Chris O’Connor has been busy dreaming up a list of questions to
challenge all our members at this year’s Trivia Night to be held on Saturday 19th
June 2004 at the Ashburton Primary School. To ensure that this night is as successful as
the events held over the past 3 years, it is imperative that we have the support of as
many members as possible to collect items for auction on the night and get together groups
to attend. If you are able to assist in any way please contact Leana Tilley on 0402 264
503 (mobile) or by email at Leana_Tilley@bigpond.com.
The silent auction held on the night provides us with one of
our major sources of fundraising for the year and we are hoping that this year is no
exception, however we are in great need of additional items to be donated to add to our
list of auction items. We will accept any kind of goods or vouchers so most Club members
should have contacts with some kind of business, shop or service able to donate an item
towards the auction. Suitable items include plants, wine, sporting goods, clothing,
electrical goods, books, accommodation, meal vouchers etc. etc., however pleased
don’t be constrained by this list.
A flyer is available to download to return to the Club
at PO Box 247, Box Hill 3128 if you are able to attend - click on the following link...Trivia Night Flyer
The Club has recently signed a contract with a builder to finally
complete the upstairs extensions to our club rooms. The works will involve construction of
walls and windows within the existing steel frame and fitout of the new rooms suitable for
use. The new rooms will include a new social area overlooking the track, a new
photo-finish / officials room and a store room / office.
While it will be great to finally have our club rooms finished,
this final stage will place a significant financial burden on the Club so it is imperative
that all members support the fundraising events held later in the year to ensure that
debts incurred can be erased as quickly as possible.
The Annual General Meeting for the Box Hill Athletic Club will be
held in the club rooms at 7:30 pm on Tuesday 20 July 2004. The committee would appreciate
if all members could attend this meeting to show their support for the huge amount of
administrative work done by the committee each year to enable the facilities to be
maintained and upgraded and the Club to function in an efficient and effective manner.
Full details about the meeting will be provided in the next newsletter however it is
suggested that you put the date in your diary. The committee would welcome new members to
join us for a monthly meeting and assist in providing input to the planning and decision
making process involved with administration of the Club.
Do you take pride in your club?
It is hoped that most of our members do care about the
condition of the clubrooms and its surrounds, but there are obviously a few who do not, as
on occasions:
·
The main gate is
left open.
·
Lights in the change
rooms and toilets are left on.
·
Clothing, drink
bottles, rubbish etc are left on the track.
·
Weights are not
replaced on the weights tree.
·
One or more of the
toilets in the women’s toilet are locked from the inside.
·
Taps are left
running.
·
The wooden doorstop
in the Men’s Toilet doors was kicked out.
·
Hurdles are not
returned to the concrete blocks.
·
Training Javelins
have been left on the infield after training sessions.
·
Starting blocks have
been left trackside after training sessions.
Our Ground Manager is doing a wonderful job in attempting to
keep the clubrooms and its surrounds in excellent condition, however your co-operation is
required. When you as a member are at
the track look around and see how you could assist in keeping the clubrooms and its
surrounds tidy and remind your fellow member(s) to do the same. Think how frustrated you would feel if your job was
made harder by someone not being able to turn off a tap or flick off a light switch.
Hurdles must be returned to the concrete blocks (no more than 5
to each block) after use. If the hurdles continue to be left on the track or grass one of
the options being considered is to chain and padlock each grouping. So if members wish to
have unhindered access to the hurdles for training purpose (Hurdle drills, rebounds etc)
then make sure they are returned and stacked appropriately on the concrete blocks.
About 90 Club members, friends and family attended this year’s
presentation night held on Saturday 8 May at the Box Hill Community Arts Centre.
Highlights from the past season were presented in the form of a photo presentation and
video pole vault display. But the real show stealer was “Death from Above”, and
the bunch of balloons that suddenly appeared at the podium when Graeme turned around.
Another highlight was that the male and female athletes of the year were actually able to
walk this year.
Winners of trophies and awards announced on the night were:
Under 14 Females
Hannah Wallace (35)
Jennifer Chan (29)
Daina Nielsen (28)
Alicia Neylan (28)
Under 14 Males
Ben Pocklington (73)
Patrick Westman (32)
Aaron Holmes (22)
Under 16 Females
Veronica Kirby (103)
Sarah Quinn (89)
Morgan Deane (69)
Under 16 Males
Mitchell Goodwin (69)
Dion Pocklington (51)
Ruben Arunasalam (36)
Under 18 Females
Georgia White (55)
Ellie McArthur (46)
Catherine Allan (25)
Under 18 Males
Grant Hodges (109)
Theo Oostveen (105)
Alex de Greenlaw (103)
Interclub Awards –
Female
Sarah Stewart (66)
Elisabeth Bird (60)
Leana Tilley (59)
Elissa Ward (59)
Interclub Awards –
Male
Division 1: Chris Rutty,
Ronnie Buckley
Division 2: David Featherston
Division3 & 4: Chris Vergos
Frank Tutchener Shield
– Club 10 Mile Trophy
Dale Bickham
Andrew Stewart Trophy
– Pole Vault Champion
Steven Hooker
Rosanna Ditton
Ross Haywood Trophy
– Race Walking
Wendy Muldoon
Vladimir Slavnic Trophy
– Outstanding Thrower
Ronnie Buckley
Outstanding Finals
Athlete
David Featherston
Megan Sloane Cup –
Champion Winter Athlete – Female
Megan Sloane
Hansen Trophy –
Champion Winter Athlete – Male
John Meagher
Grant Taggart Shield
– Most Determined Junior Winter Athlete
Jocelyn Keage
Club Award
Cathy Tilley
State League Points Award
– Female (84 & over)
Rachael Dacy (113.5)
Nicole Sansonetti (84)
State League Points Award
– Male (100 & over)
Ronnie Buckley (197)
Steven Hooker (180.75)
Mohamad Zeed (153.5)
Marty Duke (118.5)
Tim Williams (102.5)
State League Points Award
– Coach
Bert Tilley (614) -
equivalent men's points
Armstrong Shield –
Junior Female Athlete of the Year
Hayley Tomlinson
Reg Barlow Cup – Male Junior Athlete of the
Year
Ronnie Buckley
Martha Fraser Shield – Female Athlete of
the Year
Rosanna Ditton
Allan Barlow Shield – Male Athlete of the
Year
Steven Hooker
Membership fees are due and payable from 1 April 2004. Please forward your membership form and
Athletics Victoria form (both can be obtained from the internet) to the Club Registrar, Angela
Robbie, PO Box 247 Box Hill. Please ensure that the declaration at the
foot of each form is signed. Non financial
members are not entitled to train at the track or use the facilities and membership checks
will commence shortly. A training fee of $5.00
per session will be payable if you are a non financial member.
It is important to note that your Club Registrar will be
overseas for the month of September and therefore it is in your best interests to get
registered before this time or you might find yourself missing out on the first few weeks
of the summer competition.
For a limited time there are some "State League" Long
Sleeve Training Tops now available for only $20. Also a new order of Club Tracksuit tops
has just arrived so get in early before they all go for $85.
There are also copies of the video shown at the 70 Year Dinner
and Presentation Night available for purchase in DVD format for just $30. The
professionally produced video shows many of our members from the last 30 years in action
and is a great record of some of the athletes who have competed for Box Hill.
For any of the above, or uniforms please contact Julie Milner on 9818
1278 or email jmilner@tpg.com.au.
Box Hill Athletic Club operates the Barlow Foundation as a registered
project with the Australian Sports Foundation for the purpose of supporting elite athletes
and coaches in state league interclub competition. The project makes grants to athletes
and coaches from tax-deductible donations made to the foundation. These grants have played
a significant part in the success of the State League teams over the past few seasons and
the Club is committed to continuing to provide these opportunities for our State League
athletes.
The distribution of Barlow Foundation grants made at the
presentation night for the 2003/04 season was:
·
$200 Reimbursement
of expenses to the leading Female State League points scorer
·
$200 Reimbursement
of expenses to the leading Male State League points scorer
·
$200 Reimbursement
of expenses to the coach whose athletes (both male and female) score the greatest combined
total of State League points.
To help ensure the continued success of our State League teams,
we are requesting donations to help fund these grants. All donations are tax deductible.
If you would like to obtain a donation form to send in a donation, or have any questions
about the Barlow Foundation, please contact Colin Organ on 9813 3597 or via email
(colo@bigpond.com). Alternatively you may wish to download a form directly from the
Club’s web site at http://www.boxhillathleticclub.org.
Only current financial members are entitled to hold keys
to the clubrooms. A check of the key register
will take place shortly and if you were issued a key last season and you have not
forwarded your registration for the 2004/2005 season you will be asked to return your key
and your deposit will be refunded. Your immediate registration is required.
The Second Six Month Work for the Dole Project is
progressing smoothly with a lot of maintenance and extra tasks being completed despite
having only 3 or 4 workers in attendance. The new project commenced in Mid-March.
Tasks completed are:
·
Painting of the
floors in the members change rooms and public toilets.
·
Painting of the
external and internal doors of the public toilets.
·
Painting of the
clubrooms external and internal doors.
·
Removal of the
carpet squares and painting of the floor in the official’s room.
·
Installation of
cupboards in the official’s room.
·
Lowering and
painting of notice board in the official’s room.
·
Repair of front
fence.
·
Painting of signage
on doors.
·
Painting of new
hurdle battens to replace broken or damaged battens.
·
Ongoing maintenance
of the change rooms and toilets (Public and Members).
With the above completed tasks and the weekly
cleaning and maintenance of the clubrooms and grounds the track is looking in tip top
shape and all members are urged to take care and keep it that way.
The Box Hill Athletic
Club web site has recently undergone a major upgrade thanks to the efforts of Club member,
David Jimenez. Please have a browse around the new site (at the same address - www.boxhillathleticclub.org)
and pass on any comments to David at runnerdave@hotmail.com.
Hopefully most
of the links are now working properly. Please let David know if you find any problems or
have some suggestions for improvements.
Is athletics a contact sport? On the weekend during the third quarter
of the Hawthorn Essendon AFL match there was a “melee”. People in the media have
been arguing both for and against the idea that this is good for the game. My question is,
would athletics be better off if it was a contact sport, or is it already?
Pole vault is quite possibly the only sport in the world where
the equipment comes with a warning stating “this is a dangerous activity, severe
injury, paralysis and death have occurred”. In every distance race at least one
athlete will finish with blood on their legs from getting spiked. Hurdlers take tumbles
all the time and every event that Chris Vergos enters is a contact event. In fact it
seems, the only woosibag athletes are the prima donna sprinters.
To submit articles either see Cameron Baker or
el Presidente Graeme Olden down at the track or email Cameron on vaultcam@hotmail.com.
Uniforms
Unfortunately,
due to an increase in the manufacturing costs, the price of club singlets and
women's bodysuit tops will be increased to $30.
New Email Address for Club Secretary
Our Club Secretary, Julie Milner has a new email address:
jmilner@tpg.com.au
Please forward all email correspondence to her
at this new address.
The Club’s
tax deductible Barlow Fund also includes a separate building fund. With additional funds
needed to be able to fund the Stage II Pavilion Upgrade (upstairs extension), donations to
this fund are urgently required. Any donations made to this building fund will be directed
solely towards the club room upgrade. Now is an excellent time to help the Club to fund
your new club rooms and reduce your tax bill. Any donation of $100 or more will be
recognised with a plaque recording your donation prominently displayed on a brick in the
new clubrooms. Donation forms can be downloaded from the Club’s web site - www.boxhillathleticclub.org
- or obtained from Colin Organ – phone 9813 3597 or email at colo@bigpond.com.
The
Bennettswood course was very cool this year on Saturday 17 April, when a large contingent
of Box Hill athletes made their way down to the creek-side course. A number of parents and supporters made their way
to the course as well. When handicap marks were revealed there were the usual gasps of
shock and complaint. This year two of the pole
vault contingent refined the art form to a new level with repeated attempts to get the
generous-hearted handicapper to allow them to run with their friends or to ease their
predicted time.
The
field was progressively sent over an 11 minute interval, which provides the faster runners
with a great deal of nervous anxiety. This was
exacerbated this year when the first four competitors passed through the first lap well
before the last few runners had commenced. It
transpired that these four competitors had taken a wrong turn cutting over a kilometre off
the distance.
Young
runner Aaron Holmes ran strongly to win the race comfortably, though Iain Reitman made
some impact in the concluding stages. Michael
Bourne added to his record of placings in managing to finish in third place. Andrew White ran the fastest time of the day
recording 16 m. 08. Other noteworthy efforts
came from Chris Hamer with a very fast time of 16 m. 31 and Alex de Greenlaw, who also
surprised with a very competitive effort and a fast time
Thanks
to Graeme Olden for setting up the course and Julie Milner for preparing the BBQ, ably
cooked by Doug Bourne.
Thanks also to Ian Sloane who once again defied all attempts at
bribes and ignored all cries for mercy from the handicapper to set handicap marks that
ensure that most runners finished within a minute or so of each other, and then for
recording results and timekeeping on the day.
The main place getters were:
Time Handicap Act. time
1. Aaron Holmes 25 m. 13 6:00
19 m. 13
3.
Michael Bourne 25 m. 48 8:15
17 m. 33
Full results are available on the Box Hill Athletic Club web
site.
The National Equestrian Centre at Werribee was used for the second
time for the Cross Country Relays in 2004.
Mens Results:
Our
teams were weakened by Marcus Tierney’s absence due to illness, Hamish McElwee’s
return to Western Australia and John Meagher, accompanying his school’s junior cross
country teams overseas, and we look forward to Marcus’s and John’s return in
future events. Barry Lynch started the Section
1 team and ran a serviceable leg, finishing in 9th position. Paul Boxshall took over running consistently in the
second leg, holding ninth position, running a similar time to Barry Lynch. Adrian Vincent was selected as our third leg
runner, and ran very impressively recording the fastest Box Hill performance on the day. His exertions lifted Box Hill into 7th position,
our highest placing on the day. Lachlan
Aspinall took over in the 4th leg. He
ran a slightly slower second lap compared to the first, and at the conclusion of his
journey, Box Hill was placed 8th. Kynan
Dawes took off as our fifth leg runner and ran very well.
There was only a four second differential between his laps and he maintained
the time gap between Essendon, the club we were chasing for 7th place. Graeme Olden ran last for our club, and ran a solid
leg bringing home the team in 8th position, which was a result we can
definitely improve on as the season progresses.
Our second team was demoted to Section 4, because we couldn’t
field a second team most weeks in 2003. Our
team performed meritoriously, winning the event. The
team’s performance was set up by the fast early pace of David Jiminez who ran the
fastest Box Hill Section four performance. David
positioned the team in the top three, and subsequent runners, most notably Alan Craigie,
who ran the second fastest leg in Section 4, were able to capitalize on his fine
beginning. Adam Pepper, followed by David
Ayers were able to keep the momentum going maintaining Box Hill’s competitive
position, so that when Chris O’Connor took over in the last leg he was able draw away
from all other Section 4 clubs and lead our team to victory
Our Section 6 team, consisting of Dave Boyd and Matt Slater,
were two runners short of a team. It is to be
hoped that more athletes will make themselves available in forthcoming races so that we
don’t finish up with inadequate runners to fill teams team again.
Our Under 20 runners performed very creditably in winning the
Bronze medal. Recent recruit, Iain Reitman ran very impressively to have Box Hill within
striking distance of other clubs. Michael
Bourne who ran second kept Box Hill within sight of the second placed U/20 team, Glen
Huntly. Andrew White ran a serviceable leg,
finishing the team in third position, 20 seconds down on Glen Huntly in second place. Our
second Under 20 team was a runner short of the team, and Kevin Craigie and Alan Craigie
both had good hit outs and are sure to have a solid season.
Womens Results:
With a number of runners missing for the first event of the
season we only managed to field one full senior team and one junior team
Jess De Bruin ran our fastest leg for the day leading off with
24:05, followed by Jocelyn Keage (who likes to run cross country when she is taking a
break from triathlon training!) in 24:27. Kate Beever ran 25:49 followed by Megan Sloane
who finished in 25:24 in 7th position. Fiona Turner was our only runner in the second
team, showed that her form is starting to improve running 25:29.
Our under 20 team finished 4th to just miss a medal....or did
they? The second team was at first disqualified for not supplying officials but later
received their medals anyway. Sarah Cant ran the fastest junior time for the day, covering
one lap of the course in 10:37, Sarah Walker followed in 12:43. Gemma Cooper ran the last
leg in 13:38 to bring the team home in 4th position.
Again, full results are available on the Box Hill Athletic Club
web site.
VOICES FROM THE PAST
We recently received an email from an old Box Hill club member who
now resides overseas. Below is an exerpt from his email. We wish him all the best and hope
he keeps tuning in to the website to keep up with goings on at the club.
“Dear Sir,
My name is Alan O'Reilly and I am now living in
Guisborough, North Yorkshire, England. I
was a member of Box Hill for a brief time during the mid 1970s before relocating to the UK. On
impulse, I decided to look for "Box Hill Athletics" on the web and found your
site – probably the recent publicity surrounding the 50th anniversary of Roger
Bannister breaking the four-minute mile stirred the sub-conscious.
During my
time with Box Hill, I greatly appreciated the help and encouragement I received from Allan
and Reg Barlow and many of the athletes, including Freddie Cron. It is sad to
learn that he has passed away. My athletic career was unspectacular, since I
struggled along in D Grade most of the time but it was a privilege to meet some of the
most notable athletes of the day, from a number of clubs, including Graham Crouch, Peter
Grant, Don Commons, Peter Larkins, John Birmingham, Rob de Castella, Graham Haskill, Bill
Scott, Robyn Boak, Peter Fuller, Peter Fitzgerald, John Higham, Bruce Field, Chris
Wardlaw, Sergio (?) Sanatisi and others.
Let me take this opportunity therefore to thank you
for the great work that you do and to wish you continuing success for the future in
building on the firm foundation established in the past.
Alan
O’Reilly”
