This week Wood e News introduces a new occasional section – “I remember when…”.
We’d love to hear your recollections. Just email admin@eastwoodrugby.com.au or if you’d prefer just leave us a message on 02 9869 4300 and we’ll call you back and capture your memories.
Our first column is from Enid Frost (Lyons)
I remember when…..
I used to go down to the top oval at Eastwood to watch Eastwood play. I think I first went in about 1950 when some of the boys that I knew growing up were playing; names like Ken Smallwood, Alf Hickey, Peter Rheuben and Jack Clark. In those days, Eastwood was of course a much quieter place and a fairly close knit community. Apart from the Saturday arvo matinee at the Duke of York Theatre the only other entertainment was rugby. The oval would be packed when Eastwood played at home and as the team was pretty much all local boys who grew up in the district, we knew them all. It was a bit more basic in those days and I think the facilities in the grandstand were pretty primitive, although we always stood around the side. As I recall, the only real clubhouse that the boys had was underneath the stand where apparently they’d have a few beers after the game.
In later years, when the Club moved to Vimiera Rd, we had built our home there about half a kilometre down the road and I remember when there was big game on, the cars would be parked on both sides of the road for miles in all directions. On home games, you’d see people walking from Eastwood station out to Millner and they occasionally would stop and ask if they could have a drink from the tap in our front yard. And the roar when Eastwood scored! – you could hear it all the way at our place. For a time Clive Lees, a rather flamboyant manager of the club lived opposite our home.
Nowadays of course Eastwood has grown and is a much busier place and we’ve moved out to Galston, but the other day we drove past the top oval and it looks just about the same as it did all those years ago. – apart from the fact that its now a soccer field! We can’t get around as much as we used to so nowadays we only get to see Eastwood play on the TV but I still follow them just as closely. And I was there the day we won our first Grand Final – it sure was a long time coming!
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Mrs Frost was born in Eastwood and lived for 25 years near the station and then for nearly 50 years in Vimiera Rd just down from T.G. Millner. Whilst her own sons displayed absolutely no football talent, her grandson Mark (2nd grade winger) is attempting to redeem the family’s reputation. She can be contacted on enidfrost@yahoo.com
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