Matt Cleary
ALL three Royals teams – firsts, seconds and thirds (U/18s) – appeared in grand finals in 1959 though only the young ones won a premiership, knocking over Canberra High 22-17, with firsts going down to Queanbeyan.
Two weeks earlier, however, Royals won the Canberra Cup final over the same opponent. It was a game significant, according to the ACTRU’s Rugby News of 22 August 1959, because it was shown on the relatively recent invention known as ‘television’.
“Saturday’s ABN Channel 2 telecast of the Queanbeyan-Canberra Royals Canberra Cup Final made local sporting history as the first time a local sporting event had been so featured.
“So far as Rugby News can ascertain it is also the first time a Country Rugby Union match has been televised in any fashion at all,” it was
reported.
Ironically, Canberra had no television reception and nor would it until 1962.
The lack of television transmission to the region did not deter the ACTRU, however, whose major raffle prize in 1959 that year was a television set.
This excerpt is from the newly released ‘Blue Bloods: A 75 Year History of Canberra Royals Rugby Union Football Club’ by Matt Cleary.
Click here to buy secure your copy of this limited edition book.
