Oral history - Basil Rigg

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2022

Overview

Oral history, 'Recollections of a Life in Football, Cricket and Baseball in Western Australia in the 1940s and 1950s', recorded with Basil Rigg, Western Australian baseball, football and cricket player, and his son Dennis.
[Click on arrows above Basil Rigg's photo to locate audio file.]

Historical information

Basil Rigg was an outstanding all-round sportsman, playing league football and representing Western Australia in two sports...cricket and baseball.

Born in Mt Lawley in 1926, Basil's early schooling was at St Brigid's Convent and Christian Brothers College, where he played cricket and football. He later attended Aquinas College where he started to excel at both these sports, and at age 17, while still at school, he won the goal-kicking award at the Perth League Football Club. However, in the late 1940s Basil's football career was sidelined by cricket. Playing for Perth Cricket Club, he showed great promise with both bat and ball, and he still holds records at the club 60 years later.

Following his brother Bert's selection as player No. 153 in the State Sheffield Shield cricket team, Basil was selected as player No.159. He went on to play 18 State games from 1947 to 1956.

Charlie Puckett, Basil's Sheffield Shield teammate, had a great influence on Basil's baseball career. Charlie was a pitcher of renown with the Nedlands Baseball Club and Basil says he joined Nedlands himself because he wasn't keen on facing Charlie's pitches. Both players represented Western Australia at Claxton Shield level; Basil in 1951 and 1952. Basil and Charlie are the only two players who were in both Western Australian teams to win the State's first Sheffield Shield (1948 in Brisbane) and first Claxton Shield (1952 in Perth).

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-100-2020.CD.9

Item type

Audio

Themes

People
Social History
Sport

Inscriptions and markings

[On CD cover]
'Basil Rigg'
'Recollections of a Life in Football, Cricket and Baseball in Western Australia in the 1940s and 1950s'
'50 mins'

Contextual Information

For more than a decade during the 1940s and 1950s, Basil Rigg excelled in three fields of sport in Western Australia. His recollections, recorded in 2022, of the first Western Australian baseball team to win the Claxton Shield Championship, are especially significant in the 75th anniversary year of that win.

Keywords

Basil Rigg

Claxton Shield 1951

Claxton Shield 1952

Western Australian State Baseball Team

Night Baseball League

Nedlands Baseball Club

Charlie Puckett

Sheffield Shield Cricket Team

Perth Cricket Club

Perth Football Club

Acquinas College

Place made

Perth
Western Australia
Australia

Year

2022

Statement of significance

This oral history from a great Western Australian sportsman in Basil Rigg, provides a rare historic record of football, cricket and baseball, at both league and State levels, during the 1940s and 1950s.

Primary significance criteria

Historic significance

Social or spiritual significance

Comparative significance criteria

Object’s condition or completeness

Rare or representative

Well provenanced