled on cricket annuals, each edition reviewed the past season with a listing of competing clubs & outstanding players and covered senior, school, junior and provincial clubs. It also contained player profiles, tips on playing the game, reminiscences, poetry and club directories. In 1880, responsibility for the annual was handed to the Victorian Football Association (VFA) but it was published by the sports store Boyle and Scott. It ceased publication after 1881. In his Reading Australian Rules Football webpage, Tim Hogan notes that, “This is a very early annual football publication, providing a guide to the current season with some information about the features of the game. The contents include some details of the administrative structure of the VFA, including a list of office bearers and the laws of the game. A list of city, suburban and country clubs in Victoria provides details of club membership numbers, formation dates, team colours, office bearers and team player lists, with brief notes about all players. There are also inter-colonial match reports, review articles, statistics on the previous Melbourne provincial and school football seasons and a short account of the Framlingham Aboriginal football team."  #melbcclibrary150years150treasures [MCC Library Record # 318-1880-01]

3/150 September 8 – John Wisden’s Rugby Football Almanack for 1923-24 With the 2023 Rugby World Cup starting today in France, we look at one of the library’s treasures about “the game they play in heaven”. (Best of luck to all competing teams.) One hundred years ago, Wisden, the cricketer’s bible published their first edition of John Wisden’s Rugby Football Almanack for 1923-24. It contained a “Full Record of last season. International, county and club”, including “The Game in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia”. In their preface it was noted that: “The first issue of Wisden’s Rugby Football Almanack is admittedly an experiment. It remains to be seen whether public support will justify product year by year. To bring out a book of such scope is, of necessity, a hazardous venture on the part of Messrs Wisden & Co., the cost of production, in these days, being so heavy. My hope is that a full record of the game, in all parts of the world where it is played, will appeal to the lovers of rugby – a very large and ever-increasing body.” The publication would run for three issues, ceasing with the 1925-26 edition, with Wisden & Co. sticking to their cricket almanack. #melbcclibrary150years150treasures

2/150 September 7 – MCC Annual Report 1872/73 Cover and page 11 of the 1872-1873 season Melbourne Cricket Club Annual Report. The “very handsome present” of 13 volumes of The Australasian seems included as an afterthought – but it marks of the foundation of the Club’s heritage collections and the establishment date for the MCC Library. "read and adopted at the Annual General Meeting of the Club, held on the 6th September 1873. W.H. Handfield Hon. Secretary" [MCC Library collection Rec # 60684/1872-73] #melbcclibrary150years150treasures

September 6 – The Australasian 1/150 - The proprietor of the Australasian donated 13 bound volumes of this newspaper to the Club. It covered the period from 1866 to 1873 and was recorded in the minutes of the MCC Annual Meeting on September 6, 1873. This date is regarded as foundation date for the MCC Library. The Australasian was launched in Melbourne as a weekly newspaper by the proprietors of the Argus in October 1864. However, it was restructured into a new edition in April 1866. It is the 13 volumes from this date that were donated in September 1873. Published on Saturdays, the newspaper covered a variety of topics including a range of sports – cricket, football, racing, angling, shooting, and later other sports such as cycling. The Australasian was published up to 1946 when it transformed into the glossy and colourful Australasian Post magazine. The MCC Library’s 1866 bound edition of the Australasian opened at the “Supplement” page of volume 1, number 1, Saturday April 7. From this and 12 other volumes the MCC Library grew. Facing the supplement are illustrated advertisements for “A.J. Smith’s Book and Stationery Warehouse in Swanston Street” and “H.T. Dwight’s Book Depot near Parliament Houses”. Evidence of an early and strong books culture in Melbourne in 1866. #MelbCCLibrary150years150treasures [MCC Library collection Rec # 1161/1866-1]