Back then, the heads of Penang’s five Hokkien clans would gather weekly at Light Street to play football on a large field that faced the mansion of local tycoon Foo Tye Sin.
Unfortunately for the Khoos, Lims, Tans, Cheahs and Yeohs, the field wasn’t always available for their football matches, as other clubs also utilised it for their games.
The Penang Recreational Club and the oldest club on the island, the Penang Sports Club also frequented the pitch regularly, and thus, were a bit territorial in allowing the Chinese clans some game time.
This was largely due to how, in the past, the Penang Sports Club was exclusively for the use of the British who lived on the island and the Penang Recreational Club followed suit, with a tiny Eurasian representation among its members.
Feeling discriminated against, the Chinese moved their football games elsewhere and played at Lake Villa on Perak Road.
There, they played in relative peace for a while. But as the name suggests, their matches often ended with players emerging from the lake, drenched from head to toe after wading into the waters to retrieve the balls that soared out of bounds.
This lack of a conducive playing field in which to enjoy their football games, led to the heads of the Hokkien clans acquiring their own plot of land and establishing their own sports and recreational club, CRC.
By 1903, the Hokkien clans had bought three plots of land along Pangkor Road to accommodate their increasing number of members. It cost them a whooping 4,600 Straits dollars back in the day.
Lim Kek Chuan and seven other influential men, including Chung Thye Phin, the local Kapitan China, were the principal donors. To express their loyalty to the British despite the discrimination they faced, they named the club’s field, Victoria Green, after the Queen herself.
They were, after all, considered “the Queen’s Chinese”. CRC members displayed even more patriotism by flying in a 10,000 Straits dollar bronze statue of the Queen, all the way from England.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, CRC flourished and even became a training centre for athletes who went on to achieve international success in the sporting arena. Among them were Khoo Hooi Hye, who became the first Chinese to ever compete at the Wimbledon Championships in 1924.
Unfortunately, the whole country was plunged into chaos when World War II broke out and the Imperial Japanese Army tracked into Penang from Thailand in 1941.
After the allies destroyed the Japanese’s first broadcasting station on Penang Road, the invading forces quickly looked elsewhere for new premises, settling on CRC.
Demanding full control of the building, the army barged into the club one day, and issued a letter of agreement to the club’s Honorary Secretary, Low Hun Leong. Fearing the army’s wrath, Low, on behalf of the club reluctantly signed the document, giving full powers to the Japanese to use their premises as they pleased.
Ironically, the Japanese letter of agreement explicitly stated that the club’s committee members had “great pleasure in allowing the Dai Nippon Government the use of the Club premises as their Broadcasting Station.”
With the document now signed, Japanese soldiers marched into Victoria Green and burned all the club’s records, books, documents and photos. They even ripped out the club’s fences, collecting the scrap metal for their war effort.
Thankfully, CRC’s hard-earned trophies were spared from the flames as Low cleverly hid all their silverware in chicken coops and successfully snuck these out of the club from right under the noses of the Japanese soldiers on duty.
When the war ended after four years and the Japanese retreated, CRC members were jubilant about regaining their club grounds. Their happiness was short-lived however, as the British forces who had intercepted the broadcasting station, refused to give it up.
It took seven long years of intense negotiations with the British before the members regained full possession of their beloved club. Sadly, CRC’s grounds had been badly damaged as a result of the war, and the British forces refused to pay for the repairs.
Determined to see CRC restored to its former glory, a restoration committee was formed and many donors stepped up to the plate. As thanks for their generosity, the names of the donors were inscribed on a solid marble plaque that can still be seen at the club to this day.
CRC is a permanent fixture on Victoria Street, its walls having witnessed the injustice of World War II and social discrimination years later. More importantly, the structure stands as a symbol of perseverance and pride of the Hokkien clans of Penang.