History of New Club
One of the oldest clubs in Malaysia – Taiping New Club
(TNC) - is situated at a site which has the panoramic view of the azure coloured
Bukit Larut, the scenic Lake Gardens with the rain-trees’ branches
dipping on the water, the district officer’s residence hill lock
and the historic playing field, the Esplanade (Padang Perbandaran).
It is situated at its own named road –Jalan New Club,
Taiping.
It was founded in 1885 known as Perak Club for the social
life of colonial British officers and their families. The British Resident restricted the membership to
the high ranking British civil service officers and tin miners while the
planters had no place in the Club.
There was some misunderstanding, the majority of the
senior Perak Club members resigned and formed “The New Club”. Those involved in
forming TNC were Dr Shepherd, Lefroy, Gray and Aylesbury.The name TNC still
remains till to date.
The Club was designed by G.A.Lefroy, in 1893 the club
house built costing RM ($) 10, 000 and was opened the next year. It consisted
of a reading room, a billiard room, a card room, a large dining hall, and five
residential chambers; and at the rear was a croquet pitch.
In 1894 on the site where the New Club stands was donated
by Sultan Raja Sir Idris Mersedil Aathim Shah KCMG ibni Iskandar Shah and
proper title f the land was issued.
Largely the members of the TNC started playing golf nearby
the club, and the enthusiastic golf players formed the earliest golf club in
the country and naming it “The Perak Golf Club” and had its office in TNC. It
is now the second oldest golf club in South East Asia.
It boasted having affiliated to 70 foreign and local
clubs and till to date it is affiliated to the earliest golf club in the world
- St Andrew’s Golf Club in Scotland.
The early development of the club was due to H.L.H.Tate
who was the club secretary in 1903 and to honour him for his contribution to
the club a room was named as “The Tate Room’ after him.
At the foot of Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hills) with beautiful
flora and fauna is a scenic waterfall cascading cool clean water flowing from
the tributaries in the hill. TNC took the opportunity and built a family size swimming
pool and named it as Taiping Swimming Club exclusively for the members only.
When the club built its own new swimming pool besides the
club premises and handed Taiping Swimming Pool over to the Taiping Town Council
which could have preserved it and turned into a heritage pool to attract
tourists. Now it is in an awful state of neglect and it is covered with
secondary jungle. It is the haunt for druggists who carry out undesirable
activities.
In 1907 the club membership rose to 270, comprising of
government officers, miners and planters; and
Its membership was limited to British nationals only.
Australians were not allowed in the club but were allowed to play golf and had
their refreshments at a shed outside the club.
All club activities stopped during the Japanese
occupation. After the Japanese surrendered, the club was reopened on 20
November 1945 under the management of 25th Gymkhana Regiment with
Major General G.N. Wood as its president. After the British Military Administration was
over the club was returned to the former members of the club. H.L.H.Tate was
elected as the president of the club.
After the war due changes in the country‘s modernization
and nationalism programmes, the outlook of the club changed. The first
Malaysian, a Taiping resident, known as “Charcoal King” Lim Huan Lye was
admitted as a member of the club in 1948.
Till 1966 all the presidents Of TNC elected were British
and when they left the country, in 1967 the first Malaysian TNC president elected
was Datuk Seri Mohd Razak Akram. The present president now is a prominent
businessman in Taiping Datuk Kamarulbahrain Zainuddin.
Gradually the club activities increased from golf to
tennis. Tennis became one of the favourite sports among the members and in 1989
two all weather all day tennis courts were built for them. The tennis playing
members formed their own sub-committee and carried out their actively their
tennis related functions.
When the club extended its activities sub-committees were
formed for playing darts, line dance, karaoke, swimming, library, library and
squash. It privatized the game room.
There are now two chambers for out station members, a
card room, billiard room, sauna bath, banquet hall, dinning room.
The patron of the club is the Perak Sultan, Sultan Azlan
Shah and the honourary members are the Larut, Matang and Selama (LMS)
Territorial Chief, LMS District Officer, Taiping District police chief, District
executive engineer, heads of other government departments, the president of
Taiping Municipal Council, Taiping high court judge, Tan Sri Razak Ismail and
members of parliament.
Besides the above mentioned activities, annually the Chinese
New Year, Christmas, Hari Raya, Merdeka Day, New Year, Viasaki Day and others
are celebrated with dinner and dance.
The club intends to build a badminton hall, Golf gallery
and a golf driving range.
End.
