Faster: Manly in the 1920s
By Terry Metherell, 2006
Chapter 9: Arena of Dreams: Manly Sports in the 1920s.
Manly Oval in 1920s. Photo from Claude West.
Manly Oval, known then as Ivanhoe Park, was saved from subdivision and
development in 1884 by local civic leaders led by the first Mayor of Manly, Charles
Hayes. Ivanhoe Park was gazetted as a public reserve in 1887. The area that became
Manly Oval was only about one-third the size of the current oval but was already in use
for local sports, including cricket and athletics.
By 1920, the Manly Oval area was widely used summer and winter by Manly Cricket
Club, Manly Amateur Athletic Club, Manly Bowling Club, Manly Lawn Tennis Club,
Manly Rugby Union Club, and others. It was also heavily used for a variety of school
sports, charitable fund-raising events and community celebrations. It was a centre of
community sports and the most popular arena of sporting dreams north of the harbour.
In July 1920, the Manly Daily advertised Manly Bicycle Club’s Saturday night races at
the Oval. They were organised by Les Luker, the Club’s ‘energetic honorary secretary’1
who ran a Manly motorcycle and cycle sales business from his shop in Sydney Road,
next door to the Congregational Church.
The Manly Amateur Athletic Club was running its popular winter meets each
Wednesday night:
“Last Wednesday, when the 2-mile sealed road race was decided there was a large
crowd of onlookers. The race was popular among members, and some surprise runners
came to light. When the next Manly Marathon is run ‘the Village’ should be strongly
represented.”2
1
2
Manly Daily, 16 July 1920, p4.
Manly Daily, 16 July 1920, p4.
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The excitement and hope of the post-war years can be glimpsed in the Manly Daily’s
sports reports and in glamorous images of local sporting heroes like Churchill
Crakanthorp, from a prominent Manly sporting family:
“Mr Crakanthorp, besides being a surfer, is one of the foremost of the active
members in the Manly Amateur Swimming Club’s ranks. He is also a Manly [Rugby]
footballer, and he dances… It is personalities like that of Mr Crakanthorp which have
made Manly what it is today.”
Crakanthorp was also praised for saving the life of a Manly visitor seen in trouble in
the surf from the Manly Life-Saving Clubroom:
“As quick as a wink [he] slipped out of his clothes, into his costume, donned a belt,
and was swimming with all speed to the bather’s rescue.”3
The Manly Daily encouraged local sport and gave pride of place to reports of Manly’s
sporting achievements. The formation in 1920 of a Junior Cricket Association to serve
Manly and district received prominent coverage, as did the 16th Annual Report of the
Middle Harbor District Cricket Club which, shrewdly, gave special thanks to the late
proprietor and editor of the Daily, Edward Lincoln.4
In March 1921 the NSW State Amateur Athletic Championships were held at Manly
Oval. It confirmed the Manly Club’s status as one of the largest and best-run in NSW,
capable of staging a ‘magnificent display of track and field sports’.5 The Manly Bowling
Club, established in 1898, was also very popular, with Manly Mayors Frederick Passau
(1898) and James Bonner (1907-1910) among its early Presidents.
Regular reports of bowls tournaments held on the Manly Oval rinks leased from the
Council appeared in the Daily. Leading Manly business leaders including W P Lister
(1920-1922), J K Purves (1924, 1934-35) and A C Samuels (1928) shared the Club
Presidency during the 1920s.6
A huge crowd was anticipated for the Maori Rugby team visit to Manly Oval. Rugby
was so popular locally that a “local junior competition was proposed for Manly and
district to help overcome the difficulty of getting other suburban teams to come ‘so far
out’.”7
Down at the Manly Baths at East Esplanade, the Manly Swimming Club was gaining
a Sydney-wide reputation, strengthened further by its surf swimmers. At the Royal LifeSaving Society’s Swimming Carnival at the Domain Baths in 1921, Manly’s Harry Hay
tied for first in the 220 yards championship; and Tom Farrell placed third in the 100 yards
inter-club championship. The 500 yards relay was won by Manly Life-Saving Club,
including Churchill Crakanthorp, ahead of Tom Farrell’s North Steyne Club. Manly’s
Dick Eve gave a diving exhibition that foreshadowed his gold medal dive at the 1924
Paris Olympic Games.8
The extraordinary popularity of local sports was highlighted by attendances at Manly
Oval. At a King’s Birthday Gala Day for the new Junior Rugby Union in June 1923,
“about a thousand people witnessed the matches” and a 75-yard championship race.
The state of the Oval was also a matter of concern. When Manly defeated Western
Suburbs in a low-scoring, grinding rugby game typical of the period, ‘Supporter’ wrote in
his ‘Rugby Union Notes’:
3
Loc cit.
Loc cit.
5
Manly Daily, 22 March 1921, p2.
6
Swancott, C, Manly 1788-1968, p149.
7
Manly Daily, 22 March 1921, p5.
8
Manly Daily, 22 March 1921, p2.
4
Faster: Manly in the 1920s
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“Once again the exceptionally hard nature of the ground prevented our team showing
its best form and, at times, there was not only a decided disinclination to tackle hard, but
there was also a tendency to get rid of the ball as soon as possible…”9
Manly Oval featured as the venue for many important community commemorations
and celebrations. In 1921 there was a record attendance at the Manly churches’ United
Anzac Memorial Service held at the oval. Major-General Ryrie (the local Federal MP)
presented 1914-15 Stars to Manly returned soldiers.10 The same day he unveiled the
new marble Honour Roll at Manly Public School, where it can still be seen.
Tennis Courts at Manly Oval, late 1920s.
Manly Lawn Tennis Club had its origins at Manly Oval in 1885, when Joseph German
and his three brothers purchased racquets, balls and a net and marked out a court near
where the tennis clubhouse now stands. In the early days there were eight courts
extending from Sydney Road to Raglan Street. Later the Manly Croquet Club was
moved to the Oval and the tennis courts were reduced to six.
In the 1920s, tennis ‘boomed’ in Manly and was even alleged to be affecting the
popularity of swimming and surfing. Manly Club had several of Sydney’s leading
players, including Mrs Ford and Mrs Lascelles, both of whom held the NSW Women’s
Singles Championship. In 1921, Ford and Lascelles won the NSW Women’s Doubles
Championship and represented the State at many interstate championships in the
1920s.11
By 1923, the Manly Club had outgrown its courts at Manly Oval. Small private courts
had begun to spring up in surrounding suburbs, including Boyle and Condamine Streets
in Balgowlah. A letter to the Manly Daily appealed for more sports facilities, especially
tennis courts, and identified the land being reclaimed beside Manly Lagoon (the future
Keirle Park) as ideal for a “district sports ground” for both Manly and Warringah, where:
“both the borough and the shire will be provided with an additional charm to lure the
devotees of manly sports.”
He also reminded local MPs, including ex-Minister and Balgowlah resident Arthur
Griffith, of earlier promises including one to “reclaim the mud flats of North harbour and
9
Manly Daily, 9 June 1923, p2
Manly Daily, 27 April 1921, p2.
11
Swancott, p144.
10
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form a National sports ground.”12 This ambitious project to create what is now North
Harbour Reserve had to await the Great Depression when it was completed as an
unemployment relief project.
Manly Council received significant revenue for leasing the Oval to sporting clubs and
for special events. However, costs rose as heavy usage led to increased maintenance
needs. In 1923, Council had to remind Bowling Club members who were holding their
club championships, that they should buy season tickets to the Oval “to assist Council
staff in checking gate receipts on Saturdays”. Apparently, Manly bowlers were gaining
free access to the popular home games of the Manly Rugby team, en route to the
Bowling Club behind the Oval.13
Manly Cricket Club had only three Presidents between its formation in 1878 by Alfred
Hilder and friends, and 1968. Dr David Thomas followed Hilder, serving 26 years as
President, to be succeeded by R A Oxlade in 1923. In 1923, the Club’s major
fundraiser, the Cricket Club Ball, was held at Dungowan Ballroom with a special guest,
Miss Ethel Campbell. Miss Campbell, known as ‘The Digger’s Idol’ was a Durban
socialite who had organised entertainment for ‘Diggers’ visiting South Africa en route to
and from the Great War.
On a Wednesday night, 25 July 1923, Dungowan Ballroom (formerly the Paramount
Picture Palace) was filled with “hundreds of Manly cricketers, Diggers and other
sportsmen and sportswomen”, including Test cricketers.14 The evening was an
emotional tribute to Manly’s war heroes and to the emerging new sporting heroes of the
optimistic 1920s.
In early 1924, Manly Oval was again in the spotlight. With the Paris Olympic Games
approaching and Manly swimmers and divers, Andrew ‘Boy’ Charlton, Ernest Henry, and
Dick Eve in the Australian team, Manly prepared to help raise the funds needed for
travel, accommodation and other team expenses. The swimming team was managed by
Manly businessman and sports enthusiast, ‘Ossie’ Merrett who gave additional drive and
urgency to Manly’s fundraising efforts.
On a Tuesday night, 22 January 1924 a ‘Grand Olympic Gymkhana’ was held at
Manly Oval, “in aid of the Olympic Games Fund”. Led by the Manly Amateur Athletic
Club and assisted by the other ‘Sporting Bodies of Manly’, the gymkhana began with a
procession of sporting clubs from Manly Wharf with their club gear, led by Manly Band.
It featured invitation athletic races over the Olympic event distances, the high jump, and
middle distance races. The NSW Amateur Cyclists’ Union staged handicap events and
spectacular cyclist versus athlete races featuring “champions of Manly in each case”.15
There was also be a motor scooter race, eurythmic and gymnastic displays and
special Olympic Fund certificates for all entrants.
With weekends at Manly Oval crowded with sporting club activities, many other
events had to be held on weeknights. The week before the Grand Olympic Gymkhana,
local women supporting the Royal Hospital for Women’s Building Fund staged an
‘Entertainment on the Oval’. On a Tuesday night, the ‘Entertainment’ attracted
“hundreds of spectators… enjoying the various items by the Manly Band and State
Military Band, and Miss Gladys Talman and pupils of the Langridge School of Physical
Culture.” Miss Talman, a Sydney star of modern dance, performed the “eurythmic solo,
‘Spirits of the Night’, with special lighting effects supplied by the Wentworth Hotel.”16
12
Manly Daily, 26 July 1923, p2.
Op cit, p4.
14
Manly Daily, 27 July 1923, p2.
15
Manly Daily, 18 January 1924, p3-4.
16
Manly Daily, 18 January 1924, p4.
13
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Meanwhile, the Manly Bicycle Club had even bigger plans for cycling facilities at
Manly Oval. With the popularity of cycling at a new peak, in 1924 the club embarked on
the “big job” of building a banked track. It established a Track Building Committee and
during the 1924-25 season club volunteers “undertook a big work in making a banked
track on the Oval. This permitted weekly races for members, under much better
conditions than previously.”17
At the Club’s annual general meeting in 1925 held at the Manly Oval Pavilion, with W
Tebbutt as President, members celebrated a hectic and successful season with
completion of the banked track, four road races and 46 track races for seniors; and six
road and 47 track races for juniors.18
The unexpected success of Manly’s triumphant team members at the 1924 Olympics
inspired a huge community welcome home and weeks of celebratory events. It also
inspired a boost in competitive swimming, with special ‘head-to-head’ swimming
contests between Australian, Swedish, American and Japanese stars, featuring Andrew
‘Boy’ Charlton.
In January 1924, prior to the Paris Olympics, Charlton had beaten Sweden’s Arne
Borg over 880 yards at the NSW Swimming Championships at the Domain Baths,
setting a new world record. In April 1924, the Manly Life Saving Club held a dance to
farewell its Olympians, Charlton, Ernest Henry, North Steyne’s Dick Eve, and Nick
Winter. As the Manly Club’s 50th Anniversary history, Heroes of the Surf, recalls:
“A few weeks later the Village became known as the ‘home of the champions’. Charlton
won the Paris Olympic 1500 metres and was third in the 400 metres; Henry won a silver
medal in the 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay; Eve won the highboard diving… and Winter
won the hop, step and jump, setting a world record.”19
Andrew ‘Boy’ Charlton, Manly Baths, early 1920s
‘Boy’s Triumphant Swim’, ‘Boy Charlton’s Feat Amazes the Whole World’, ‘Manly’s
Day of Triumph’, the headlines proclaimed. Long before their return in October
17
Manly Daily, 25 April 1925, p7.
Loc cit.
19
Heroes of the Surf, p13.
18
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thousands turned out in Manly for the ‘worship of heroes’, to ‘cheer its champions’. In
August the Sunday News featured Manly Public School: ‘Charlton’s School Has Many
Champions… There’s Something in the Manly Air.’
At the ‘Great Homecoming’,20 a delirious Manly community and civic leaders
celebrated a magnificent sporting achievement and a magnificent boost for Manly.
Swimming and Australian sporting excellence had assumed a new and mythic
dimension: an arena of dreams.
Swimming, and sport generally, had become mass entertainment. Manly’s Britannia
Cinema in Sydney Road was renamed the Olympic in 1924. In 1926, the Mayor
officiated at the ‘grand Opening of [the] Olympic Club’ in Denison Street, Manly. The
opening exhibition featured displays of physical culture, fencing, netball, self-defence,
vaulting and Swedish physical training. The Club’s owner, Frank Stuart, a Police
Department instructor, put ‘police recruits’ through their paces and extolled the benefits
to the Manly community of better physical fitness.21
The 1927 NSW Amateur Swimming Championships were held at the recently rebuilt
Manly Baths. While still an amateur sport in Australia, the entry prices reflected
swimming’s new status as a ‘boom’ entertainment. Tickets to the ‘reserved Gallery’
were 2/-; other parts 1/6. Advertising reminded Manly’s sports enthusiasts of ‘Boy’s
recent triumphs: “Remember the Charlton-Takaishi Carnival? Book now.”22
As the high-point of post-war prosperity was reached, Manly’s sporting cyclists took a
new turn. F L (Les) Luker, honorary secretary of the new Manly League of Wheelmen
(perhaps a ‘breakaway’ from the Manly Bicycle Club) organised a ‘Cycling and Motor
Cycling Carnival’ at Manly Oval. By bringing together cyclists and motor cyclists in a
joint carnival, as he did in his Sydney Road business that sold both Harley-Davidson and
BSA motor-bikes and Speedwell cycles, Luker offered Manly’s sporting public a new
evening entertainment on Thursday nights.23
Goat Racing at Manly Oval, 1928
By 1928, every sport in a crowded Manly calendar endeavoured to add new
attractions and community appeal to their events. In September, when the Athletic
Club’s season opened at Manly Oval it featured the Manly Modified Marathon as its main
20
Wellings CB3, pp34-43, various press clippings, July-October 1924.
Manly Daily, 8 July 1926, p2.
22
Manly Daily, 21 December 1927, p1.
23
Loc cit.
21
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event. Nearby at the Victoria Hall in the Corso, soon to be demolished for the new St
Matthew’s Church, Manly Amateur Theatrical Club was performing one of the Hall’s last
shows, ‘The Lilac Domino’.24
For its 1929 season, Manly Rugby Union Club provided extra entertainment,
foreshadowing more modern developments in sport. Jerry Pheloung, Manly’s renowned
band conductor, had trained students from Manly Public School and formed a new band.
The Daily’s advertisements welcomed new Rugby Club members: “Manly Public School
Juvenile Military Band will officiate. Come and see good football and hear good
music.”25
Ozzie Merrett Memorial Gates, Manly Oval, 1927
As the Great Depression struck Manly, one bright note was the final decision by the
Federal Government to transfer 300 acres of the Quarantine Reserve to Manly Council
for recreation purposes. The Federal Minister for Health, Mr Anstey, visited North Head
in February 1930 to confirm that the quarantine station and new sporting facilities would
have to share the area.26
Manly Council planned to lay out football and cricket grounds, areas for tennis and
other sports, and an 18-hole golf course.27 Fortunately the Depression and increased
defence threats put an early end to Council’s grand plans that could have destroyed the
environment and heritage of North Head. Manly Oval was able to establish its position
for decades to come as Manly sport’s pre-eminent arena of dreams.
24
Manly Daily, 22 September 1928, p6.
Manly Daily, 23 April 1929, p1.
26
Evening News, 18 February 1930 [no page], Wellings CB4, p122.
27
Guardian, 27 June 1930, Wellings CB4, p137.
25
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