On Wednesday 6 June 1894, Thomas Watson won this cup for the Two-Mile Handicap bicycle race, at the inaugural annual meeting of the Young Half-Holiday Association.

The cup was presented to him by C. Ambrose Williams and is now displayed at the Young Historical Museum.

The day had begun with the Young Town Band leading a procession of prominent townspeople, employers, cyclists and others, from the Town Hall to the Cricket Ground, where a program of sports was carried out. A concert was held that evening at the Town Hall.

In the late 19th century until about World War I, many Australian towns had half-holiday associations.

In Young, this movement started with a ‘Conversazione’ (meeting) at the Oddfellows Hall on Tuesday 15 August 1876.

Another push was made to create a half-holiday in Young in March 1888 ‘with a view to securing the setting apart of Wednesday afternoon each week for recreation. In many of the large and important towns throughout the colony, business is suspended during one afternoon in each week, so that employers and employees can devote a little time to physical recreation, which is undeniably an essential to good health. In our town, shop-keepers and their assistants, are now kept engaged for nine hours a day during five days of the week, and for twelve hours during Saturdays, which is considered too severe a strain on the system.’

Finally, in April 1894, the Association had gathered enough support for it to decide to start half-holidays every Wednesday from 6 June. F. G. Bushell accepted the invitation to become President of the Association and a petition of sixty signatures in support of the movement was tabled at the meeting.

‘Two important shopkeepers declined to sign, but undertook that if the movement were otherwise general, they … would also fall in with the arrangement to close. Two Chinese storekeepers also undertook to observe the holiday’.

Besides holding sporting events on Wednesday afternoons, the Association also held arbor or tree planting activities in July and August 1894, to beautify the Cricket Ground.

To celebrate the first anniversary of the half-holiday, a sports programme and a social in the evening were held on Wednesday 5 June 1895.

By April 1896 though, the Wednesday half-holiday was abolished because it was the day on which ‘many of the country residents’ had chosen ‘to do their business’, and that being so, it was a most inconvenient day for the stores to close.

In 1899 there were moves to form a Half-Holiday Association Cricket Club. However, the Association does not appear to have survived beyond 1900.

Karen Schamberger – Young Historical Society