Pirates celebrate 125th Anniversary on Labour Weekend
By Jared Smith
In 1897, the Liberal Party under Richard Seddon formed the government, New Zealand got its first registered woman doctor, and a little rugby club was started in Whanganui which embraced the skull and crossbones.
This Labour Weekend will be the much anticipated 125th Celebration for the Pirates Rugby Football & Sports Club, as well as the 50th Anniversary for the Pirates Netball entity of the club, which was established in 1972.
Club captain Dave Pedley said they have around 300 guests registered for the weekend, including a sold out 200 for the Sunday night dinner at the Eulogy Lounge of the Wanganui Racecourse.
“It should be a good weekend.
“The key thing, for me, you get to meet people you haven’t seen for a long time.
“You’ve got to make the most of it.”
Over a dozen former club members and their families are travelling from Australia alone for the event, something that would have been impossible in June when the celebrations were originally planned.
“Covid saw us put it out from Queen’s Birthday weekend. I think it’s the right call that we made,” said Pedley.
On that June weekend, the Black Bull Liquor Pirates were scheduled to play McCrea Scanning Counties in the WRFU Senior competition as the feature of the festivities.
Now, even though the season has been over for nearly four months, Counties will again lace up the boots for the match to happen at Spriggens Park.
“Counties, we played in their 50th [anniversary], so they did a return of that,” said Pedley.
“They honoured that – they committed during the season.
“It will be more of a festival game – something for the old boys to watch.”
As well as rugby, there will be two netball games played at Laird Park on Saturday afternoon – an ‘old timers’ match and a more contemporary game.
Events start on Thursday with the Pirates clubrooms open from 5pm to 7pm for guests to pick up their lanyards and purchase official merchandise.
Friday will be the registration and ‘Meet & Greet’, with the club open from 5pm to midnight.
Saturday sees the clubrooms open at 11am, as guests get comfortable to watch two games on Spriggens Park – the Old Timers match (Over 40’s) at 1pm, followed by the Senior game at 2.30pm, with the aftermatch being held at 6pm.
After another midnight closing, on Sunday the clubrooms will be open again from 12pm to 4pm, and then at 5pm the doors will open at the Eulogy Lounge for the 125th Dinner.
Speeches will start at 6pm from Pedley, club chairman Jeff Slight, and representatives of the netball club, before dinner is served, followed by a live band before the party closes at midnight.
