Light Blue Generations: A History of The Old Geelong Grammarians
while Robert Perry, Chris Bryan and Charlie Sutherland each took one wicket. Nick Sutherland was successful in obtaining three run-outs. The Tunbridge Club had a shaky start with the bat, slumping to 6/48 in the twelfth over, but James Sutherland (64 not out), Charlie Sutherland (51 retired), Robert Perry (19 from 14 balls) and Charles Cameron (52 not out) steadied the side to win the match with nine balls to spare. Tim Shearer, Captain of Old Scotch Collegians (and like each of the above Sutherlands, a grandson of Sir James Darling), presented the magnificent Tunbridge–Cowper Trophy to his cousin, Charlie Sutherland (Captain of the Tunbridge Club). The trophy now resides in the Tunbridge Pavilion at Corio. The winning Tunbridge Club side comprised: Richard Allen, Nick Sutherland, Rob Dery, Charles Cameron, Richard Knight, Robert Perry, Charlie Sutherland, William Vorrath, Chris Bryan, Andrew Martin and James Sutherland.
Chapter 10: The Groundwork 1990–1999
The engine room
Left: John Landy and Vic Tunbridge, pictured together in the 1980s.
Early in 1991, the OGGA Secretary, Jim Winchester (pictured left), advised his Committee that the School’s new IBM business administration computer had been installed and was being tested, and that it included a terminal for exclusive use in the OGGA office. He also recommended to the Committee that they spend $3403 on an IBM model 4018 laser printer for the OGGA office. They approved the purchase. Jim Winchester had taken over from Boz Parsons in 1989 and stayed in the post until 1996, when the School’s Director of Alumni Relations, Mary Morton, also took on the role of OGGA Secretary until December 1997. Their assistants also changed during the decade with Robby Bedggood retiring in 1996 after eight years’ service and Ann Drayton taking her place. Tanya Bishop replaced Mary Morton as OGGA Secretary in 1998.
Opposite: OGGA Secretary Jim Winchester.
John Landy Club
Tunbridge–Cowper Trophy Of the eleven schools that comprise the Associated Public Schools of Victoria, Scotch College and Geelong Grammar are the two often noted for the strength of their alumni associations. It wasn’t surprising, then, that the Tunbridge Club initiated an annual cricket match between the two schools’ former students. On November 13, 1994, the Tunbridge Club defeated an Old Scotch Collegians’ side by two wickets in a fifty-over match at Scotch College, to win the inaugural Tunbridge–Cowper Trophy (Vic Tunbridge’s significance to GGS is recorded elsewhere, Bob Cowper, an Old Scotch Collegian, was a Test player for Australia). In 1994 the OGGs’ side included Charles Cameron (then playing with South Yarra Cricket Club) who opened the bowling for the OGGs and took 2/51 from twelve overs. James Sutherland, fresh from District Cricket duties the previous day, was steady with 1/37 from eleven overs,
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The athletes and their supporters held a 21st anniversary dinner in the Sir Arthur Streeton Room of the Naval and Military Club in 1997. The patron, John Landy, showed his drawing power with the guest speaker being Peter Norman, the 200-metres silver medallist from the 1968 Mexico Olympics and hero of the human rights protest at those Games. Another special guest was the 95-yearold sprint coach, Charles Booth, who is credited with the invention of starting blocks. John Chittick, represented by his daughter Lisa Wick, and Bob Joyce – both OGGs and Olympians – presented the John Chittick–Bob Joyce Award for sprints (100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres or hurdles) to Peter Jardine (GGS master and athletics coach). The Club appointed a new President on the night – OGG Murray Wallace, who at the time still held the School record (11.1 seconds) for the 100 metres.
Social notes Reunions based on a fixed anniversary became more common in the 1990s. One of the most popular was the forty-year Timbertop reunion in December 1992, bringing together past pupils of Timbertop’s first intake. OGG President Alby Carnegie went along and, while he said the highlight was an address by Sir James Darling, he also noted some comments from Reece Burgess, who referred to the sales of butternut biscuits by some budding entrepreneurs who made ‘huge profits’, and the Rev David Townsend, ‘a person who did not speak highly of his time at Corio but mentioned that his overpowering memory of
Timbertop was freedom; freedom from the hierarchy of Corio, freedom from sport and cadets and rules. I quote a little from his speech to give some flavour to that first year: “There were not many rules - Monty was keen that you were on time and had a fixation about axe heads. Bishop (EK) Leslie liked you to be in bed by the time his hobnailed boots reached the dormitory after lights-out.”’ Early in the decade Simon Reed, Kate Gilder, Anna Mulley, Sam Smith and Tom Gubbins formed the Social Sub-committee and had the OGGs’ annual dinner, a Christmas cocktail party, and functions for young OGGs on their agenda. The annual dinner on VFL Grand Final eve continued in the early 1990s, but in 1991 it was transformed into a dinner-dance at Leonda attended by about 290 – their seniority ranging from Charles Hall (1927) to a group of younger people who had left the School at the end of 1989. Music was supplied by an OGG, Andrew Noble, and his disco. A highlight was the awarding of honorary life membership of the OGGA to Arthur ‘Nugget’ Stephens for his services to the School and the Association. The OGGA President, Robert (Bas) Seymour, sought a change of direction, however, and got the Committee’s agreement to hold the 1991 annual dinner at Corio and make it an OGGs-only event. Despite the attraction of Ranald Macdonald – an OGG and media personality – and a panel of people he proposed to interview on the night, including horse trainer Rick Hore-Lacy and diplomat Richard Woolcott, the dinner
had to be cancelled through a lack of support. Seymour put this down to ‘the recession, lack of interest in the Geelong area, drink-driving legislation and the fact that partners were not invited’. It was back to Leonda on Grand Final eve for the annual dinner and that’s where it stayed, with the Christmas cocktail party at the Melbourne Club popular, and less formal functions for young OGGs (known for a time as the YOGGs), sometimes at the Prince Alfred Hotel in Richmond. One young OGGs’ night, in October 1993, organised by a group led by Caroline Bedggood, drew almost 400 people to the Redhead nightclub in South Melbourne, and showed a surplus of $900; most OGG social functions ran at a loss and were subsidised by the Association. By 1994 Simon Reed had expanded his Social Subcommittee to include Tim Hegarty, Bill Pincott, William Davis, Edwina Burgess, Amanda Woods, Georgina Brown and Matthew Oliphant, and the annual dinner remained the main focus on the social calendar; they too had some financial success, with the OGGs’ annual dinner running at ‘roughly break-even’ in 1994. A marquee was put up on the Glamorgan Oval for the 1995 dinner in mid-September, and two OGGs entertained the crowd – David Adams, a round-the-world solo yachtsman, and Lister Hannah, the first OGG Principal, ‘who responded to the toast to the School by contrasting the Geelong Grammar of his time as a student with the current School’. By 1995, the Social Subcommittee was headed by Mary Morton (Weatherly).
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