TEM History

TEM HC History

TEM as we know it today was formed as a result of a 1971 merger between the East Malvern and Toorak Hockey Clubs.  In this issue we look at the foundation of the East Malvern Hockey Club.

The Taranakis-1905

In 1905, a group of schoolboys met in a paddock and played hockey with sticks cut from trees.  The first pavilion was a wooden tool shed, while the shower was a hose with demountable hessian walls.

That paddock became Central Park, Malvern, but was not formed until about 1910 or 1911.

The boys called themselves the Taranakis.  They took their name from the home of James Dunlop, whose two sons were amongst those first players.

As finances improved, the boys purchased solid wooden sticks at 4s6d each, or later imported English sticks for 7s6d.

At that time, there was no hockey association, there were no fixtured matches, and no competition in the form which we would understand.  Clubs would arrange matches with other clubs on a match by match basis.  Some clubs consisted of men only teams, others mixed, and still others were women only teams.

The Taranakis, an all male team, were known to play both men’s teams and mixed teams.  Matches between men’s teams and women’s teams were not unknown, but no examples of the Taranakis playing women’s teams have been identified.

The founders of the Taranakis included Len Foster, who would become captain of the A grade team and represent Victoria, and Keith Reddin, who would be a back in the Victorian team.  Norman Dickson was another of the foundation members.

Laurie Simmonds joined in the second year of the Taranakis existence.  He would become president of the Victorian Amateur Hockey Association.

The first manager of the Taranakis was James Dunlop, whose two sons were part of that first group of players. The names of the rest have been lost.

In time for season 1908, the Taranakis decided to join the VAHA.  As a condition of joining, they had to choose a district name.  They chose “East Malvern”, and so entered the VAHA competition from the start of the 1908 season as East Malvern Hockey Club.

Information in this article has been sourced from "The Sporting Globe" 10 June 1931, "Winner" 17 Jan 1917 and "Hockey Circle" April 1948

Below is an advertisement taken from the Leader newspaper in 1906 advertising a store selling hockey sticks.   

To put things into perspective 4/6, or 4 shillings and 6 pence, is literally $0.45.  To adjust for inflation these sticks would cost approx $35 today.  However the quality and sophistication of these early sticks is far cry from that offered by our good friends and sponsors Just Hockey.