Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In August 1918 in Burwood, in my electorate of Reid, 11 boys aged between nine and 13 met in an Appian Way backyard chook shed and started a club. This was the humble beginning of a club that this year celebrates its centenary. The name of that club was The Briars, a name taken from the first president's house. In the early years, like most boys of that area, sport was absolutely everything, and they organised and took part in athletics and swimming carnivals and played cricket and rugby amongst themselves. The Briars has always been a family club, as parents and friends helped organise and guide these boys in the early days. In 1922 The Briars played in their first competitive cricket competition, followed in 1923 by entering a local rugby competition. The club's original premises on George Street, Burwood was leased in 1929 and, following the club's incorporation, finally purchased in 1950. A steady growth in sporting club membership continued throughout the ensuing years. The nature of the club and its social activities closely reflected the social mores of the day.

In the early years, a library, debating, lectures and plays were put on by the members, always under the guidance of their parents. Things became difficult during the 1930s Depression, and the club's sporting activities were constricted to basically cricket and rugby. No fewer than 157 of the 187 members at the time enlisted in World War II, with 16 of those making the ultimate sacrifice. In the post-war years, the club's membership, activities and major sports expanded. Hockey was introduced as a major sport in 1946 and squash in 1956. Throughout its history, promoting the benefits of amateur team sport was paramount. Up until around 2005, it was completely run on an honorary basis. It was also unique in that, to become a full member of The Briars club, it was a prerequisite for a member to complete two playing years consecutively in a major sport. Although individual club sports have won many premierships and some members have even represented their country, with the Wallabies in rugby and Olympians in hockey, successive The Briars administrators have always emphasised the importance of participation in sport in a sporting manner.

The later years of the last century and its rapidly changing social and economic environment presented The Briars with its own challenges, and the club had to adapt to accommodate these. Women's and junior sports were embraced, with hockey leading the way. In 2005, The Briars club amalgamated with Greenlees Park Bowling Club, initially to become The Briars at Greenlees and now called Briars Sports. This combined club has seen a rapid expansion of sporting membership and now has an expanded sports offering, including men's and women's lawn bowls and both senior and junior netball, which my daughter Analise has played. The club now boasts not only extensive licensed club facilities which cater for the whole family but also sporting opportunities in six major sports for players aged under eight to 88 plus. Today, as The Briars club celebrates its centenary, it has come full circle: it again has more young people than adults playing sport under The Briars' banner, just as it did when it was set up in 1918. It boasts a total of 1950 active sporting members—750 seniors and 1,200 juniors.

To Brett Howle and his committee and to the amazing three brothers, John, Gerard and Paul, who have become great mates, it has been a privilege and an honour, not just for my family to be members of this club but to come back as a member of parliament to re-invest in Rothwell Park—which is the spiritual home of Briars cricket and rugby, and a field on which I played junior rugby at St Pat's in Strathfield in the under-11s—and rebuild the grandstand with the help of support from the Minister for Sport. I look forward. I enjoyed their centenary dinner in August. We have a cricket game in two weeks, postponed from last Sunday, where I'll conduct the ceremonial coin toss. To 100 years of Briars sport and to the local community, here's to the first hundred. I look forward to hopefully seeing a lot more of the next hundred to come.