
As we enter a new season of rugby in the Wellington region, a look back at how the season panned out 100 years ago. This year it is 1925, another exciting and eventual year.
A recap of the 1925 club season below. Part 2 canvassing representative rugby to come.
Pōneke won the 1925 Senior Championship – denying Petone a four-peat.
The previous nine Senior Championships had been dominated by Pōneke and Petone, with Pōneke winners in 1918, 1919 and 1921 and Petone in 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922, 1923 and 1924.
The good news for other clubs was that this monopoly of wins by these two clubs would be broken over the next four years up until 1930 when Petone won next. But that was in the future as 1925 dawned.
Pōneke would win the 1925 Senior Championship, comfortably in the end, but not without getting the late speed wobbles.
Pōneke had an experienced side in 1925, although representative back of recent years Beet Algar was now the backs coach, with his brother Doug Algar a player. There were two more sets of brothers, Syd and Jack Shearer and Henry and Fred Tilyard. Ted Jessep would be an All Black the following year and later move to Australia and represent the Wallabies.
A summary of the season follows.
A decade on from the Gallipoli landings, the 1925 season opened on 18 April, with 6,000 spectators at Athletic Park for the main games.
Last year’s winners Petone started with a 22-12 win over Wellington, while Pōneke opened with a 38-16 win over Oriental.
As April gave way to May, Pōneke were held to a 6-6 draw by Marist in driving rain,
This wasn’t to be a vintage season for Athletic, but they won a stirring come-from-behind 11-8 victory over Petone in round three. Captain Cliff Porter was carried off the field on the shoulders of his supporters. Pōneke beat Selwyn 27-3.
Pōneke with the bye in round 4, as University slew Selwyn 45-3 to go unbeaten and Marist beat Berhampore 10-7 in the closest match of the day. The Dominion wrote that “It is such seasons since such keen interest has been taken in the battle for the Senior Championship as is the case this year. The fluctuations which have taken place have whetted public enthusiasm, with the result that the attendances at the matches are increasing.”
Marist drew their third match in five games the following week, 3-3 with Oriental, University won their fifth match, 11-3 over Wellington, and Pōneke defeated Athletic 6-0, although they lost captain H. Hall to an arm injury during the game.
The following week saw the first of the year between great rivals Pōneke and Petone, with Poneke prevailing 19-3 with the Tilyard brothers and fullback Gibson in good form in drizzle at the Petone Rec.
The next week University remained unbeaten with an 18-10 win over Berhampore and WCOB beat minnows Selwyn 34-6.
The following week, Mark Nicholls scored 12 of Petone’s points in their 15-12 win over Berhampore, while Marist suffered their first defeat of the season in going down to Wellington College Old Boys and Jack Shearer scored two tries for Pōneke in their 15-5 win over Wellington at Karori Park.
Moving into mid-June, Petone beat University 18-14 in a clash of the leading teams, while Pōneke held off a surging Wellington College Old Boys to win 14-13 to take the outright competition lead for the first time. Marist beat Athletic 4-3 as both these teams remained in the race in fifth and sixth.
On the shortest weekend of the year, Pōneke clicked into gear against University, Jack Shearer scoring a hat-trick in the 27-16 win. Elsewhere, Petone beat Marist 10-6 and Oriental beat Athletic 8-3. Pōneke led on 15 points, ahead of Petone and University on 12, Berhampore on 10 and a bunch of teams chasing hard, except for Selwyn who would remain anchored the bottom all season.
Club rugby on the last weekend of June was played in pouring rain and Pōneke notched a 10-3 win over Berhampore in the feature game. University beat Marist 14-8, Petone beat Selwyn 16-7 and Hutt and Wellington drew 6-6 in other contests.
Wintry conditions persisted on the first weekend of July as leaders Pōneke held off Hutt 8-3, their forwards to the fore in heavy Hutt Rec mud. University beat Athletic 12-5, but WCOB defeated Petone 6-5 with Malcolm landing a late penalty following a Roy Lamason try.
The path to the 1925 title really opened up for Pōneke on 11 July matches, with both University losing 6-3 to Oriental and Petone held to a 9-9 draw with Berhampore. Pōneke defeated Marist 15-9 in front of 3,500 spectators. These results meant Pōneke were now on 21 points, ahead of University on 16 and Petone 15 (two points for a win).
Fine weather for the next set of matches, with Pōneke beating Oriental 10-5 in a lucky escape with Oriental bombing at least two certain tries and no further changes to the order of things with Pōneke, University and Petone advancing to 23, 18 and 17 points respectively. At the foot of the table, Selwyn’s woes worsened coming back from a bye, thumped 46-3 by mid-table Athletic.
The next week Pōneke ‘met their Waterloo’ at Athletic Park, beaten soundly by Wellington College Old Boys, who outplayed them across the park to prevail 28-14. Elsewhere, Petone crushed University 29-0 in the battle between second and third. The top three points table now read Pōneke 23, Petone 19 and University 18.
The competition really spiced up on the 1 August round, with Pōneke and University drawing 15-15. Petone beat Marist 14-4, Athletic beat Hutt 8-3 and Berhhampore defeated Selwyn 11-0, so the points table was now Pōneke 24, Petone 21, University 19, Athletic and Berhampore 14.
A week off club rugby owing to the Wellington-Canterbury at Athletic Park, the resumption of play on 15 August in diabolical conditions, ruling out positive play. Pōneke’s supporters didn’t mind though, their 6-0 win over Berhampore, combined with WCOB’s 12-6 win over University securing them the title with a week to spare. With one round to play, Pōneke led on 26 points, with Petone on 23, University on 19 and WCOB 15 rounding out the top four.
During the week and with the Senior Championship decided, the WRFU decided to close the competition there and then.
The final points tally (all teams) for 1925 was:
Pōneke also won the post-season ‘challenge’ National Mutual Cup when they held off WCOB 16-6 in that match in early October.

Other points of interest in the 1925 season included Athletic founder Colonel George Campbell in the second year of a four-year stint as WRFU President and James Predenville in his fifth year of 16 as WRFU Chairman.
There was no WRFU sevens rugby tournament in 1925.
Petone’s gymnasium was equipped with electric lights early in the season, after more than a quarter of a century of training under flickering lights.
Athletic won the Junior Championship and the Third Grade Championship, Pōneke the Intermediate Grade, Athletic the Fifth Grade, Wellington College the Sixth Grade (more below), Technical College the Seventh Grade
Petone won the Fourth Grade Championship without conceding a game, the first of eight wins in nine years to follow for them in this grade.
College Rugby
Nelson College joined the annual tournament that featured Wellington College, Christ’s College and Whanganui Collegiate, to form the Quadrangular Tournament.
The first Quadrangular Tournament was hosted by Wellington College, who beat Nelson College 11-8 Whanganui Collegiate to be crowned champions. They wouldn’t win again for another four years.
Wellington College also beat St Pat’s Town 9-3 in their annual traditional, for the third consecutive year. St Pat’s Town also beat St Bede’s 3-0 in their other traditional. Wellington College were captained by H. Mackaskill and St Pat’s Town by E. Flynn.
After the two schools shared the title the previous year, Wellington College won the Sixth Grade Championship of 1925.
Wellington College also won the Club Championship, for the most cumulative points scored across all teams.
References: In outlining the 1925 club rugby season above, Club Rugby has used both the Dominion and Evening Post newspapers of the time. All quotes here are from the Dominion. Additional sources have been several of the various club rugby histories and books, most prominently Petone’s and Pōneke’s histories, and Clive Akers’ Rugby
Part 2 summarising the 1925 representative season to follow.
Last year’s article looking at the 1924 season below.