Name Change to Middle Harbour Cricket Club

Manly Warringah District Cricket Club | October 10, 2024

In April 1905, the NSW Cricket Association promoted the club to the first-grade competition. However, in doing so it was decided that Manly Cricket Club, as it was called at the time, would be combined with Mosman and took a new name - the Middle Harbour Cricket Club. The Association decided, however, that the Club's boundaries would remain within the Municipality of Manly, and that the territory within the adjoining Municipality of Mosman would be neutral territory.

The decision was hotly protested for some years by the Club's committee who felt strongly that as the district was part of the Electorate of Middle Harbour, it should have been included in the Club's boundaries, and that players resident in Mosman should be compelled to play with the new Club.

Remember that in those days, you needed to play for the district club that you lived in.

The net result of the Cricket Associations action was that very few of the players from Mosman threw their lot with the club, with the resultant weakening in the standard of our play in what, in any event, was obviously going to be a difficult transition from second to first grade cricket.

By 1921, the club committee strongly felt that the name "Middle Harbour" was no longer appropriate for a club with its origins so deeply rooted in Manly itself, and at that year's Annual General Meeting it was unanimously decided to change the name of the Club to the Manly District Cricket Club.

The name was retained by the Club until 1954-55, when the present name of Manly Warringah District Cricket Club was adopted.