Spicer, Eddie
(1934 - 1997)
[Top]. Eddie Spicer (Beryl Black Archive)
[Middle] Dave Morgan standing second from right. Melbourne Amateur Speed Skating Club skaters (maroon and gold uniforms). Yellow shield on maroon background with a speed skate and a flash of lightning. Founded in 1948 by Len Duke and Dave Morgan. Seated: skaters of the Southern Fliers Speed Skating Club, founded in 1947 at Melbourne Glaciarium (winged skate blade, two shades of blue). Undated. (Beryl Black Archive)
[Bottom] Eddie Spicer second from left, Lake Catani near Mount Buffalo, sometime before he drowned there in 1997.
CAREER SUMMARY
Birth
1934
Melbourne VIC Australia
Death
1997
near Mount Buffalo VIC Australia
World Allround Speed Skating Championships
1955-6, 56-7
Australian Ice Racing Hall of Fame
Co-donor, Tasman Trophy, 1973
BORN ABOUT 1934, EDDIE SPICER represented Australia in the World Allround Championships in 1956 with Colin Hickey and 1957 with Edward Tutty. He trained on Lake Catani near Mt Buffalo high in the Victorian Alps, the only long track skating circuit in Australia. Skaters had been doing this, conditions permitting, since the artificial lake began in 1910, [58] even at night with kerosene lamps dotted around the shore. The first Lessee of the Chalet, John Newton, and his successor in 1919, Norwegian-born Hilda Samsing, hired ice skates to the public and did much to pioneer and promote winter sports in the Alps.
At the age of 39 in 1973, Spicer won the 400m, 800m and 1600m events at Lake Ida in New Zealand on 7-8 July, breaking the New Zealand records for all three distances at Canterbury. [2] He also won the relay with Norman Stevenson, Jeff Denny and Phil Ford (2.29.7). [3] He placed third (45.6) behind Jim Lynch (43.5) and Colin Coates (44.2) in NZISA 500m Track Championship and fourth in the 1500m, 5000m and 10000m, all won by Coates.
A fortnight later, he was a member of Team Australia in the inaugural long-track speed-skating country-match at Lake Ida in New Zealand. Other skaters were Victor Bagdon, John Stockdale and Colin Coates. Australia scored 874.578 against New Zealand with 901.549 (Tony Tinga, Stuart Baird, Jan Havenaar and Robert Montgomery). It was the first skating test match in the Southern Hemisphere and continued in 1975, 77 and 79, with Australia beating New Zealand on each occasion.
Spicer tragically drowned at Lake Catani while skating alone in 1997 and it has been closed to skating ever since. No one has reported it sufficiently frozen for skating for decades.
“Eddie was a great Speed Skater who public skated in figure skates,"" writes Jim Lynch. “Eddie was the person that inspired me into speed skating back in 1961 at Bondi Junction”. [5]
Spicer built the stands at Iceland Ringwood in Melbourne for Pat Burley. He is the third inductee to the Australian Ice Racing (AIR) Roll of Honour and donated the inaugural Tasman Trophy in 1973 with fellow Australian speed skater, Terry Finnigan. [3]
World Allround Championships
1955-6 500m: 44,5 (21)/ 1500m 2.21,3 (27)/ 5000m: 9.08,1 (40)/ Samalog 146.410 (NC36) Oslo Bislett
1956-7 500m: 44,4 (17)/ 1000m: 2.22,3 (28)/ 5000m: 8.48,4 (28) Samalog 144.673 (NC27) Ostersund
Ross Carpenter, 'Spicer, Eddie (1934 - 1997)', Legends of Australian Ice, Melbourne, Australia, http://icelegendsaustralia.com/legends-2/bio-spicer.html, accessed online .
[1] Mark Eaton, Brief History of Speed Skating Australia, 2003
[2] 3 Records, The Canberra Times 10 Jul 1973 p 20
[3] 90 Years of Ice Speed Skating in New Zealand 1931-2021, Fiona Atkinson, 2021
[4] Australian Ice Racing (AIR) Roll of Honour
[5] Jim Lynch, Legends Facebook, 4 Feb 2023
Melbourne Glaciarium Speed Skaters.
Melbourne, undated. From left: Len Duke, Teddi Jenkins, ________________ Ron Jenkins (Teddi’s twin sister), Gary Cassidy, ________________. Kneeling, from left:________________, ________________, Eddie Spicer. Courtesy Pam Rogers.
St Moritz speed skaters
Melbourne, undated. (Beryl Black Archive)
