OXFORD UNIVERSITY ICE HOCKEY TEAM WHEN HENRY WITTE WAS TRAINER, ST MORITZ SWITZERLAND, 1930-31.The OUIHC was dominated by Canadians. All but one of the players in this photograph are Canadian (American L.A. Watson was from Minnesota). Players from left to right: W.P. Wallace, D.M. Turnbull, L.C. Bonnycastle, Ronald Martland, L.H. Little, George F.G. Stanley, J.D. Babbitt, H.G. Lafleur, O.A. Gratias, L.A. Watson. Stanley designed the current flag of Canada. (Credit Glenbow Archives, Canada, NA-2968-3) [15]
Oxford Trainer, Henri Witte
With Ray Fisher, Efftee Films (Doreen in The Sentimental Bloke), Melbourne Glaciarium, 1932. Table Talk, Melbourne, May 19th 1932.
Oxford vs Czech National Team
Davos, Switzerland, December 1931. Encyclopedia of Canada, Glenbow Archives, NA-2968-29. The Oxford team included many Canadians. Canadian players from left to right: David Turnbull, George F.G. Stanley, O.A. Gratias, L.C. Bonnycastle.
Vic v NSW Souvenir
Program cover, Interstate Ice Hockey Carnival, Sydney, August 1932.
Vic v NSW roster
Glaciettes, July 30th 1932.
Vic v NSW teams
Glaciettes, July 30th 1932.
Vic v NSW teams cont...
Glaciettes, July 30th 1932.
Inglorious Fortunes
Ted Molony and the art of losing
"... the remarkable dominance of the Goodall Cup series by New South Wales, for almost the entire period between the two wars, is difficult to fathom. Of course, they had many fine players, but Victoria in the same period also had there share of men with plenty of ability."
— History of the Goodall Cup [1]
Central Melbourne, Australia, early-1930s. Courtesy State Library Victoria.
THE ART OF LOSING IS NOT HARD TO MASTER. For 24 years between 1922 and 1947, Victoria contested all 17 interstate series without ever winning a Goodall Cup, while their opponents won 9 or 10. Jimmy Brown won 11 and a tie. Sydney's Percy Wendt and Jack Pike were respectively top scorer and runner-up in the first half-century of the game, while successive generations of Victoria's top players came and went with nothing. It was the longest losing streak in the annals of Australian ice hockey until Victoria lost 26 Cups straight between 1980 and 2009, although that is a story less difficult to fathom. The greatest mystery in the long history of the Goodall Cup, the symbol of Australian ice hockey supremacy, is Victoria's inglorious fortunes between the wars.
It's game night in Melbourne. The Glaciarium is an ongoing party and everyone is invited. The violence in the white haze under the blazing lights has temporarily stopped. Ted Molony is talking to the son of the Lord Mayor of Melbourne who also happens to be chairman of directors of the rink company. [237] In a few months, his father will sell Melbourne Glaciarium to its local organisers. Molony is captain and coach of Victoria on a break from an Essendon ice hockey game. With him is Melbourne Grammar old boy, Lewis Luxton, who is doing a BA at Cambridge University, England. Next year he will swim a champion quarter-mile and become the first Australian to stroke a Cambridge rowing crew. He will represent Britain at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and his father will live to help the Victorians gain admittance to the AOF in 1950, setting in motion long-range plans for a touring Australian ice hockey team. [237]
Molony is talking about the popularity of ice hockey, and comparing it to field hockey and North America. His friend, Bobbie Jackson taught skating in New York when the NHL began in 1917. He knows the American pros, Charlie and Lena Uksila, too. They trained skaters and ice hockey teams here on this rink in 1920 and '23. Charlie played with Tommy in the team that became the NHL Blackhawks, the first American-born hockey player to make the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1915-16. Tommy Dunderdale was the first Australian. Lots of well-heeled skaters sailed back and forth between Melbourne and the sport's centres of excellence while Ted Molony played, but to put this in perspective, walk with me a short distance to the city centre.
"ALL THE HOUSES FACE BACK YARDS… The woman living in the first house… was so desperately poor that she resolved to save the maternity bonus, and so, with her last baby had neither anaesthetic nor doctor,” writes campaigner Frederick Oswald Barnett of the poverty facing many here. The Victorian Premier, Albert Dunstan, lost days of sleep after his recent tour of this place with Barnett. As the city nears its centenary year, postcards, posters and even rugs present idyllic views across the Yarra River. "Unrivalled lovelines" say the charming slogans, belying what is actually happening. A depression-hit slum. One-third of the workforce without work, and little or no social security. The men and women wandering these mean streets survive on greasy soup and the odd sermon doled out by fund-starved charities.
New South Wales "always held the upper hand" in the sport in Australia, concedes Molony to Luxton. Well, it seems that way, but both States were equal on four series apiece until 1923. Night has fallen, but on the streets people still search for food to feed children with not enough to eat. Men, the traditional breadwinners, look humiliated and powerless. Women scrabble in the hovels to hold families together.
"We came close on several occasions," reflects Molony watching Luxton's demeanour change. "But I haven't won a Cup series as either captain or coach." He was usually both. “... Ice-hockey is the only game in which every member of the team is fully occupied all the time. In bursts, the players out there are travelling at little under 30 miles an hour. Think of the strain of getting up that speed in four or five strides, in 10 feet.
"From 30 miles an hour you can pull up in your own length by turning the skates broadside on. Then again, the jerk throws a tremendous amount of strain on the player. A good ice-hockey player must be a good fast skater, but not necessarily a graceful skater. I know of no other game in which systematic team play is more necessary. Every player must work in perfect harmony with his team-mates or his side will be overwhelmed". [205]
The suicide rate is up terribly, the hardest blows falling on families still recovering from the pain of war. The able-bodied rise In the morning, wash the scars of hardship and fight cruelly over too few jobs. "Hard knocks?" asks Luxton. "A few," replies Molony, "but we get more cuts from skates in the scrambles than knocks.
"You see," he says pointing to his arm, "there is felt padding on my elbows, the trousers and hips are also padded, there are cane-reinforced shinguards, and we wear heavy gauntlets. The padding absorbs the dozens of knocks from sticks and puck that everyone receives in the course of a game. Sometimes we stop the puck in the face — that generally means stitches. But the very speed of ice-hockey makes it one of the closest of games".
For the King Street boot-maker, speed and systematic teamwork were the keys to victory, even approaching retirement in his thirties. But that one Cup in 1922 was all he took from the fourteen of sixteen series he played between 1921 and 1936. He captained Victoria for the first time in 1925, the year after New South Wales first took the lead in interstate victories, unleashing a long period of dominance.
Ironically, that began the year after Australian ice hockey nationalised, continuing until around 1938 when Australia joined the International Ice Hockey Federation on the eve of a further interruption by war. There was no change to this barely credible, unbroken winning streak, until ice hockey there resumed after World War II, under a unifying authority and International rules. Or, at least, that is the popular view. [216]
Years earlier in June 1921, On Leslie Reid's arrival at the Sydney Ice Hockey Club, its secretary, Norm Joseph, drew up a constitution, by-laws and rules for the game. [2] Australia reverted back from six to seven players that year, the original Canadian ice hockey team strength. In March the following year, another meeting in Sydney considered the Victorian's rules of competition and decided teams of six men a side, not seven, would "promote a more open and faster game". The Vics offside rule was agreed. [2]
The rink up north was 54m by 23m, the international recommended size of the time. Melbourne ice was 22 percent larger at 54.9m by 27.4m. Modern IIHF-compliant rinks are noticeably wider than the NHL rink which originated from the size of the Victoria Skating Rink in Montréal where Jim Kendall played. Melbourne's ice was 4m shorter than the NHL rink and 1.4m wider, making it exactly the same game surface area. Sydney was 5m shorter than an NHL rink and 3m narrower — almost one-fifth less game surface.
In Sydney, links to game developments in North America and Britain went through Doc Murphy, Poole and Kendall. The New Yorker, Murphy, first played in Australia in 1921, and he attended meetings of the New South Wales association soon after. They favoured six-men a side in the best interests of the game. No problem for Reid and Kendall, who were extremely fast skaters. Their ability to defend, attack, and quickly return to the points, was the largest part of the New South Wales "system", and Kendall's powerful, exact shooting was already mythic.
Like many top Canadian University players, he could no doubt slap a puck in excess of 160 kph, a big advantage for his team in the corridors. Six-men a side was re-introduced to Australia in 1922, after negotiation with the VIHA, [2] and although it did not help Victoria's competitiveness, it was a good decision. Both the west coast of Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation adopted it the next year, and the Olympic Games the year after (1924).
Reid's tentative agreement to the Victorians' offside rule [2] is notable because it is generally accepted that ice hockey was an onside game before the 1930s, permitting only backward passes in Canada and almost everywhere else except Britain. Ken Dryden records it this way in his critically acclaimed book, The Game. Offside was not officially introduced to the NHL until 1929, and to the IIHF a match-decade later (1946).
In 1908, the Montréal Gazette attributed an Oxford Canadians loss to their inability to "accustom themselves to the forward passing allowed" in Britain. The Daily Colonist in British Columbia similarly described the "handicaps" the Oxford Canadians faced: "in England, hockey is played under off-side rules somewhat similar to that of association football. Forward passing is perfectly legitimate and most freely resorted to." [9]
North America was in a golden age of stick-handling, but with the arrival of offside rules, the forward pass transformed hockey into a truly team sport. Individual heroics diminished in importance in favour of team play, which could now be coordinated over the entire surface of the ice, as opposed to merely rearward players. Then the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) league in Western Canada introduced several innovations when it formed in 1911. Blue lines divided the ice into three zones, goaltenders could fall to the ice to make saves, and the 60-minute game was divided into three 20-minute periods. At the same time, forward passes could be made in the new neutral zone.
These and other innovations took years in the NHL and IIHF. Forward passes in defending and neutral zones were not allowed until the 1927–28 NHL season, when goaltenders pads also reduced in width from 12 to 10 inches. At the same time, the game standardized at three 20-minute periods of stop-time separated by 10-minute intermissions; teams changed ends at the end of each period; and ten minutes of sudden-death overtime determined a tie after regulation time. Forward passing inside all three zones came in for the first time in the NHL in the 1929–30 season, but not across either blue line.
Ice hockey in Australia was an offside game from 1921 and perhaps earlier, and these early rule negotiations show a systematic, forward-passing team play began there very early in the evolution of the game. According to Luxton, the offside rule in Melbourne ice hockey in 1930 "... prohibits any player from moving towards his opponents goal in front of the puck." [216] Local playing rules continued to evolve like this in both States, [2] significant in the historical development of the sport worldwide. Perhaps they are also clues to New South Wales' dominance of the Cup between the wars.
When hockey resumed after the first world war, both States agreed to contest the Goodall Cup over two twenty-minute periods, either side of a ten-minute interval, with a 6-player, single-shift, team structure. There were no line changes, nor substitutes; the same six players contested all of both 20-minute periods. Some playing rules were still negotiated by State captains before the games (Kendall, Reid, Molony and Goodall), and the "relay system", two substitute players, was not introduced in Melbourne until the first test of the 1926 Interstate series, on August 9th. [128]
Even then, "relays" replaced players for a whole period, [128] unlike the regular line change which occur every few minutes in the modern game. By 1930, change-over of the two substitutes occurred more often, [205] evolving to include more "relays", whole lines, and then two and three lines, until the regular line change of three shifts of five skaters emerged; hockey as it is today.
From 1921, the New South Wales skating defense was Jim Kendall and Leslie Reid at point and cover-point, respectively. Both were very fast 2-way defensemen, regular goal-scorers in the usually low-scoring clashes of the time. They were on the ice all game, and Kendall had well and truly established his state's game play by the mid-1920s. Although Victoria remained mostly competitive, they found no lasting counter strategy. The year after their 1922 win captained by John Goodall, the two State associations federated and New South Wales beat Victoria in Sydney, 6–3, 2–1, 4–4. Charles Uksila coached either Victoria or New South Wales, and Molony scored three of the four Victorian goals of the last test. [169] It was his last game before he was on his own as captain and coach.
In the first of three tests in Melbourne in 1924, "... the Victorian's were outclasssed by a heavier, faster and more systematic team... New South Wales was best served by Kendall, who was perhaps the best player of the match, Slade and Pike. For Victoria, Dow in goal was tower of strength, and saved many possible goals. Dyer, Molony and Bilsborrow also played well... New South Wales won by 2 goals to nil." [220] In the second test, New South Wales were strangely "... without the services last night of the captain and coach (Kendall)" [220] Victoria won the second test, but against a team which was oddly missing all its regular defense; Kendall, Reid and goalie Cairns. The 1924 Goodall Cup test results were NSW 2–0, 3–4, 6–2. [220] Collins was top scorer for Victoria in the series, netting four of six goals. Molony and Dyer scored one apiece.
Six tests were played in the 1925 series, three in each State, the only occurence on record of a double-header Goodall Cup series, split three apiece between States. John Goodall was back on the Victorian selector's roster. [135] It was an almost regal occasion befitting a king, the last interstate clash for Jim Kendall as a player. Thousands upon thousands watched 36 year-old Kenny shred nets for the last three times in each State until drunk on triumphant glory. He played his first national game in Australia fourteen golden years earlier.
New South Wales won all three tests in Melbourne, and the second, attended by the Governor, the Earl of Stradbroke, was a 5–1 victory. Goals from Kendall (2), Norm Turner (2) and Pike for New South Wales, while Collins scored for Victoria. The third test resulted NSW 4–1, with NSW goals scored by Reid, Turner, Slade and White. Molony, who scored Victoria's only goal, played centre this year, while Collins covered the points with Dixon, in lieu of Morrie Bilsborrow and Harris. The 1925 Goodall Cup matches in Melbourne resulted NSW unknown, 5–1, 4–1, and in Sydney, NSW 5–2, 2–0, 1–1. [221]
In 1926, when Kendall was no longer playing, Molony officiated both the men's and women's series held in Melbourne for the Goodall and Gower cups. Kershaw was captain of Victoria, while Reid and Pike shared the captaincy and vice-captaincy of New South Wales. Kendall coached, replaced by Wells on the ice, and Reid relayed with Gibson, a captain of one of the four Sydney clubs who won the National half-mile speed skating championship over Reid in 1922 with a time of 3min 35sec. [128] By 1930, Jimmy Brown skated twice that distance in the same time, and there were other Australian hockey players of his era who were comparable.
Relays or substitutes came in this year and for the first time the Victorian team was not announced to the press until immediately before the game. [167] More players than ever before represented each State at the one time. Victorian captain and Hawthorn star, Kershaw, played Molony's right wing, one of two Cup contests Molony did not play. Victoria was unable to take the lead in any part of it, and New South Wales comfortably won all three tests, 4–1, 2–0, 5–2. [128] The visitors dominated through Wells, Turner and Pike, before a second test crowd of 4,000 people, and interstate radio broadcasting.
Kendall continued to coach New South Wales after he retired and, although the "systematic team play" sought by Molony occasionally arose in Victorian teams by the late-1920s, it was still not entrenched. By 1927, the Victorians found themselves facing-off against an even faster, new generation of New South Wales players trained by Kendall. Notable among them were Jimmy Brown, followed five years later by Ken Kennedy, who debuted in their 1932 Goodall Cup team. Both were soon to become champion speed skaters of Britain where they also played a number of seasons in the top amateur ice hockey league in the world.
Brown broke the British record in 1930, skating a mile in a little over 3 minutes. [229] Jack Pike, the first captain of New South Wales in 1909, continued to play centre at least until 1928. Victoria was without their veteran centre, Collins, one of the top goal-scorers of recent years. Defenders Dixon and Harris were also gone but Morrie Bilsborrow was back, and two goalies, Darke and De Long, were on the selector's list. The results for the three tests in 1928 were NSW 2–1, 4–4, 4–0. [218]
The 1930 Victorian team was virtually unchanged. Defeated in the first test; narrowly defeated in the second; they also lost the inconsequential third, despite local games and Cup practice matches over weeks in the lead-up. Final test scores from the 1930 Goodall Cup series were NSW 2–0, 1–0, 5–3.
THIS ENTRANCEWAY, "Tom Tower" as its is known, will be familiar to anyone who has seen The Golden Compass and Brideshead Revisited on the big screen. Almost all of Oxford’s colleges win renown for their architecture, but Christ Church founded in 1524 is perhaps the most famous due to its appearances in popular film and television. Up the staircase of Bodley Tower to the Ante-Hall with the Buttery on the left, and through to the finest surviving section of the college’s original foundation. Standing in one of the world’s most famous eating halls, admiring the Rennaissance splendour that inspired the famous Mad Hatter’s tea party, I imagine the Melbourne-born professor replacing his napkin on the long table as he rises in his dining gown to speak.
Now immortalised as none other than the Hogwarts Great Hall in the much-loved series of Harry Potter films, this was for many years the dining room of Carleton Kemp Allen, brother of Barney Allen, president of the National Ice Skating Association of Australia in Melbourne. "C K", as he was known, grew-up in Sydney and won a scholarship to Oxford. Later appointed professor of jurisprudence there, he became the second Warden of Rhodes House in 1931.
A stalwart man with white hair and moustache, he held that office with great distinction, winning the respect of generations of Rhodes scholars, some of whom were recipients of the many scholarships he conferred as Warden. His brother Barney was an inspiring and lively teacher at the University of Melbourne's Ormond College and vice-president of the Melbourne University Sports Union. [191] A regular skater at Melbourne Glaciarium, some thought he would make a good ISU judge.
The Ice Hockey Club here, sometimes known as Oxford Blues, is the oldest in Europe and second oldest in the world behind Montréal’s McGill University club founded in 1877. Aside from the tours of North American teams, "the chief ice hockey event in Europe is the intervarsity match," declares a 1928 British sports magazine. "After being played for several years at Murren, this fixture was transferred three years ago to the Canadian rink at the magnificent ice stadium at St Moritz." It was "thanks to the Rhodes Scholars of Oxford” that "the real game has been known for several years in some of the winter-resorts of Switzerland." [9] The City of Oxford built an ice rink in 1930 and the national teams of France, Germany and several other countries travelled there to play. The touring Canadian teams that played Oxford included the Edmonton Superiors, the Ottawa Shamrocks and Team Canada. [9]
In 1931, Oxford was trained by a former European men's skating champion named Henri Witte. An instructor at the Grand Hotel at St Moritz in Switzerland for fifteen years, he was also an instructor at Melbourne Glaciarium in the European off-seasons. Engaged jointly by both Glaciarium companies in Melbourne and Sydney in 1925, he arrived with former Canadian skating champion and future Hall-of-Famer, Howard Nicholson, the man who trained skaters such as Sonja Henie and ice dancer, Jim Sladky. [189]
Oxford won the Varsity match, 5–1. It was an away-game that year, contested at St Moritz, Switzerland. Back in England, the club won the Spengler Cup and entered the first English League, winning both the inaugural season and the second. [208] After the last match of the 1931–32 season, the mayor of Oxford presented the Oxford players with gold medals for outstanding skill. Still today, the Men’s and Women’s squads continue the very old tradition of representing the college in the Varsity Match against Cambridge University. The Oxford jersey is dark navy and white like Victoria. Cambridge is light blue like New South Wales. [9]
The Light Blues and the Dark Blues, 99th Annual Varsity Match, 2017. Poster design by Katie Rosseau. Courtesy Cambridge University.
Immediately following his success at Oxford, Henry Witte commenced as Trainer of the Victorian ice hockey team in July 1932, a few weeks before the start of the Goodall Cup series at month end. [208] It was Ken Kennedy's first Goodall Cup appearance for New South Wales, and the first on record for Widdy Johnson and Percy Wendt, who now formed the new nucleus of the New South Wales team. All three were young rookies who figured prominently among the best players of the series.
Victoria had Hawthorn's Ellis Kelly who won the State quarter- and half-mile speed skating championships in 1931, the year he was given a fighting chance in the Nationals against the speed of Jimmy Brown. [229] Kelly's half-mile time was 1 min 47 sec, while Brown held the Australian record at 1 min 48 sec, but broke it by a further three seconds (1 min 45 sec), at Melbourne Glaciarium on July 2nd, 1931. It mattered not, because neither won the National. Nineteen year-old NSW ice hockey player Ken Kennedy clinched it for the first time, and repeated his success for the next three years. He left for England late in 1934 and soon after became Australia's first Winter Olympian. Amazingly, the time required to cover the men's half-mile had halved within the decade.
As Victorian hockey sped up under Molony, New South Wales produced more world-class speed skaters, and the cycle repeated. This quest for speed supremacy first flowed from pioneering administrative work in both States between 1921-3, culminating in the first federation of Australian ice hockey associations in 1923. From then on, the speed championships included "Nationals" controlled by the National Ice Hockey and Speed Skating Council led by John Goodall.
In the 1932 Goodall Cup, with Victoria's skating sharpened by Witte, New South Wales crushed their opponents in the first match, 6–0, "... New South Wales scored an easy win over Victoria ... For the first ten minutes, Victoria held the opposition and gave a good display. But the superior speed and team play of New South Wales told their fate, and in the second half Victoria was always on the defensive. W Johnston was the best player of the match and scored three goals, the other goals being scored by Wendt, Reith and Kennedy. H White for the visitors and goal-keeper, was a tower of strength for his side, and made several brilliant saves. The goal-keeping of H Darke for Victoria was not so good. Victoria failed to score." [216] It was the biggest winning margin for an Interstate match on record at the time.
The second test was tied 1–1, "... Victoria, which was outclassed in the first match on Saturday, improved greatly, its defense and combination being much improved". [216] Then, in the decisive third test two days later, "... Victoria defeated New South Wales by two goals for the first time this season. New South Wales won the first game on Saturday, the second on Monday night was drawn and the match last night makes the tallies even, although New South Wales hold the Cup. It will be the ninth year they have held it." [216] The results were NSW 6–0, 1–1, 0–2. The series goal-tally was New South Wales, 7–3, and Widdy Johnston was top goal-scorer, with three goals from the first test. Victoria managed to shut him down after the first match.
Ponder it long and often, but this 1932 Goodall Cup result is mystifying in a competition where the State ice hockey team "with the most wins from three tests" took custody of the trophy. It seems a draw was simply a draw in interstate ice hockey in Australia back then, while elsewhere tied matches extended one way or another until a victory resulted. A single-ten minute sudden-death overtime broke a tie in the NHL from the 1927-8 season.
Today, an overtime period followed by a penalty shootout is common in Australia, internationally and in North American pro leagues. But no such system was in place for the 1932 series here, and Australia did not join the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) until six years later in 1938.
On the tenth anniversary of Victoria's last victory by John Goodall's team, Molony's team tied New South Wales after nine successive defeats. It also happened to be the Silver Jubilee of Melbourne ice. The year before in Victoria, two names were engraved an ice hockey trophy in a tied competition, and each recipient was presented with miniatures. [217] Interstate rivalry apparently warranted less generosity, and neither the custody nor engraving of this particular cup were taken so lightly.
How ever you choose to look at this strange and brilliant decade, New South Wales consistently scored well over twice their opponent, and sometimes three-times, even during key player transitions. Victoria fared worst in 1926 following Kendall's retirement, when Molony officiated and the captaincy changed. Similarly, Victoria managed just 4 shutouts to their opponent's 12 over the decade. One from the last test of their only cup win at the start of the decade, and one at the other end, from the last match of the series they tied.
Victoria only won a first test twice, and although they tied twice, their only win in a second test was in 1924, when Reid, Kendall and goalie Cairns did not play. This usually impenetrable defense stood-down for just one match. Perhaps Kendall was testing the impact on his team in the lead-up to his retirement the following year. Or perhaps he was giving Victoria a sporting chance. It matters not, because New South Wales simply snatched victory in the decider.
This particular offensive-defense combination made a match-winning contribution to the New South Wales teams of its era. Victoria experienced real difficulty taking opponents to a third decider, consistently losing the cup in the first two matches. They tied three but won only a single match in the years between their 1922 cup win and their 1932 cup tie.
Over the ten years, Victoria won just 6 of 36 games and tied 6. Yet, they were often competitive according to press reports, and Henry Witte's training in 1932 made a big difference. While New South Wales were perpetual custodians for decades, at least one "victory" inscribed on the Goodall Cup was too much for some. The Napthine twins "took care" of it in 1937, as we shall see, but the true depth of an absurd power-play crystallized around the time of this first ever Goodall Cup tie.
FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS, organisers of figure skating in New South Wales refused to recognise the National Ice Skating Association of Australia formed in Melbourne in 1911. They held their own "Nationals" independently of Victoria instead, until the Sydney Ice Skating Club controlled by Chas Maclurcan and Dunbar Poole was officially given the same status as the NISAA in Melbourne following 'negotiations' in 1930. Suddenly, there were two national authorities for figure skating; the National Ice Skating Association of Australia (Victoria), and the National Ice Skating Association of Australia (New South Wales).
Both States finally signed an agreement to form a National Council on June 12th 1931, enabling the first unified national figure skating titles. It was a landmark occasion reported in the newspapers, two long decades to the year after the first controlling body with similar wide-ranging national goals established in Victoria. Finally, Australia was able to join the International Skating Union, but another six long years went by before the nation joined the IIHF.
Leslie Reid, the trusted force behind New South Wales ice hockey and speed skating, died the week after the tied 1932 Goodall Cup series. He was 38 years-old. The next year, Poole was made a Life member of the New South Wales ice hockey association, following in Kendall's footseps. Kendall later disappeared from the roll. Harold Waddell Hoban was elected the second president of the New South Wales Ice Hockey and Speed Skating Council in 1934, the second season of Molony's long career in which he did not play.
Born at Newtown in 1890, Hoban was closely involved with Poole and figure skating in New South Wales. They first met at the opening of Adelaide Glaciarium in 1904, when Hoban was 14 years-old and Poole was in his late-twenties. [2] Poole taught him to skate and he was a very influential friend and ally in New South Wales ice hockey and speed skating soon after Reid's death.
Hoban, a dentist, attracted bad press in 1938 when ordered by a Sydney court to pay £2,000 damages (about $200,000) for alleged "negligence and unskilful treatment" of a patient. [81] Three years later in 1941, the New South Wales Ice Hockey and Speed Skating Council made him a Life Member. He resigned the presidency in 1946 when the state failed to defeat Victoria for the second time. During Hoban's 12-year term as president, there were six Interstate championships, and six cancellations due to war. Syd Tange, who commenced his ice hockey career during the Hoban years, became secretary of the state association in 1947 after retiring as a player. [2]
New South Wales' long, "unbroken" winning spree in the years before Australia joined the IIHF was not unbroken, and not as impressive as it seems today. More accurately described as obsessive, it became a ruthlessly guarded ownership for Molony and his charges, at least from the time of this tie and the coincident death of Leslie Reid. Molony took his team to within a whisker of victory more than once during his long career, against teams that included not only Kendall, Pike and Reid, but also Kennedy and Brown, two of the finest skaters and amateur ice hockey players in both Australia and Britain. Both were skating and ice hockey internationals who played the World's best amateur league of the time.
Molony contested world-class speed skaters wielding hockey sticks for over a decade, fulfilling his own prophecy, "the very speed of ice-hockey makes it one of the closest of games." The game off the ice was even faster. Victoria snatched the 1932 tie from the jaws of their worst-ever defeat when Molony was in his eighth year as captain. The rest of the team were vice-captain Bert Cullen, Tom Moore, Ellis Kelly, Henry Callaway, G Moller, Cliff Napthine, Harry Hoyne, M Elliot, C Butler and Harry Darke in net, succeeding veteran Dibby de Long. [1, 217] Untroubled, Molony persevered as captain of Victoria in 1933, missed the 1934 season, then played out the next two as captain without ever winning the Cup.
He retired from the game in 1936 when he was 36 years-old and another new era dawned. Winnipeg-born Spot Lloyd organized the 1937 Victorian team, which included Canadian George Hewitt. Victoria reportedly played very well in all three games, but it is unlikely either he or Hewitt showed Victoria "how to play the blue-line game correctly" as suggested by some official histories. [2] Victoria did not win any of the three series under Lloyd, from 1937 until 1939 when Interstate clashes stopped for seven seasons due to war. Molony and his team were more competitive in the 1932 tie five years earlier, and Lloyd died tragically in a plane accident a few years after the 1937 series.
The 1938 New South Cup-winning squad that visited Melbourne was accompanied by Hockey Hall-of-Famer, Hap Holmes, "to gain knowledge of the standard of play, with the object of possibly returning next season with two professional American teams." Holmes was manager of the Cleveland Arena at the time, but nothing came of it. [402] The Vics gave the NSW association an ultimatum: either withdraw the Canadians, George Balork and Ken Tory, or the game was off.
"There were no rules in the books prohibiting the playing of Canadians," said NSW refusing to allow another state to dictate the personnel of its team. A conference between the Victorian Association and Glaciarium management decided the Mebourne rink would not be available for interstate games if the Canadians played. They settled on one a side. NSW also attempted to be represented by 1936 Olympic speed skater Freddie Tomlins from England, who had just won the NSW title. Victoria protested and Tomlins was replaced by J Douglas. [15] A few months later, Freddie won the silver at the 1939 World and European championships representing England.
In 1939, when Molony was Vic team manager, he told the NSW association he would not agree to referee Paton for the decider because he was not strict enough enforcing the rules in previous games. He wanted the Austrian international referee, Moser, appointed. "Victoria has not won the cup since 1922," he said, "and as we have forced New South Wales to two drawn games, it is only fair that a strict umpire, whom the players know will punish them if they infringe the rules, should be in charge of what we know will be a hard game". [13] Lloyd and Napthine returned home for "business reasons", and a replacement was stranded by fog at Melbourne Airport.
NSW won the decider and the Cup, 2-1, refereed by Moser in front of a record crowd. The Austrian referee said it was his "506th important engagement in that capacity". Reportedly, he stifled rough play by sending off offending players. "The appointment of Mr Moser as umpire was not directly in response to a request by the Victorian manager, Mr E J Molony," said Hoban in a press statement. "Mr Moser was the umpire originally appointed when the umpires roster for the series was drawn up, and he appeared last night in order of rotation. The association had every confidence in its referees." [14]
There was much more to Australian ice hockey before World War II than recorded in official histories and, from this time on, Canadian expatriates were too readily favoured at the expense of more important players like Molony who developed locally. It still goes on in Australia, but only really in this sport, despite more recent efforts to control player imports and foster more local talent. A small degree of this is inevitable, even traditional, because ice sports in Australia have worked cooperatively with their centres of excellence in North America and Europe since inception. [10] However, there is an obvious need for balance, and not just for mutual sporting benefits.
And the cup? Well, when Lloyd played in 1937 — the year before Australia affiliated with the IIHF — the 29 year-old Napthine twins "took care" of it, by which time it was in custody in New South Wales for fifteen consecutive years. Cliff Napthine was a veteran of the 1932 cup custody controversy. He and his brother, Mil, went missing after the presentation dinner following the interstate series, again won by Sydney at home. To the great delight of their team mates, the twins produced the Goodall Cup from their luggage, when the train was well out of Sydney and on its way home to Melbourne. [1]
Who knows what they found on it after all those years, but Victoria's inglorious fortunes changed soon after. Dunbar Poole retired that year, Australia affiliated with the IIHF on February 11th the following year, New South Wales won the last of their "successive" cups the year after, and Victoria dominated for the next quarter-century. Clifton and Milton Napthine married Lois and Lorna, and both became RAAF squadron leaders during the Second World War, seemingly like-minded in most everything they did. [234] Molony became a major ice rink operator and developer in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Hobart; perhaps the most ambitious and significant of all his ice sports achievements.
The interstate series was tied again in 1946, and in 1947 Victoria won back the Cup it lost 25 years earlier.
GOODALL CUP RESULTS 1922-32 |
||||||||||||||||||
| Game 1 [GF] | Game 2 [GF] | Game 3 [GF] | Totals [GF] | Series [Won Games] | ||||||||||||||
| Rink | NSW | VIC | NSW | VIC | NSW | VIC | NSW | VIC | +/- | NSW | VIC | Ties | Cup | |||||
| 1922 | MG | 1 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | VIC | ||||
| 1923 | SG | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 8 | -4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | NSW | ||||
| 1924 | MG | 8 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 17 | 6 | -11 | 2 | 1 | – | NSW | ||||
| 1925 | MG | 7 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 16 | 2 | -14 | 3 | 0 | – | NSW | ||||
| 1925 | SG | 5 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 7 | -6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | NSW | ||||
| 1926 | MG | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 11 | 3 | -8 | 3 | 0 | – | NSW | ||||
| 1927 | SG | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 13 | 1 | -12 | 2 | 0 | 1 | NSW | ||||
| 1928 | MG | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 2 | -5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | NSW | ||||
| 1929 | SG | 4 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 4 | -5 | 2 | 1 | – | NSW | ||||
| 1930 | MG | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 3 | -5 | 3 | 0 | – | NSW | ||||
| 1931 | SG | L | W | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 0 | -8 | 2 | 1 | – | NSW | ||||
| 1932 | MG | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 3 | -4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | TIE | ||||
| 51 | 11 | 32 | 20 | 40 | 18 | 120 | 45 | -75 | 24 | 6 | 6 | – | ||||||
| RED: Victoria wins. BOLD: ties. GF = Goals For; W = Win, score not known; L = Loss, score not known; +/- = (VIC GF) - (NSW GF) Rink venues: MG = Melbourne Glaciarium; SG = Sydney Glaciarium Data sources: The Argus newspaper, Melbourne, 1922-32 The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 1923-1931 |
||||||||||||||||||
VICTORIAN TEAM, 1928. Courtesy Basil Hansen. Back row, from left: Cliff Napthine, G Moore, K Fox, Morrie Bilsborrow, J Donovan, R Cullen. Front Row: Harry Darke (G), C Kershaw (VC), Ted Molony (C), R Dyer, Alban De Long (G).
[1] "History of the Goodall Cup", various authors and publications, 1954. Legends Archive.
[2] "Ice Hockey: The NSW Ice Hockey, Association Inc. Australia - Facts and Events 1907-1999" by Sid Tange (1999). 175pp. unpublished manuscript; Extracts published in 2007 on the IHNSW web site for the 2008 Centenary.
[3] The Luxton article: "The Fastest Game in the World," [205] published for The Argus newspaper in Melbourne, is now an important historical document.
[4] The first rules for ice hockey are thought to have been published by James Creighton in the The Montréal Gazette's February 27th edition in 1877 Quebec. There were only seven and, even today, few appreciate that they were virtually identical to previously published field hockey rules. A rubber puck was first used in Melbourne in 1907 against the Canadian National Lacrosse Team and the rink management adopted the McGill Rules of the time and imported Canadian equipment in 1908. [1] Tange suggested other reasons behind the early rule changes in New South Wales.
"... A firm rubber ball was used in place of a puck until 1908 ... Field Hockey sticks were ... replaced in 1908 by the fore-runner of today's stick called a 'Mic-Mac' ... Rules were vitrually non existent, using English Bandy and Canadian rules. There were few off-sides, kicking the puck was allowed ... in 1909 ... with the newer style of sticks and firmer pucks being used in the sport, it became evident that rules would have to be changed to control harder play and off-sides. Rule books from overseas were eagerly sought out and adapted to suit the local conditions of both sides... 1911 was a landmark in Australian Ice Hockey which brought it in line with the latest style of hockey in Canada. It saw the demise of the English Bandy type of play and replaced it with the Canadian style, based on the rules and regulations as drawn up in 1879 at McGill University, Montréal." [2]
Tange was probably referring to the adoption of “Canadian rules” for all levels of play by the IIHF on March 14th, 1911, but something similar happened in Melbourne three years earlier. Moreover, the IIHF brought with it uniformity, but the game innovations at this time were coming from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) league in Western Canada. As we shall see, the PCHA introduced several important innovations on which the modern game is based when it was formed in 1911. In Victoria at least, the new rules and equipment that were evolving for ice were snapped up immediately, including sixty new 1910 Spalding sticks made in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the company was originally founded by Albert Spalding (1850–1915) and his brother in 1876. The Canadian company was not founded until 1913.
"In 1910 ... oddly enough, Victoria purchased five dozen newly imported Canadian sticks known as the Spalding Championship stick and a dozen pucks while in Sydney. These items had been imported by a NSW supporter especially for the local players who for some reason had no desire to purchase them." [2]
[5] 2nd TEST, MELBOURNE, 1926, Aug 10 "... The game opened at a fast pace, and Fox, showing good speed, soon justified his inclusion. The New South Wales team, however, showed superior system and for most of the first half had Victoria defending. De Long was conspicuous, stopping several hard shots, and, although the visitors were hitting straight and hard, they were unable to score for some time. A pass from Barnett to Wells led to the first goal for New South Wales, a fast shot and just beating de Long. Wells scored the second goal a minute later, and the half ended with the scores 2–0 in favour of New South Wales. Victoria attacked from the opening of the second half, but could not pierce the visitors' defence.
[5] cont... Several times good opportunities were spoiled by poor shooting for goal, and there was little team work. When the play went to the other end the Victorian players crowded the game, and time after time the puck went out to a waiting New South Wales player. Wells was hit in the face, but recovered after a few moments and resumed playing. Geise and de Long worked hard, and prevented any further score, but the Victorians were unable to make up the deficit.... Goal-hitters: – New South Wales, Wells (2). Best Players:– New South Wales, Wells, Turner, Pike, Barnett. Victoria: Fox, de Long, Dixson, Geise." [128]
[6] 1st TEST, MELBOURNE, 1928, Aug 6 "... Nearly 2,000 people on Saturday night attended one of the fastest ice-hockey matches ever played at the Glaciarium. The pace of several members of the New South Wales team was a feature of the game. Immediately the game began, Mann (NSW) made a great run down the side of the rink, and a shot by (Jimmy) Brown (NSW) just missed. Molony (V) got the puck away, but Mann finished a clever dash down the centre by shooting first goal for New South Wales. After the bully-off, a shot by Victoria just missed. New South Wales had completely got the better of the play at this stage, and might have scored early but for the splendid saving of Darke in goal for Victoria. Before the first half ended, an exciting scrimmage in front of goal resulted in New South Wales scoring again. After the interval, Victoria played much better. A nice hit by Kershaw (V) nearly marked the goal. Molony got the puck almost into the net following a penalty bully (face-off), and Fox rushed in and scored Victoria's first goal. He was in great form, and made excellent use of his ability to skate at high speed. Mann and Turner were again playing well for New South Wales, but the game ended without any further goals, New South Wales winning by 2 goals to 1 goal." [218]
2nd TEST, Aug 7 "... During the first quarter, New South Wales played together better, and its passing and anticipation were more certain, but Victoria's defence was sound, and neither team scored. Soon after the beginning of the second half, N L Turner (NSW), receiving a pass from V Mann, scored the first goal. Within a few minutes K Fox (Vic), after a brilliant run along the wing, scored the equalising goal. Although New South Wales attacked repeatedly, they could not regain the lead, and Victoria were unable to score again, the match ending with the scores: – Victoria – 4 goals; New South Wales – 4 goals. K Fox, C Kershaw, and R Dyer all played well for Victoria, and often relieved the pressure on goal with great dash. H Darke made many good saves in goal. V Mann was the outstanding man for New South Wales, and was always in the thick of the play. He was well-supported by N L Turner, J Pike, and R Gardiner... " [218]
3rd TEST, Aug 9 "... New South Wales retained the Goodall cup by defeating Victoria in the final match of the series of men's ice-hockey matches at the Glaciarium last night. Three matches have been played, New South Wales winning the first and last, and the other being drawn. Scores – New South Wales, 4 goals; Victoria, nil. Goal-hitters – New South Wales: Turner (3), Brown." [218]
[7] 1st TEST, MELBOURNE, 1930, Aug 11 "... The first puck on Saturday evening was thrown by Miss Gladys Moncrieff. From it the visitors set up an attack which they maintained. They played with splendid combination, while the Victorian team appeared to be mainly an individual effort. Cullen, making most of the pace in the first half, playing a splendid game, but being poorly supported. The visitors first line of defence was practically impenetrable, (Jimmy) Brown playing a particularly fine game in both attack and defence. The Victorian attacks were broken down before the New South Wales goal-keeper was relied upon to do anything, while, at the other end, Darke, in goal, was kept working hard. The two New South Wales goals were scored one in each half, that in the first half being credited to Brown, though only the goal umpire saw it. That in the second half was an entirely individual effort by Gallagher, who took the puck from loose play in the centre. Gallagher was also responsible for saving the position of New South Wales in the only really dangerous attack by Victoria." [215]
2nd TEST, Aug 12 "... one of the fastest ice hockey matches ever played at the Glaciarium. Both teams played with magnificent speed and system and Molony, the Victorian captain, was the most conspicuous player. By half time, New South Wales had scored one goal and in spite of repeated attempts neither side scored again .... The visitors team-work in the forward line gave them several opportunities to shoot for goal, but Darke, the Victorian goalie, was at the top of his form and prevented scoring. Victoria's forward play did not show as much system and co-operation, but there was nothing lacking in individual dash. Scores: – New South Wales, 1 goal, defeated Victoria, nil. Best players for New South Wales were Brown, Barnett, Wells; and for Victoria, Molony, Kershaw, Turner and Cullen. New South Wales also won the first match of the series against Victoria on Saturday night, so it now wins the Goodall shield. The match tomorrow night cannot affect the result. This is the eighth consecutive win for New South Wales..." [215]
3rd TEST, Aug 14 "... Victoria began well and was leading by three goals to one at half-time, but after the interval its play went to pieces. New South Wales quickly scored four goals. Play was rather slow compared with the brilliant speed of the former interstate matches, and Victoria missed its goalkeeper Darke, who was ill and unable to play. Final scores: – New South Wales, 5 goals defeated Victoria, 3 goals. Goal-hitters: – New South Wales: Reith (4), Harrison; Victoria: Cullen (3). Best players: New South Wales: Reith and Harrison; Victoria: Molony and Cullen ... [215]
[8] Molony's father may have been president of the Mentone Public Library in 1925, with M L Dickson as librarian and secretary, and a pennant player and committee-member of the Mentone Bowls Club. [236] The Mentone Skating Rink was established in the early 1880s with the original township in Brindisi Street where the Kingston Offices are now. It was also used for dances, picnic party accommodation, and larger local gatherings of all types. In 1893, it was also a Dancing Saloon, and a movie house for the silent film era in the 1900s until the new theatre opened in 1928. Like Ted, Maffie played right wing, and she had represented Victoria in the third national women's ice hockey game on record; the 1924 Gower Cup. Ted and Maffie were the first husband and wife to represent Victoria in ice hockey.
[9] Encyclopedia of Canada. In 1932, the year Witte trained the Victorian ice hockey team, Oxford captain Charles H. Little petitioned the University Blues Committee for ice hockey to be given Blues Status. Blues are awarded by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in recognition of athletic prowess and are the highest sporting accolade for their students. The first Oxford Blues in ice hockey were awarded to nine OUIHC players after a shutout victory against Cambridge on 21 January 1933. Since this date, with the exception of a brief loss of Blues Status between 2013 and 2014, the most skilled OUIHC players who compete in the Varsity Match against Cambridge have earned Blues.
[10] The Canadian population in Australia was only 6,000 in 1961, but it trebled over the next twenty years. One reason was the interest shown by Canadian companies in Australian markets after the Great Depression and the Ottawa Conference (1932) which addressed it. It led the Canadian government to establish Trade Commisssions in Sydney and Melbourne in 1936. The growing Canadian community was integrated by the efforts of the McMorrans and Roy and Wanda Miller (Carborundum Co of Canada), who founded the Canadian Women's Association in New South Wales. It provided a supportive social and financial network and also helped care for Canadian ex-servicemen, including the widows of Australians who trained in Canada under the Empire Air Training Scheme. The Canadian contribution to Australian life and culture has been important in ways that reach far beyond its national sport, and this is worth remembering.
[11] Sunday morning practice sessions at Melbourne Glaciarium throughout World War II were largely the reason the sport was quickly resumed in 1946, stronger than ever. Yet, Gordon and Molony, or perhaps Leo Molloy and Cyril MacGillicuddy, decided not to host hockey there when the Association again became active in 1946, and that did not change until 1949. In the interim, Harry Kleiner at St Moritz in St Kilda offered to accommodate all those who wanted to play, and the local competition resumed in 1946 with four new teams, Western, Southern, Northern and Eastern Suburbs. Each club boasted memberships equal to the entire pre-war league.
[12] When in 1947 Victoria won back the Cup it lost 25 years earlier, Melbourne Blackhawks coach, Egan "Frosty" Miller, the first top line European to play in Australia, was given most of the credit. [1] The rest of the team were Russ Jones, Russ Carson, Al Sengotta, Ray Sullivan, Warwick Harrison, Johnny Whyte, Jack "Chook" Tuckerman, and veteran Colin Mitchell in his last game. The coach was 1931 Victorian speed skating champion and former State player, Ellis Kelly, and Sid Hiort was Manager. Kleiner's four clubs, and Molony's a few years later, became the nucleus of the sport, the Victorian Ice Hockey League, shaping it once again for its boom years, until the close of its first half-century. [1] After its quarter century in the wilderness, Victoria dominated the next quarter century, with twenty Cup wins compared to eight by New South Wales, and one to newcomer, Queensland.
[13] The Argus, Melbourne, match reports dated 31 July, 1 August, 2 August, 1939. The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 2 Aug 1939.
[14] The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 3 Aug 1939. President's Statement.
[15] Referee, Sydney, July 1938 21:23
[128] The Argus newspaper, Melbourne, Tues 25 July 1922, p 5; Wed 26 July 1922; Mon 3 Jul 1922, p 11.
[135] The Argus, Friday, 31 July 1925, p. 4.
[167] The Argus, 10 Aug 1926, p 7.
[169] The Argus, Mon 27 Aug 1923, p 5; Tues 28 Aug 1923, p 13; Thu 30 Aug 1923, p 4.
[189] The Argus, Mebourne, Mon 25 May 1925, p 14.
[190] 'Allen, Horace William (1875-1949)', by K. C. Wheare, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 44-46.
[205] The Argus, Melbourne, Sat 23 Aug 1930, p 25. "Ice Hockey: the fastest game on earth," by L T Luxton.
[208] The Argus, Melbourne, Mon 18 July 1932, p 8.
[215] The Argus, Melbourne, Mon 11 Aug 1930, p 12; Tue 12 Aug 1930, p 3; Thu 14 Aug 1930, p 10.
[216] The Argus, Melbourne, Fri 15 Jul 1932, p 11; Mon 1 Aug 1932, p 5; TTue 2 Aug 1932, p 10; Thu 4 Aug 1932, p 12.
[217] The Argus, Melbourne, Tue 8 Sep 1931, p 10.
[218] The Argus, Melbourne, Mon 6 Aug 1928, p 4; Mon 7 Aug 1928, p 4; Thu 9 Aug 1928, p 5.
[220] The Argus, Mon 4 Aug 1924, p 4; Tue 5 Aug 1924, p 17; Thu 7 Aug 1924, p 4; The Argus, Wed 22 Jul 1931, p 10.
[221] The Argus, Mon 6 July 1925, p 22; Sat 11 Jul 1925, p 22; Mon 13 Jul 1925, p 6; Tue 14 Jul 1925, p 17; Thu 16 Jul 1925, p 4; Mon 10 Aug 1925, p 6; Wed 12 Aug 1925, p 15; Thu 13 Aug 1925, p 5.
[229] The Argus, Tue 28 Jul 1931, p 12; Wed 27 May 1931, p 10; Canberra Times, 10 April 1931, p 1.
[237] 'Luxton, Thomas (1850 - 1911)', by J. Ann Hone, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, p. 113, and 'Luxton, Sir Harold Daniel (1888 - 1957)', by David Dunstan, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 170-171. Also "Re-member, a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851," Luxton, Sir Harold Daniel,