Percy James Beames (27 July 1911 – 28 March 2004) was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

sportsman who played

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

for the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) as well as

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in the

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...

. He later became one of Melbourne's most distinguished sports

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

s, covering cricket and Australian rules football for ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' until 1976. When the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

was established in 1996, Beames was among the inaugural inductees, and was also named in the forward pocket when Melbourne's Team of the Century was named in June 2000.

Early life

Born to a large, poor family in Ballarat, Beames' lucky break came when he was awarded a scholarship to Ballarat College. He ended up captaining the school in Australian football, cricket, athletics and tennis.

Cricket career

Beames became a member of the

South Melbourne Cricket Club The Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club is a cricket club located in the outer south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne East, which plays in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition. Founded in 1862 as South Melbourne, it has produced nine Aust ...

for the 1929/1930 season. In 1931 he moved to the

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground ...

. Beames represented Victoria on 18 occasions between 1933 and 1946, scoring 1186 runs at 51.56. During this time he scored three first-class centuries with a highest score of 226 not out in 1938 at Launceston. Beames was appointed captain of Victoria for the first post-war season in 1945. He, however, left cricket the year after this to concentrate on a career in football.

Footballing career

Beames joined Melbourne in 1931 and soon established himself as the club's

rover Rover may refer to: People * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Places * Rover, Arkansas, US * Rover, Missouri, US * ...

. In his first two seasons he polled well in the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

, finishing equal fifth on both occasions. He was part of their hat-trick of premierships that went from 1939 to 1941 and captain-coached Melbourne from 1942 to 1944.

Later life

After finishing his football career he became a writer at ''

'' newspaper for 30 years. He was also inducted into the

. Beames was the father of

Adrienne Beames Adrienne Beames (7 September 1942, Victoria, Australia – 27 December 2018) was an Australian long-distance runner frequently credited as the first woman to break the 3-hour barrier in the marathon. 1971 marathon attempt In the early 1970s, ...

, a former long-distance runner frequently credited as the first woman to break the three-hour barrier in the marathon.

References

External links