The 1911

Auckland Rugby League The Auckland Rugby League (ARL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It is responsible for rugby league in the region, including both club and school rugby league. It began in 1910 when the fi ...

season was the second full organised club season in Auckland following the

1910 Auckland Rugby League season Year 191 ( CXCI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Apronianus and Bradua (or, less frequently, year 944 ''Ab urbe condi ...

City Rovers The City Newton Dragons are a defunct New Zealand rugby league club that was based at Victoria Park, Auckland. The club was created in 1948 by a merger of two original clubs, the City Rovers and Newton Rangers. Both the Rovers and the Rangers par ...

won the title again after winning it in the competitions inaugural year. The club season commenced on 20 May, with the start of the competition for the Myers Cup.

were crowned champions after defeating Ponsonby United in the final 36–15 which was required due to both teams being within 2 points of each other as the competition entered its closing stages. The competition at the time and for decades to come often did not complete full round robins. When a team had an unassailable lead over their nearest rivals the competition was often concluded at that point. Ponsonby and City had already met twice during the season but rather than conclude the round robin with round 10. In round 10 Ponsonby would have had a bye and City would likely have gained an easy win over wooden spooners, Eden Ramblers so the Auckland Rugby League decided to have the two top teams play off for the title a week early rather than prolong the competition. The City side featured

Albert Asher Arapeta Paurini Wharepapa (3 December 1879 – 8 January 1965), or Albert Asher as he was more commonly known, was a New Zealand List of dual-code rugby internationals, dual-code international rugby union and professional rugby league footballe ...

Alex Stanaway Alexander William Stanaway (14 July 1886 – 27 June 1972), also known as Ariki Haira, was a New Zealand rugby league player who represented New Zealand national rugby league team, New Zealand. His brother, Jack Stanaway, was also a professional r ...

Jim Rukutai Puhipi James Rukutai (1877 – 11 January 1940) was a New Zealand rugby union and professional rugby league footballer who played representative rugby league (RL) and coached New Zealand. The Auckland Rugby League's minor premiership, the Ruku ...

, and Bob Mitchell, while Ponsonby had Charlie Savory, Charles Dunning and

Arthur Carlaw Arthur Carlaw was a New Zealand rugby league player who played a role in the establishment of the sport in New Zealand and represented New Zealand national rugby league team, New Zealand. His uncle, James Carlaw, James, was an administrator in th ...

Auckland Rugby League news

Reminiscing about the league's formative years

In 1941 at the annual meeting the chairman of the league in 1911 (Mr. B. Brigham) spoke about the league in its formative years. He said "the seeds sown by the pioneers have developed in a wonderful way... when we first started playing, the matches were at

Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to: Places Australia * Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales * Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse * Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...

. For funds we used to go around with a hat. Then we started taking boxes round, and if at the end of the day we were "shy", we had to have a tarpaulin just to pay for the ground". He went on to say that "plenty of mud was thrown at us those times, and we had to face a good deal of hostility. Our first meetings were held in the cellar of the Rob Roy Hotel, and then we got the use of the social room in the same hotel. Then we drifted to other rooms, and a home of our own". He also talked of venues and said "at one time the league had a lease of

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...

at £100 a year, and from there they shifted to Victoria Park, where on one occasion they had a £300 gate, a figure that was not beaten until the 1924 season at

Carlaw Park Carlaw Park was a multi-purpose stadium in Parnell, New Zealand, Parnell, a central suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It neighboured the Auckland Domain's Northern end. It was primarily used for rugby league and had a peak spectator capacity of aro ...

Venues

Unlike in 1910 when only two venues were used, there were 5 venues used. They were

, Takapuna Racecourse, 'Avondale',

Auckland Domain The Auckland Domain, also known as Pukekawa / Auckland Domain, is a large park in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the oldest park in the city, and at is one of the largest. Located in the central suburb of Grafton, the park land is the remains o ...

, and

(which was the venue for the club final between

and Ponsonby United.

Eden Ramblers formed

The senior competition saw the addition of the Eden Ramblers who had been formed in April. A meeting was held at the Avondale Public Hall on Wednesday 26 April with Mr John Bollard, MP presiding over it. He was elected president and chairman, and the name Eden Ramblers was chosen along with the colours or green and gold. The following officers were selected: Hon Secretary, Mr B Boone; Management Committee, W. A. Cummings, J Eddoes, W Fairweather, M Morrow, and J Denyer. The membership was close to 50 and they were to begin their training for the season ahead on 29 April with a joint practice with Ponsonby United at Victoria Park.

Rugby union converts

At the start of the season George Gillett, Arthur Francis, Alan Blakey, and Frank Morse all switched codes. Gillett and Francis had both played for the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

for several seasons and were joining the

Newton Rangers The City Newton Dragons are a defunct New Zealand rugby league club that was based at Victoria Park, Auckland. The club was created in 1948 by a merger of two original clubs, the City Rovers and Newton Rangers. Both the Rovers and the Rangers par ...

along with Blakey who was a well known Auckland rugby player. Morse was joining the

. Gillett, Francis, and Morse would all go on to represent the Kiwi's.

Representative season

It featured a representative program in August and September where

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

played nine matches including two against the New Zealand side. They won eight and lost one. Their first match saw them lose to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

however they rattled off consecutive wins against New Zealand (6 weeks later),

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, Lower Waikato,

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

, Nelson,

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

, Hawke's Bay Māori, and a Country team from Waihi & Rotorua.

Myers Cup (first grade championship)

Eighteen regular season matches were played before the final on 16 September where

defeated Ponsonby United 36 to 15 to retain the title which they had won in 1910.

First Grade competition

Myers Cup standings

The second round did not feature the final round of matches hence Ponsonby playing an extra match (when they were due to have a bye), while the table also includes the final played between

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and Ponsonby.

Myers Cup results

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

In the match between Newton and Eden one of the three tries was unattributed but it was said that the try scorers were Short and Linkhorn so one of those players scored twice but it is unknown which.

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

The match between Ponsonby and Eden was played on the Avondale Racecourse. The sports fields were located at the eastern end of the racecourse grounds. Avondale Racecourse in 1902

Round 8

In the match between City and Ponsonby at the Takapuna Racecourse there were several injuries. Harrison (City) sprained an ankle, Hunt (City) ruptured the muscles of his shoulder, and Warner (City) had his nose "severely injured in a collision with Carlaw (Ponsonby) who was "partly stunned and sustained a cut to his forehead.

Round 9

Final

Top scorers

The Ponsonby v Eden match in Round 2 had 23 unattributed points for Ponsonby (5 tries and 4 goals) and 5 for Eden (1 try and 1 goal), while the Round 4 match between Newton and Eden saw a try to Newton unattributed. As such the following lists are likely to omit tries and points for players from those sides.

Lower grades

Grades were made of the following teams with the winning team in bold: *Second Grade:

North Shore Albions The North Shore Albions were a rugby league club based on the North Shore of Auckland in Devonport, New Zealand, Devonport before moving to Bayswater at a later time. They formed in 1909 and folded in the early 2000s due to a lack of playing nu ...

, Ponsonby United, Northcote & Birkenhead Ramblers *Third Grade:

, Eden Ramblers,

, Northcote & Birkenhead Ramblers. Ponsonby initially entered a team in the third grade but failed to play a game before withdrawing. A junior representative match was played between A and B teams as curtain-raiser to the New Zealand v Auckland match at Takapuna Racecourse on July 29. The match featured Edward Vincent Fox who the Fox Memorial Shield would later be named after. The teams were; A team: Liversidge (Ponsonby), Hawthorne (City), Herrick (Northcote), Keen (Ponsonby), Edward Fox (North Shore), Sceates (Northcote), Jackson (Northcote), Gault (City), Jordan (Northcote), Boswell (Ponsonby), Hynes (North Shore), Stanaway (Ponsonby), Pugh (Northcote). B Team: Sergeant (Northcote), Ridings (North Shore), Schofield (Ponsonby), Conaghan (North Shore), Neil (Northcote), Gerrard (North Shore), Brown (Ponsonby), Buchanan (North Shore), Vic Barchard (City), Fairweather (Northcote), Young (North Shore), Davies (Ponsonby), McCullagh (City). Emergencies: Young (Ponsonby), Otto, Jonas, Leaity, and Tickner. The match was played in heavy rain and resulted in a 6-all draw.

Second Grade standings

The results are incomplete. There were 10 rounds played but only 11 of the 20 results were reported. {, , - , {, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" , - !width=220 , Team !width=20 abbr="Played" , Pld !width=20 abbr="Won" , W !width=20 abbr="Drawn" , D !width=20 abbr="Lost" , L !width=20 abbr="For" , F !width=20 abbr="Against" , A !width=20 abbr="Points" , Pts , - , style="text-align:left;", Northcote & Birkenhead Ramblers , 7, , 7, , 0, , 0, , 64, , 35, , 14 , - , style="text-align:left;", Ponsonby United , 5, , 2, , 0, , 3, , 25, , 23, , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;",

, 4, , 1, , 0, , 3, , 30, , 35, , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;",

, 6, , 1, , 0, , 5, , 21, , 47, , 2 , -

Third Grade standings

The results are incomplete. There were 9 rounds played but only 9 results were reported out of 18 matches. {, , - , {, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" , - !width=220 , Team !width=20 abbr="Played" , Pld !width=20 abbr="Won" , W !width=20 abbr="Drawn" , D !width=20 abbr="Lost" , L !width=20 abbr="For" , F !width=20 abbr="Against" , A !width=20 abbr="Points" , Pts , - , style="text-align:left;",

, 4, , 4, , 0, , 0, , 66, , 9, , 8 , - , style="text-align:left;", Eden Ramblers , 5, , 2, , 0, , 3, , 41, , 45, , 4 , - , style="text-align:left;", Northcote & Birkenhead Ramblers , 3, , 1, , 0, , 2, , 17, , 20, , 2 , - , style="text-align:left;",

, 4, , 1, , 0, , 3, , 5, , 55, , 2 , -

Representative season

The season began with a match against the New Zealand team which was about to depart for its Australian tour. The touring side won by two points but when they returned from their tour they played again only this time Auckland were the victors by 11 points to 3.

Auckland v New Zealand

Auckland v Wellington (Northern Union Cup)

Ronald (Scotty) McDonald broke his leg during the match. A. Seeling of the Wellington team also badly injured his knee. The team was supposed to go by boat back to Wellington but decided to go by train so they could drop Seeling off in Wanganui where he lived.

Auckland v Lower Waikato

J Kay had the distinction of playing for Auckland one week, and then turning out against them the following week for Waikato. Occasionally players from the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions would represent Auckland. Kay played 3 matches for Auckland in this season. The Auckland Star credited a conversion to Jim Griffen while the New Zealand Herald reported that Charles Dunning kicked all 3 goals. As the Auckland Star's match report was more detailed that is the record reported below.

Auckland v Hawke's Bay (Northern Union C.C.)

Auckland v Nelson (Northern Union C.C.)

For Nelson

Dave Mason David Thomas Mason (born 10 May 1946) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Worcester, who first found fame with the rock band Traffic. Over the course of his career, Mason has played and recorded with many notable pop and rock mu ...

scored a try, while Oscar Cederman who was later killed in action in Belgium during World War I scored a try and kicked a conversion.

Auckland v Taranaki (Northern Union C.C.)

Auckland v Hawke's Bay Māori

Auckland v Country (Waihi & Rotorua)

A month after Auckland's match with Hawke's Bay Māori an exhibition game was arranged in Waihi against a 'Country' team from that area, including Rotorua players. It was the first ever rugby league match and was played on the Waihi Domain in front of a "fairly large crowd". Despite a few regular forwards not making the trip Auckland still took a strong side to Waihi and ran out winners 20-10. For the Country side Rukingi Reke kicked 2 conversions.

Auckland representative matches played and scorers

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center;" !Rank!!Name!!Club!!Play!!Tries!!Con!!Pen!!Mark!!Points , - , 1, , Joe Bennett, , Newton, , 7, , 9, , -, , -, , -, , 27 , - , 2, , Charles Dunning, , Ponsonby, , 6, , -, , 12, , 1, , -, , 26 , - , 3, ,

, , City, , 7, , 6, , 1, , -, , -, , 20 , - , 4, , Jim Griffen, , North Shore, , 8, , 4, , 1, , -, , -, , 14 , - , 5, , Harry Fricker, , Ponsonby , , 7, , 4, , -, , -, , -, , 12 , - , 5, ,

, , Manukau , , 7, , 4, , -, , -, , -, , 12 , - , 7, , Frank Morse, , City, , 5, , 2, , 1, , 1, , -, , 10 , - , 7, ,

George Seagar George Seagar was a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who represented New Zealand. His younger brother Allan Seagar also represented New Zealand at rugby league. Rugby League Playing career and Rowing George Seagar was a boiler ...

, , North Shore, , 4, , 2, , 2, , -, , -, , 10 , - , 9, ,

, , Ponsonby, , 6, , 3, , -, , -, , -, , 9 , - , 9, , J Kay, , Komakorau (Ngaruawahia), , 3, , 3, , -, , -, , -, , 9 , - , 11, , Alfred Jackson, , North Shore, , 9, , 2, , -, , -, , -, , 6 , - , 11, , Bob Mitchell, , City, , 6, , 2, , -, , -, , -, , 6 , - , 11, , George Harrison, , North Shore, , 2, , 2, , -, , -, , -, , 6 , - , 11, ,

Stan Walters Stanley Peter Walters Jr. (born May 27, 1948) is a former professional American football offensive tackle. After playing college football for Syracuse, he was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the ninth round of the 1972 NFL Draft. He spent t ...

, , North Shore, , 2, , 2, , -, , -, , -, , 6 , - , 11, , E Robinson, , City, , 7, , 2, , -, , -, , -, , 6 , - , 16, ,

Alf Chorley Alf Chorley was an English-born rugby league footballer who represented New Zealand. Playing career Chorley played for Halifax ( Heritage № 8), and Swinton before moving to New Zealand.Coffey, John and Bernie Wood ''Auckland, 100 years of r ...

, , Ponsonby, , 3, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , 3 , - , 16, , Charles Linkhorn, , Newton, , 2, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , 3 , - , 16, , Reg Sprague, , Lower Waikato (Ngaruawahia), , 1, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , 3 , - , 16, , George Hunt, , City , , 2, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , 3 , - , 20, , Sydney Cole, , Ponsonby, , 1, , -, , 1, , -, , -, , 2 , - , 21, , Harry Childs, , City, , 7, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, , Charles Dillimore, , Ponsonby, , 2, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, , Don Kenealy, , Eden, , 3, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, , Stan Weston, , North Shore, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, , Samuel Houghton, , Ponsonby, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, , J Cummings, , Eden, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, , J O’Sullivan, , City, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, ,

Ernie Asher Ernest "Ernie" Asher (21 April 1886 – 10 April 1973), also known as Te Keepa Pouwhiuwhiu, was a New Zealand rugby union and professional rugby league footballer who played representative rugby league (RL) for New Zealand Māori and New Zealan ...

, , City, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, , Ronald MacDonald, , North Shore, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, , Harold Roy Denize, , City, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , -, , - , - , 21, , Henry Bettis, , Ponsonby, , 1, , -, , -, , -, , -, , -

References

{{reflist

External links

Auckland Rugby League Official Site
Auckland Rugby League seasons