Issue 42: Spring 2010 - Melbourne Cricket Club

MCC Archivist Patricia Downs unpacks the
secrets of the Club’s archives
University 5.9 (39) was defeated by Melbourne
9.13 (67) in Round 8, 1911 and went on to take the
wooden spoon. In fact, University was last on the
ladder from 1911 to 1914 and the club holds the
record of 51 consecutive losses – from Round 4,
1912 to Round 18, 1914.
Many questions arise when reading the letterbooks
in the archives and opportunities abound for further
research. There are also interesting historical
administrative processes to be rediscovered.
The letterbooks, for example, illuminate the
era of business handwriting. To retain copies of
letters written, a letterpress copy was produced
by pressing a damp sheet of paper against a
handwritten original in a copy press.
To make the text right-reading in the copy,
thin paper was used, and the transferred copy
was read through the reverse side. This novel
process devised to create a facsimile of the
original eliminated the unavoidable human error
which occurred when clerks made their careful
handwritten copies of correspondence.
3 The MCC shall allow the UFC the use of the gymnasium on their
match days during the seasons, and shall provide one or two
lockers for the use of the UFC – a small room off the gymnasium
for the use of the Committee on days when the University FC is
playing on the MCG.
4 The MCC shall provide the UFC with 70 passes direct to the Grand
Stand during each match played by the UFC on the MCG. All holders
of UFC tickets shall on production of same be admitted to the Grand
Stand on each day the UFC is playing on the MCG.
5 That this agreement shall be terminated only by mutual consent of
both Committees.
Archives can be reinvented and used as a powerful
financial asset and business resource. They hold
primary-source evidence of change and growth
and are full of ideas for marketing and creative
interpretation. MCC archives is being made
accessible through a newly installed database and
the painstaking process of examining old receipts,
minute books and correspondence is bringing the
club’s intriguing and valuable history to light.
Acknowledgements: David Allen, Marie Pernat, Eric
Panther and Celia Drummond
Patricia Downs
MCC Archivist
The Yorker - Spring 2010
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