Bennett, Grove "Boomer"

BORN CLAYTON GROVE BENNETT on May 12th 1952 in Waterford Ontario, the son of Clayton and Louis Bennett (Sutton), he arrived in Melbourne with his wife Heather and their daughter in 1971. A "pint-size" Canuck from Oshawa in Ontario — just 5' 5" tall (165cm) — but weighing in at a solid 11 stone 8 pounds (73.5kg), he was recruited by John McCrae-Williamson for the Monarchs early in 1972.

Described as the complete hockey player, he possessed skating power, stick-handling skills, good balance and a booming shot. He won the 1972, 1973 and 1978 Goodall Cups representing Victoria, and probably also the 1979 Cup. He was a big contributor to the Monarchs 1972 and 1973 premierships before they very reluctantly cleared him to play for Hakoah at Oakleigh.

He joined his friend and new coach of Hakoah, Robbie Stevenson, the Victorian league's top scorer in 1971 and 1972 with the Tigers, and a former top scorer for Britain. The pair were described in those years as "an unstoppable scoring machine" and "the most consistent scorers in local hockey". He became captain of Hakoah, and the pair led their club to victory in the 1974 Victorian and Australian Championships.

He broke the Australian point scoring record in 1973 with 136 points and again in 1974 with 168 points. At the same time, he set a new Australian goal scoring record with 51 goals from 18 games, an average of 2.8 goals each game. In 1975, he netted 3.3 goals per game, scoring 43 goals and 21 assists, an incredible average of 10 points a game (128 points from 13 games).

He was the league's top scorer in 1974 and '75 with Hakoah and '77, '80 and '81 with the Footscray Pirates. Overall, he was the League's top points scorer 7 times between 1973 and 1981, every year except 1978. He played a career total of 202 games — 41 games for the Monarchs, 1972-3; 38 for Hakoah, 1974-5; 116 for the Pirates, 1976-1981; and the last 7 for the Lions-Hakoah, 1982-3. He won 5 premierships, 2 with the Monarchs in 1972, 1973, Hakoah in 1974, and 2 with the Pirates in 1976 and 1978.

He also played in the National Ice Hockey League with the Pirates; represented Australia (Victoria) in the international series against West Germany (U21) at Ringwood Iceland in 1977; and was a Victorian All-Star in the team that met NSW in the 1981 Interstate Ice Hockey Challenge. Renowned for his toughness, he was once knocked unconscious but revived and continued on.

Since the early-70s, he and Heather ran the Aylseford House retirement home in Malvern and the couple were owner-operators of La Dolce Vita pizza shop on High Street in Malvern which is still there today. He last played in 1983 and, after twelve years in Australia, the family returned to Canada. He died from stomach cancer at a young age in 1986 survived by his wife, Heather, and 5 children — Sherri, 17; Grove, 13; Scott, 11; Heath, 3; and Skye, 1. Heather returned to Melbourne where she lives to this day.

His Melbourne-born son, Grove Jr, played 176 games in the Victorian League between 1991 and 2003, mostly with the Melbourne Demons. Grove Jr was one of only three to play in the 6 Demons premierships from 1997 to 2001 and 2003. He married here to Di and moved to Oshawa in 2004 with their two children, Alexander and Reagan. They co-own Aroga Technologies (an assistive technology company) and Aroga Worldwide.