Oral history - Barry Connaughton

Barry Connaughton's career in baseball in Western Australia spanned more than 15 years from the early 1950s to the late 1960s as both a player and coach.

Born in Donnybrook in 1934, Barry attended Donnybrook Primary School and Bunbury High School, where he played cricket and football. After finishing high school Barry moved to Perth at age 16 to find work. He played cricket for the East Perth Cricket Club, and progressed to 'A' grade level, eventually giving the sport away in 1959-60 when East Perth became the Perth Cricket Club and moved their home ground to Lathlain.

Barry's introduction to baseball in 1952/53 came from Charlie Puckett, who he knew through playing cricket. Barry was boarding at Charlie's home in South Perth and Charlie and his son Max, who was a year younger than Barry, played baseball for Nedlands in the winter. Barry joined the club and had a long association with Nedlands during the 1950s and 1960s as an 'A' grade player and later as a coach and committeeman.

In 1954 the Night Baseball League was formed, as a summer sport, by amalgamating the nine winter league teams into six night baseball teams. The Nedlands and Fremantle clubs amalgamated and became the Fremantle 'Braves'. Other teams were Perth 'Tigers', Swans 'Angels', Southern Districts 'Cubs', Wembley 'Magpies' and West Perth 'Indians'. Two games were played at the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) ground, under lights, every Wednesday and occasionally on Saturday. It proved very popular, with 2000 to 3000 spectators attending on most nights.

Barry played for the Fremantle 'Braves' and he describes the uniforms worn by each night baseball team: 'Braves' wore a uniform of light blue silky, satin-like material (which shined under the lights) with a red trim; 'Tigers' wore black and gold; 'Angels' wore white; 'Cubs' were in royal blue; 'Magpies' wore black with a white trim; and 'Indians' wore scarlet red.

In 1956 Barry was selected in the Western Australian state baseball team to contest the Claxton Shield Championship in Adelaide. He was Cap No. 97.