50 years ago
A PUBLIC meeting has been called to try to form a St. John Ambulance Brigade in Hamilton. Glenelg District Ambulance Service has called the meeting for July 15. It will be held at the ambulance station in Foster St at 8pm. Service superintendent, Mr Alan Dalby said yesterday he believed Hamilton needed a voluntary brigade. The organisation is well established in other parts of Victoria and in some centres of the Western District. The St. John brigade comes from the ancient Order of St John. By legend, this order developed from a pilgrim’s hospice established in Jerusalem in 600AD by Abbot Probus, at the wish of Pope Gregory the Great. Nearly 400 years later, it was destroyed. Another 13 years later, merchants of a small Southern Italy town restored it.
The annual Hamilton Badminton Association championships start next Monday night with 176 entries. The championships continue from Monday to Friday when all finals will be played in the Church of England Hall. Starting time on each night will be 7:30. Favourite in the men’s singles is Geoff Reed, who should find the going tougher than last year, while ladies’ title-holder, Marj Todd, looks a certainty to retain her title. With the doubles events being drawn after grading, it is difficult to pick a winner, apart from G. Reed and M. Millard in the A grade mixed doubles. These players ae to report for play by 7.20pm on Monday night: St Andrew’s Hall – J. Addinsall, K. Porter, I. Jackson, J. Bailey. VRI Hall – G. Saul, I, Lee, J. Prest, M. Habel. Church of England – N. Barton, I. Dalton, W. Prowse, D. McKeown.
25 years ago
SEVENTY-NINE year old Dorothy Woolley of Coleraine, has done lots of ‘mad’ things – and is about to embark on another. She was born in Coleraine and spent most of her life working on farms, her father’s and then her husband’s, but since her husband’s death about 14 years ago, she has been making up for lost time doing all the things she has wanted to do since she was young. Her latest plan is to participate in sky diving at the Hamilton Aerodrome at the end of July. She has held this particular ambition ever since she saw 40 people sky diving over Sydney 25 years ago. She has also wanted to ride in a hot air balloon, but missed out on this chance through a bit of bad timing on a trip to Alice Springs.
HAMILTON’S horror run continued on Thursday night with the suspension of rugged defender, Ashley Crow. Crow’s suspension is a savage body blow to the ‘Pies as the undermanned side struggles to prepare for today’s match against East Gambier in round 11 of Western Border football. Crow, who will miss two weeks for striking Wayne Carmody of North Gambier, joins a large contingent of injured or otherwise unavailable Hamilton players for their Melville Oval clash. Inspirational rover, David Hando, will again be missing with a recurring hamstring injury. Hando, who has been troubled by the injury for a long period of time, left the ground in the first quarter of last week’s match and did not take any further part in the game.
