Subiaco Lacrosse Club

The history of the Subiaco Lacrosse Club can be traced back to lacrosse players from the Eastern States – Fred Parsons (Adelaide) and Fred Wingrove(Melbourne) – who met in Perth in 1896 with the idea of forming a lacrosse association. In the first two years only social games where conducted and in 1898 four teams- Fremantle, Perth, Cottesloe and Mercantile – took to the field. The Fremantle team grew rapidly and expanded with players creating an East Fremantle club in the early 1900s. WW1 disrupted the growth of lacrosse, and it re-established itself during the 1920s and again the Fremantle players moved on to create other clubs including the Nedlands Lacrosse Club.

A paper written by Reg Elliott ( he joined Fremantle Lacrosse Club in 1900 as a player and later Secretary, President, and Life Member) records Hartley Angus as a former Fremantle player who reformed the East Fremantle club in 1927 and again Hartley Angus, with others, then went on to establish the Nedlands Lacrosse Club in 1930.

The first time Subiaco Lacrosse appears in WALA files is a Team Photograph of the Subiaco Swans Lacrosse Club dated 1928, and it features J L Carden in the back row. Also Subiaco Swans “B” Grade is featured in a newspaper story in 1928 telling how Maylands Lacrosse created a surprise in defeating Subiaco who where the leading team at the time. The press article is dated 23 Aug 1928.

This proved to be a false start, because interestingly, in 1929 a press article features the Swans team as playing “B” grade without any reference to Subiaco.

WALA Annual Reports in 1930 record 8 teams playing “A” grade with Nedlands Lacrosse Club finishing 2nd last on 2 points. This being the first time a team called Nedlands is reported as playing lacrosse.

The year 1930 is also recorded as the founding year for Nedlands-Subiaco Club in the official programme produced by the WALA in 1959 under the heading of Club Histories.