Chinese Recreation Club, or CRC, was formed by a group of Chinese who were very much into football. They would meet at Foo Tye Sin Mansion, the home of local Chinese tycoon, to play football in the Esplanade field. However, they faced a problem in that the field was already occupied by two existing sports club - the Penang Sports Club, which is open only to whites, and the Penang Recreation Club, which admits Eurasians. Neither allowed Chinese in. Furthermore, the Penang Club and the Penang Swimming Club also prohibit membership from the locals.

As they did not feel welcome to use the Esplanade field, the team moved to Lake Villa, at 351 Jalan Perak, which is across the road from the Kem Tentera of Lebuhraya Peel. Lake Villa, as its name suggests, had a lake, which means many a time balls had to be fished out of the water. In 1903, the five main Hokkien clan associations - the Khoo, the Lim, the Tan, the Cheah and the Yeoh - got together and resolved that they need to buy land to establish their own sporting club. Looking within the vicinity ofLake Villa , they found three adjoining plots of land along Jalan Pangkor. The land totalled 278,547 sq ft (six and a half acres) and was purchased for $4,600, a huge sum in those days. An additional 11,000 sq feet along Jalan Burma was added in 1913. Trustees of the deed dating to 1906 count among them the pillars of Chinese high society of those days, among them, in alphabetical order, Cheah Choon Seng, Cheah Tek Thye, Chung Thye Phin (the Kapitan China who built Relau Villa), Ho tiang Wah, Khaw Joo Tock, Lim Cheng Teik, Lim Eow Hong and Tan Kang Hock. The members, who considered themselves "the Queen'sChinese", and wanting to show their loyalty to the British, decided to call the field "Victoria Green". The club itself was called the "Penang Chinese Recreation Club".

Originally, the clubhouse was a bungalow called Eastbourne which stood on the plot when it was bought. By the 1920's Eastbourne was already in a dilapidated state, sothe club decided that they should build a new clubhouse. A fund raising campaign managed to collect $100,000 for the clubhouse. It was designed in the Victorian style and was completed in 1931.

The Second World War brought great misery to Penang, and the Chinese Recreation Club was not spared. After Allied bombing destroyed the Penang Road Police Headquarters, the Japanese took over the premises of CRC as the broadcasting station. The Japanese burned the books, tore up papers, documents and photographs belong to the club, and even removed the fence for use as scrap metal.

When the British returned in 1945, the CRC found themselves with a new "tenant" as the British Military Administration took possession of the broadcasting station left by the Japanese. It was only at the end of 1945, on 22 December, that the CRC committee got to hold their meeting again. The club had to try repeatedly to repossess their premises from the British, who returned to them bit by bit. Another seven years who pass before the British relinquished the whole premises of CRC back to the club members. However, they refused to pay for repairs and damages, even for places that were used by them.

In the 1950's, the CRC excelled in sports particularly tennis and football. However the independence of Malaya in 1957 caused it to face competition from thePenang Sports Club, which now open to locals. Between the late 1940's to the 1960's, the CRC was frequently in dire straits. In 1960, the club committee even had to resort to putting up slot machines at its premises.

Today the CRC continues to function as a membership-based sports club. At the corner of Victoria Green facing the junction of Jalan Burma and Jalan Pangkor is the Queen Victoria Memorial Statue.


By Timothy Tye
Penang Travel Tips
www.penang-traveltips.com/chinese-recreation-club.htm