5 June 2010
 Club president Jack Seymour |
Perth-Bayswater's One Hundred Years of Perth Rugby kicked off at the clubrooms on Friday night 4 June with a wine and cheese meet and greet. Past and current club members from Perth, elsewhere in Australia and from New Zealand received their passes for the four days of events and renewed old acquaintances to a delicious spread masterminded by 100 Year Committee Coordinator Di Scholes and Life Member Debbie Hutson.
Master of Ceremonies for the evening Rick Boyd welcomed the crowd to the event and introduced club president Jack Seymour.
Jack asked for a minute's silence for club members no longer with us and spoke emotionally of the club, its history and its place in the lives of club members.
Jack introduced City of Bayswater Mayor Terry Kenyon who presented the commemorative 100 Years of Perth Rugby jumpers to the first grade players for Saturday's game against Nedlands.
City of Bayswater Mayor Terry Kenyon presents the commemorative number five jersey to first grade captain Kereopa Pirikahu
(For more images from the night, click here for Google Picasa)
The evening continued with food, drink and plenty of memories as club members past and present looked forward to tomorrow's game and after match function, the Black and White Ball at Burswood on Sunday evening featuring Western Force captain Nathan Sharpe, and for those who survive, Monday morning's farewell champagne brunch.
One of many blasts from the past in the evening: RugbyWA Chairman Geoff Stooke ran into Perth-Bayswater Life Member Mike Jones 33 years after they met on the field as opposing captains at Pat O'Hara Reserve in a game that part of another celebration — the opening of Perth-Bayswater's clubrooms (pictured in the classic image above from the club web site's clubrooms' page). As Geoff explained, he had just arrived in Western Australia that week and the Perth-Bayswater v Associates game was his first in the state, on a typically hot Perth day in April. Jonesy added that Perth won the game.