Singapore Cricket Club
Singapore Cricket Club (SCC) is a sports club located at the heart of the city’s civic centre along Connaught Drive and overlooking the Padang. It was established in 1852 and has evolved over the years from being an elite colonial sports club to a multi-racial club catering to the sporting and social needs of the Singaporean community. It is the second oldest club in Singapore, a decade younger than the Singapore Turf Club, then known as the Singapore Sporting Club.
The birth of the Cricket Club began with the game of cricket itself. The game was popular among the early European community in Singapore in the mid-19th century and was played at the Padang as early as 1837. In October 1852, the first meeting was held to discuss formally setting up a cricket club. Two historic matches were set on the same month between “The Club” and selected teams, but both teams failed to raise full strength. It was only in March 1853 that the club managed to play its first 11-a-side fixture, with players from the local British merchant community and officers from the military garrison.
The club built its first wooden-hut pavilion in the 1860s and completed its second pavilion, a single-storey bungalow, in 1877.8 Membership then numbered at 98, but increased to 378 by 1891. The third pavilion was built in 1884 on the current site and forms the core of the current structure. A fourth pavilion was added in 1907 as a result of the growing membership. In 1922, the northern and southern wings were added, making the clubhouse as it is today. The Cricket Club has undergone other changes in recent times, including major renovations to its clubhouse and the addition of facilities such as squash courts.
Singapore Cricket Club: Humble Beginnings
The Club’s beginnings were quite humble, with the first 28 members in 1853 being mostly men working in the British business and mercantile community, usually as clerks or “junior assistants”. In the 1880s, however, membership had grown to almost 400 and was seen as a social feather in the cap, not only by the businessmen who founded the Club but also by the power-brokers and decision-makers in government. Presidents in the early days of the Club included several governors of the then Straits Settlements: Sir Cecil Clementi Smith (SCC President, 1883, Governor, 1887-1893), Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham (SCC President, 1902-1903, Governor, 1901-1904) and Sir Arthur Henderson Young (SCC President, 1909-1910, Governor, 1911-1920).
It was not all cricket on the Padang. A popular event almost up to World War I was the SCC Annual Sports; the SCC Athletic Sports were an integral part of this programme up to 1900. Football of both sorts, soccer and rugby, was established in Singapore in the 1880s, while an annual tennis tournament was initiated in 1875. Hockey arrived early in Singapore, in 1892, considering that the rules of the game had been established in Britain only in 1849 and the English Hockey Association established only in 1886. Billiards was no doubt played at the Club, but it is seldom mentioned in existing records. Lawn bowls began at the Club in the 1870s and the tournaments were held regularly from 1898.
Membership of the Club had reached 878 by 1914. World War I affected Singapore sports badly (although the crown colony was not directly involved in the conflict) and the supply of sporting “manpower” was sharply reduced. Cricket suffered in particular and in 1922 the Club was unable to make up a full team to send to play in Hong Kong. Morale must have been improved by the visit, in 1927, of Charles Gordon Macartney and his Australian cricket XI. Macartney’s team, which included eight Test cricketers, actually lost one match against Malaya. Another major cricketing event occurred 10 years later, in 1937 – a three-day match by Malaya versus Sir Julien Cahn’s XI, the first English cricket team to visit Malaya or the Singapore Cricket Club.
Singapore Cricket Club
The Singapore Cricket Club (SCC) is one of the premier sports and social clubs in Singapore. Its clubhouse is located on Connaught Drive on the south end of the Padang in Singapore's central business district.
The SCC was established in 1852. Over the years, the club has had three clubhouse buildings on the Padang. The first was erected in the 1860s and the second in 1877. The third, which forms the core of the present-day clubhouse, was built in 1884. As the second oldest club in Singapore, the SCC today has over 3,000 members. Cricket, rugby, football and field hockey are played on the Padang, and the club also has facilities for squash, tennis, lawn bowls, billiards and snooker.
The club has played host to many international cricket events over the years. It also hosts the annual Singapore Cricket Club International Rugby Sevens tournament and an annual Soccer Sevens competition. They also have a football team participating in the National Football League.
The Singapore Cricket Club
Established in 1852, the Singapore Cricket Club (SSC) was the symbol of British and European exclusiveness during the colonial era. As the second oldest sporting club in Singapore, the SCC is known as one of the premier sports and social clubs in the country today.
Singapore's Iconic Buildings & Landmarks
Capitol Theatre
Capitol Theatre, briefly Kyo-Ei Gekijo, is a historic cinema and theatre located in Singapore. It was adjoined to four-storey building known as the Capitol Building. The Capitol Theatre was considered one of Singapore's finest theatres in the 1930s during that time.
In 1929, Mirza Mohamed Ali Namazie, a Persian businessman of the Namazie family, commissioned the theatre to be built in Singapore, with S. A. H. Shirazee, an Indian-Muslim merchant and community leader, and the South African brothers Joe and Julius Fisher from First National Pictures, joined in to form Capitol Theatres Ltd as its operator. Namazie would serve as the theatre company's chairman with Shirazee as director, Joe Fisher as managing director and his brother Julius Fisher as the publicity manager. Architecture and equipments
Joe Fisher travelled overseas to acquire the materials for the theatre's furnishings, decorations and design. The Capitol Theatre was designed neoclassical architecture by British architects Keys and Dowdeswell, with its general plan, seating arrangements and lighting inspired from the Roxy Theatre in New York, United States. Builders Messrs Brossard and Mopin began construction of the foundation around July 1929. Messrs Sherwin-Williams Paint Co. in collaboration with local partner Messrs Lohmann and Co., designed the theatre's walls' and ceilings' detailing. Although installed with ventilation system, the theatre's roof was able to slide open which leave a 40-foot aperture for more ventilation.
The first layout of the theatre could accommodate at least 1,600 people, with 1,100 seated on the ground floor. Another 500 seats were available at the circle that could be accessed via lifts or staircases. The seats were a few inches wider than normal British cinema seats, and the upholstery was supplied by a New York company. The theatre had a large projection room located below the balcony and ran the length of the building instead of being traditionally sited in the rear. It housed the latest Simplex projector installed with fireproof protection shutters. The theatre's acoustics and soundproofing were said to be exceptional at that time. Special expensive sound installations costing at least 40,000 Straits dollars were imported from Western Electric Company. The theatre's stage was also designed for stage productions, with changing rooms and organ chambers built into the theatre. It was also the first to equip multihued lighting system using concealed lamps with a dimmer function, which was never used in other existing theatres in Singapore at that time. Besides having the floodlit main entrance at the junction of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road, there are also two side entrances from Stamford Road and North Bridge Road, with a parking lot to accommodate at least 200 cars. There were several food outlets at the theatre. The main café on the first floor had a dance floor where cabaret was held at the selected nights, and adjoining the café was a restaurant known as the Capitol Restaurant. A café lounge was located at the circle. A special cooling room for making French pastries was built in the kitchen on the ground floor. Its adjoined building known as Namazie Mansions, which was named after the Chairman Namazie, was completed in the early 1930.
