1980... The Start of a New Decade
....the club had grown too quickly for its own good. The AGM minutes from 1979 noted that expectations were high for the 1980 season.
At the first Club Meeting of the 1980 season - 26th February - at Ingleburn RSL, a discussion was held at the beginning of the meeting about the formation of a new club. 10 people were at this meeting and 5 of them had been considering things that were not about Ingleburn Hockey Club during the off season.
The elected Vice President, Frank Krzysik, advised the mmeting that he had submitted a letter to the Secretary advising that himself, Bernie Harding & Norm Lee were resigning from all positions with the club and sought clearances for themselves + 2 others. Frank advised the committee that, in the best interests of hockey, he was starting a new club (to be known as Beasts Hockey Club) and that the planning was advanced to the stage of ordering uniforms. A request was made to train with our club and use our home ground for matches.
The minutes say that "Ingleburn Hockey Club foster & assist the new hockey club in any way IHC sees fit." A vote of thanks was given to Frank Krzysik for the work he had done in setting up the club and wished him and his newly formed club the best of luck. So, the Beasts became a stand alone club with 1 team, initially in 4th Grade. Some of the players who were part of the Beasts did return to Ingleburn in later years after the club ceased to exist.
The club would seek to fill the vacant positions of Vice President, Records Officer, Ladies Organiser, Equipment Officer & Publicity Officer by advertising within the club.
In a peculiar twist to the situation, Des Matejka advised the meeting that himself, John Cavanagh and Ken Morrison were also considering starting a new club, because they believed that with 5 teams the club would be too big. Their plans changed as a result of the formation of the Beasts and they remained part of Ingleburn.
We ended up fielding 4 Men's teams, 2 Junior teams, 2 Ladies teams and 1 Junior girls team.
The Fees were set at $30 for Seniors and $15 for Juniors, which included a pair of socks for the Juniors! A sum of $203.83 which was owing to John Clark by the club, was generously made a donation by him at the August Club Meeting. Thanks to this, we finished the season with $329.42 in the bank.
The club had secured the services of Barry Gardner as a coach for the Men's section of the club. Ingleburn High School was to be used for our home games. A BBQ and drinks were held at each home game. Training was held at Milton Park, Ingleburn.
The new constitution was implemented at the July Club Meeting, and we officially became a Non Profit Organisation with the NSW Department of Services.
Our 2 Junior boys teams (called A & C Grades) played in the Grand Final at Jackson Park on 17th August. The Junior girls team won their Grand Final. Ladies A Grade won their Grand Final and B Grade reached the Grand Final. The 2nd Grade men's team was withdrawn from the competition on the 12th July by a large majority of Senior players at a meeting after the final match of the day due to the facty that we no longer had the numbers to field the team. Of the 4 Men's teams, only 3rd Grade Men reached the Finals Series. They were defeated in the Preliminary Final. I recall that the Men's Finals were held at Campbelltown High School.
The Junior (boys & girls) Presentation was held at Ingleburn High School on Sunday, 17th August after the Junior Grand Finals. 37 trophies were purchased for the teams. All Junior boys and 90% of the Junior girls attended. An over 25's vs an under 25's game was held. The feedback was that it was superior to the 1979 Presentation Day. Mention was made of an end of Year function for the Senior men, but I don't recollect it happening and no further mention of it appears in any minutes.
Problems were evident in Men's numbers for 1981....
