Williamstown Women’s Lacrosse Club will hold an 80th anniversary celebration on Friday.
Vivienne Parker-White said her mother and founder, Joy Parker, would have been so proud of what is now Australia’s oldest and largest women’s lacrosse club.
Back when the club started in 1936, it was uncommon for women to play team sports, said Ms Parker-White, a fifth-generation Williamstown resident who has represented Australia in lacrosse.
She said her father played the game, prompting her mother to take it up and start a women’s team with like-minded women playing with hand-me-down sticks from the junior men’s team.
“Then along came the war and the women’s game went into recession,” Ms Parker-White said.
“It came to the early 1960s and, of course, the Williamstown men were still going very strong and a lot of sisters, mothers and girlfriends were interested in playing lacrosse.
“They made an approach to a man called Malcolm Taylor, who was the men’s ‘stick doctor’. If you had a problem with your stick, you took it to him and he would look after it.
“He directed these people to my mother to see if she would be interested in restarting the women’s club, which she did.”
The women’s club officially started again in 1962, as did the Victorian Women’s Lacrosse Association. The Australian Women’s Lacrosse Council also started that same year.
Ms Parker-White’s mother served as president of all three groups.
Ms Parker-White herself started playing lacrosse in 1968 and later she, too, became president of the club.
She said her mother would be absolutely thrilled at the club’s anniversary.
Williamstown Women’s Lacrosse Club celebrates with lunch at the Fearon Reserve club on July 8.
Tickets $60; trybooking.com/204723 or williamstownwomenslacrosse@gmail.com
