Beacy’s 120th anniversary

BEACONSFIELD Football Club commemorated its 120th anniversary with a re-enactment meeting at the Central Hotel last Wednesday night.
On April 21, 1890, about 40 young men met at the pub, which was then called Gissing’s Hotel, with the desire to form a football club.
Club historian Lawrie Canning and his wife Kerrie spent hours tracking down missing and incomplete information.
“We knew from research 20 years ago that it was 1890 when they played their first game,” Lawrie said.
Six months ago they found an article in the Dandenong Advertiser which confirmed the actual meeting date.
They also discovered the club’s original guernsey, which was all black with a yellow star and details regarding the team which represented the club in its first match; an undermanned Beaconsfield lost to Cranbourne by 15 points.
The club missed out on celebrating their 100th anniversary, but are keen to make amends this year.
“It was like an aligning of the stars having Aussie (Jones, senior coach) back and a number of old people coming back and being involved,” Lawrie said.
“There are more people involved and there’s more energy and now we can do more things that we couldn’t do before.”
Fifty officials, members and players attended the function.
Different members of the club read out newspaper articles and archival materials, which created an overall history of the proud club.
Also present was Tammy Lobato MP, who has been working on the Holm Park Reserve sporting development, which will benefit the club.