The Brockton Point Athletic Club was incorporated April 6, 1889 by special Act of the Parliament of British Columbia, and by 1890 the clearing of Stanley Park had begun in earnest, led by Jerry Rogers and his teams of oxen. And when a lease for the 10 acres now comprising Upper Brockton, the Oval and the cottage was signed April 21, 1890 between the City of Vancouver and the Athletic Club for a 40 year term and the Athletic Club signed an agreement for the Club to borrow $10,000 from the City at 5% (payments of $ 605.25 p.a.), the Vancouver Parks Board was not yet constituted.
The Brockton Point Recreation Grounds circa 1900 were the finest athletic grounds in the City of Vancouver. The ground played host to lacrosse, rugby, baseball, and soccer at the Oval. Field hockey and cricket were played on Upper Brockton. Tennis Courts were located at the N.E. corner of the Upper Brockton field. The fields boasted a grandstand and bleachers, lacrosse clubhouse and cinder track in the vicinity of Brockton Oval; a Pavilion, changing rooms and a caretaker's cottage at Upper Brockton.
The Athletic Club was comprised of Vancouver's elite. The club had come into existence by special act of legislature, financed by the City, and established to pander to the tastes of the City fathers for high calibre amateur sport, far from the eyes of the madding crowd. For example, up to 1913 cricket was played in BC under the auspices of the Pacific Coast League and included teams from Tacoma, Nanaimo, Duncan, Victoria and Vancouver. Only representative cricket matches were allowed to be played at the Athletic Club grounds at Upper Brockton until 1910, when a constitutional amendment was passed to allow local clubs to join the Athletic Association. There was a 2nd tier of cricket played in Vancouver, which was called the Vancouver and District League but they confined their activities to the City proper.
The lease between the City and the Athletic Club signed in 1890 contained provisions against charging an entrance fee to view any of the sporting activities held at Stanley Park. In 1912, the Athletic Club found itself a year in arrears of rent payments to the City. The club opened up negotiations and contracted with Mr. Con Jones for the sub-leasing of the Brockton Oval to play professional lacrosse. The terms of the agreement; 15 years; rent $1,000 per annum; 100 tickets including an escort per event to club members; the lacrosse promoter to expense $15,000 in improvements to the Oval. The proposal to sublease never had a chance.
Aligned against the proposal were:
(i) the City Beautiful Association
(ii) the newly created Parks Board
(iii) the City Solicitor
(iv) the City Council
(v) the Finance Committee of the City
versus for the proposal, every amateur sports body in the City. An examination of the correspondence of the day is illuminating to show democracy at work or as the cynical might say, back room maneuvering.
Suffice to say, in 1913 the lease between the City and the Athletic Club was brought to a premature end, in no small part due to the efforts of the newly created Vancouver Parks Board.
The Brockton Point Cricket Club is the successor in interest to the Brockton Point Athletic Club - the Athletic Club having ceased operations in 1913 and the cricket club having commenced operations in 1914 out of the same location in Stanley Park. Brockton Point Cricket Club has maintained continuity of use of the Pavilion and Upper Brockton from 1914 to the present day.
Many of the dominant personalities of Vancouver and Vancouver cricket have come from among the members of the Brockton Point Cricket Club. The first president of the club in 1914 was R.M. Marpole after whom the Marpole area of Vancouver was named.
In the 1930's and into the 1940's equally dominant personalities such as the Milne's, Buckley's, and Scott's, after whom the Walter Scott trophy is named, led the club, so that by 1946 the cricket club had laid claim to 9 British Columbia Mainland Cricket League (BCMCL) 1st division titles.
The half century mark saw the arrival of Jack Kyle to the club. Unlike any other club cricketer in Vancouver before or since, Jack Kyle formed the backbone of the cricket club from a playing and administrative perspective all the way through to 1975. Under Jack Kyle's stewardship the club won 5 consecutive BCMCL 1st division championships, a feat which many swore would never be repeated.
1975 was the year Karam Gopaulsingh, Jack Kyle's playing and administrative successor assembled a pool of cricketing talent under captain Chris Van Twest that overturned cricketing convention and in the process won the 1st division title 3 years in succession, 1978 to 1980 and then for a 7 year span from 1984 to 1990.
The jewel in their run of glory being the victory achieved over the Ontario club champions, Windsor Cricket Club in the 1988 Canadian Club Championships, the 1st and only time the Canadian Cricket Club Championship was contested and decided on the field of play.
And once again in 2000, captained by Gogi Dhillon and Tajinder Dayal and ably assisted by Australian visitor Jamie Brazier, Brockton ran roughshod over the opposition acquiring in its wake the BCMCL Premier division title and the BC Club Championships with a win over the Victoria and District League Champions, Albion Cricket Club (captained by a very old ex Brocktonite, Graham Mahabir.)
However, for the storied origins of the Club we need go back much further, to the pioneering days of amateur sport in Vancouver at the turn of the 19th century.
Park Commissioners letter to City Clerk May 23, 1912:
City Council should use its best endeavours to obtain control of Brockton Point Athletic Grounds, Stanley Park, with a view to its being transferred to the Board of Park Commissioners.
City Solicitor letter to Council May 23, 1912:"Prepared sublease contains variations from and other provisions than are in the original lease." When the original lease was given, there was no Parks Board in existence and the present Parks Board are not willing to approve the sublease although no provision is made in the head lease for the leasee not to sublease.
The Notes of the City Council meeting of June 10, 1912 shed some additional light on the thinking of the times. A 1 ½ page brief was submitted by the City Beautiful Association decrying the sublease.