A Brief History

The Leederville Cricket Club was formed in 1946 with it's playing ground on Loftus Street where the Loftus Recreation Centre currently stands. There were several location changes before the Club settled at Lake Monger in Leederville where the Mitchell Freeway currently runs. Around 1977 the club moved to its current home base at Britannia Reserve in Leederville opposite Lake Monger, on the eastern side of the Freeway.

Sponsored by the Temperance Society and then the Leederville Branch of the RSL, the club played originally in the “Matting Competition”, then progressed into the Metropolitan Cricket Association where it played up until 1997/98 when the MCA merged with the Perth Mercantile Cricket Association to form the Perth Cricket Association of which Leederville remains a loyal foundation member. The PCA currently has approximately 80 teams and is one of the strongest outside the WACA District Competition.

The Club first forced its way into the A Grade in 1965/66 and has been there ever since. Leederville won the premiership in that first year and proceeded to play in the next 10 grand finals - winning 6 on the trot from 1970/71 onwards.

The next 15 years - 1976/77 to 1990/91 yielded the club another 4 A Grade flags from 7 grand final appearances before an unprecedented run of 10 consecutive A Grade premierships cemented the clubs reputation as a suburban cricket powerhouse. Leederville have played in A Grade competition for the last 43 years, playing finals in 37 of those years, 33 of those in Grand Finals and won 22 of the those - a record that stands alone.

The Club has always had a strong association with the West Perth Football Club whilst they were playing at Leederville Oval. League and State players such as Keith London, Alan Watling (All-Australian) and Stephen Smeath as well as John Nykyforak, Peter Curley, Ian Logan, Colin Northcott, Laurie Maggs and Mike Stockley through the 70's and Craig Nelson, Brendon Bell, Ross Munns, Craig Binder and Gavin Chaplin in the 80's all played a major role in the clubs 1st Grade record. This strong relationship was unfortunately broken when West Perth moved to slightly yellower pastures at Joondalup.

Leederville ran a very strong junior club during the 1950's and 60's - a club that gave us the players that became our backbone for the next 20 years. By the mid 70's, the number of junior aged cricketers within the Leederville and Mt Hawthorn areas had dwindled to the point that unfortunately the junior program was unable to be maintained. After an absence of over 30 years, it is with great pride that this year (2007/08), juniors cricketers under the banner of the Leederville Mt Hawthorn Kings will again grace the field and in a matter of years, offer the senior club the stability it now requires to see it develop strongly into the future.

Every sporting club survives on the spirit and dedication of those individuals that make it up. Leederville have had many, many administrators and players over a 60 year history that have given so much of their time and passion to make it easy for other players to walk into the Club, pick up a bat and ball and just play cricket. It is to those people that the Club owe an unpayable debt - thank you for lighting the fire.