CROYDON HOCKEYERS CRICKET CLUB 1967 – 1998 A trip down memory lane Introduction I have been on the RDCA Executive for the past 14 years and during that time have come to see and read publications documenting a club’s history to date and/or milestones. It got me thinking that should the old Hockeyers cricket club scorebooks be lost, that part of our club history would disappear in time. Some four years ago, Brian Gobbi and Bill Stafford did some research into Tommy Derham’s statistics and that became the catalyst for me to commence writing the history of the club. It became a bit of a target to coincide the production of a book with a reunion to be held during the fiftieth season since the cricket club was first formed. The Hockeyers story started in 1967 and, having joined the club in 1973, I was privy to a lot of Hockeyers history and thereafter the subsequent progress of the merged entity. Hockeyers had a 25 year reunion back in 1992 and a lot of statistical information was extracted for that event. Many thanks for their efforts go to Doug Ford, Brett Haines, Wayne Burgess, and others I have not mentioned, who compiled that senior detail. That information became the cornerstone of what appears in the book and I then used various resources to expand on that and introduce additional elements to the story. Although the scorebooks for the first four seasons cannot be located, the retention thereafter has been pretty good, with only the odd one missing, and that has assisted the exercise greatly. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the retention of AGM and Committee meeting minutes, Annual reports etc, so minimal information was able to be sourced in that area and that is a bit disappointing. In checking with some of the old timers about their ability to fill gaps in early statistics, it came to light, through sighting a couple of trophies, that some of the early detail on the Honour Board, compiled 20 years later without the benefit of scorebooks, was a little inaccurate. A review of the averages in the scorebooks threw up some questions as to the criteria used in determining the winners, in certain cases, over the years. Whilst every effort has been made to list the full names of near 450 players, who represented the club over 31 years in Senior, Veteran and Ladies competitions, we have come up short in regard to a number of players and we apologise to those for whom we could not track down a Christian name. Nicknames appearing herein come courtesy of Hoggy and Tubby, who were the instigators of most of them. Gathering information has been challenging in some respects and it has been quite surprising how the passage of time has played with the memory of many (me included) that I have been in touch with. Unfortunately, some photographs in the book are a bit blurry and omit the name of the odd player and again I apologise for this situation. The exercise has taken a fairly long time to bring to fruition but it has been a labour of enjoyment and it brought back a lot of memories, particularly when wading through scorebooks, remembering those we came up against and certain events. Finally, I would like to thank my daughter, Kim, for the countless hours that she has spent on the computer, massaging the content into an appropriate format, and we hope you find it an enjoyable read. Ian Spencer (November 2016) Acknowledgements My thanks to the following organisations/people for their assistance in providing information or stories that appear in following pages (some may be embellished and hopefully no one is upset with what has been written). Ringwood Historical Society – old local newspapers Croydon Library – “A history of Croydon” Thomas Derham and Kaye Derham - Tommy provided some of the intro information prior to his passing Tony and Diane White Lyn Davies Doug and Debbie Ford Andy Rickards Ray Heller Dwayne Paisley Adam Hastings Ian Wood Craig Munns Craig Howard (Google page) Bill Stafford Brian Gobbi Trevor Gobbi Mathew Peisley Richard Brown Matthew Carroll Again, apologies to anyone I have not listed. Contents Page No. Preamble and background information 1-7 1967/68 season 8-10 1968/69 season 11-12 1969/70 season 13-14 1970/71 season 15 1971/72 season 16-17 1972/73 season 18 1973/74 season 19-20 1974/75 season 21 1975/76 season 22-23 1976/77 season 24-25 1977/78 season 26-28 1978/79 season 29-31 1979/80 season 32-33 1980/81 season 34-36 1981/82 season 37-40 1982/83 season 41-42 1983/84 season 43-45 1984/85 season 46-50 1985/86 season 51-53 1986/87 season 54-56 1987/88 season 57-60 1988/89 season 61-63 Gallery photo’s 64-65 1989/90 season 66-68 1990/91 season 69-72 1991/92 season 73-75 1992/93 season 76-79 1993/94 season 80-84 1994/95 season 85-90 1995/96 season 91-95 1996/97 season 96-100 1997/98 season 101-105 Ladies teams 106 Club Champions 107 Life Members 108 Association Award winners 109 Junior team photographs 110-112 Young Hockeyers who went on to a higher level: Craig Howard 113-117 Ben Osborne 118 Statistics (Senior, Veterans, Ladies) Honour Board BACKGROUND TO THE FORMATION OF THE CRICKET CLUB and SIGNIFICANT EVENTS THAT FOLLOWED In 1963, the Croydon Hockey club won the winter premiership under the playing leadership of Ron Kirner (whose wife Joan subsequently became Premier of Victoria) and an administration led by David Martin, who was a councillor and later Mayor of Croydon. At the end of each winter hockey season most of the younger players headed their different ways to cricket clubs such as Croydon North, Croydon Footballers, Croydon United and East Ringwood. The man who started it all Early in 1963, David was involved in a very serious car accident which left him paralysed from the waist down. That was not to deter him as he got around with the aid of leg braces, crutches and a modified car. Despite his movement difficulties, David became a bit of a go getter, among other things being involved in the local political scene for about twenty years from the late sixties. He had three stints on council in that time and was Mayor in 1975 and 1986. In 1983, he became publisher and editor of a new local weekly called Croydon City News (Author’s note! I’ve not been able to establish how long it lasted). David passed away in late 2007. During the summer of 1963/64, some of those who played cricket formed friendships with teammates that saw them try other sporting activities in the next winter season. This led to the start of a “how do we keep the players together mentality” and the seeds were sown, although it took a few years to come to fruition, for the formation of Croydon Hockeyers cricket club. Originally, the Croydon Hockey club played on a ground located between the Croydon football oval and what was a soccer pitch, now a gridiron facility. Part of the former hockey ground is now a lake. 1 That ground served its purpose for a period of time but, as the club grew to have three senior and two junior teams, the surface could no longer take the wear and tear. In 1965, the hockey club temporarily relocated to a ground on Bayswater Road, in what was the property of British Nylon Spinners (Clive Peeters, now out of business, built its headquarters right where the ground was situated). Around this time, Council commenced work to transform what has been said to be a former market garden property and swampy area, bordered by the railway line, Surrey and William Roads into a hockey area that would also facilitate two cricket pitches, in due course. As mentioned earlier, the new grounds were developed in the period 65-66 and the hockey club played its first game at Richard Silcock Reserve on 6 August 1966. Information in the following two paragraphs was extracted from a book titled “A history of Croydon 1967-1987”, which briefly documents some of the events in which council played a part during the transition from a Shire to a City (1971) and thereafter until a merger saw it become the City of Maroondah. Council determined that the grounds be named “Richard Silcock Reserve” to honour Richard Silcock, who was a Secondary Schools Inspector and one time principal of Croydon High School. In 1961, he was one of the first councillors of the Croydon Shire and Chairman of the Croydon Shire Proclamation Committee. The “History of Croydon” book also evidences that Council considered two other names, as submitted by the Croydon Historical Society. They were Julia Rd Reserve and George Smith Reserve and these were linked to George Smith who, from 1881, owned the land on which the reserve stands. George was reputedly the first sub-divider in Croydon, doing so with this land in 1887 which saw it named Township Estate. Two of the roads put in were named Smith (now Surrey) and Julia (named after his daughter). It is also said he opened a clay brick pit on the land. 2 Following on from the end of the 1967 hockey season, the fact that cricket pitches had been laid on the ovals was the catalyst for the then Hockey Club President, David Martin, to guide some of the members into forming a cricket team.