A NOSTALGIC TRIP THROUGH THE YEARS

A NOSTALGIC TRIP THROUGH THE YEARS

In 1978 the BAYSIDE SOCCER LEAGUE was formed SKYE seniors became inaugural members of this league.
Tony Hall who founded the league with the help of BILL MORREY had two sons GARY and LAURENCE, these two boys asked their father for shirts the same colour as SKYE's, this was GREEN, the shorts were WHITE, and the socks WHITE also with bands of EMERALD and ROYAL BLUE.
Preschool friends and Primary school friends soon began kicking a soccer ball around the HALL's garden, eventually twenty boys became two much for the garden and so the local MARINER's CATHOLIC SCHOOL (now JOHN PAUL COLLEGE ) was approached to allow these boys to train within the school grounds, happily for us BROTHER NEFF the school principal agreed and so training began in earnest.
THE ORIGINAL BOYS WERE:
MATHEW ANGLIM
MATTHEW GRAHAM
ADAM PARROTT
TIM CHASEMORE
GARY HALL
SIMON PARROTT
JASON COCHRANE
LAURENCE HALL
COLIN PATTERSON
CRAIG DENSLEY
CHRISTOPHE LA CASA
GEORGE PATTERSON
DAVID FARRELL
JOHNATHON McGIVERN
GAVIN SAMBELL
JAMES FINDLAY
PAUL McGIVERN
DEAN SIMKIN.
JASON GORDON
SIMON NOEL

Several weeks of training produced some very eager boys and a series of friendly games were arranged, GLEN ADAMS of SEAFORD UNITED SOCCER CLUB was very helpful in getting fixtures.
Due to the GREEN shirts being unavailable WHITE shirts were used in the first matches.
Results began to improve as the season went on due to the variation in the boys ages, occasionally younger boys were put with older boys. The youngest player was CHRISTOPHE LA CASA aged four.

UNDER 8'S UNDER 5's
6 MAY V's SEAFORD LOST 1-3 LOST 1-3 (6 a side)
13 MAY V's MORNINGTON WON 2-0 (11 a side) NO GAME PLAYED
27 MAY V's SEAFORD WON 4-1 & LOST 2-4 LOST 1-3
3 JUNE V's ROSEBUD WON 5-0 LOST 1-3
10 JUNE V's MORNINGTON DREW 2-2 LOST 1-8
17 JUNE V's KARINGAL WON 5-0 & WON 8-0 DREW 0-0 & WON 2-0
24 JUNE V's BERWICK WON 4-2 & WON 3-0 LOST 2-4 & LOST 1-10
8 JUNE V's PENINSULA WON 4-0 LOST 0-6 & WON 4-1
( Two other games against BERWICK and HAMPTON PARK were also played but no scores or records were kept. )

The clubs first presentation day took place at BALLAM PARK, KARINGAL it was put off for a week due to heavy rain on the first Sunday, pennants were purchased and GRAHAM SAMBELL inscribed the boys names.

1978 had finished on a high note perhaps due to all the enthusiasm of the parents. TONY HALL's suggestion of applying to join the JUNIOR SOCCER FEDERATION was accepted by the parents and through approaches to Mr NORMAN WOOD the official delegate for the PENINSULA our name was put forward to the Junior body.
Early in 1979 we were accepted and a committee was set up as follows:
PRESIDENT - KEVIN FINDLAY
VICE PRESIDENT - MIKE McGIVERN
SECRETARY - GRAHAM SAMBELL
TREASURER - YVONNE GRAHAM
COMMITTEE MEMBER - PAUL FARRELL
CLUB COACH - TONY HALL
Due to the BAYSIDE LEAGUE being an unofficial league to protect the Juniors they would not play as SKYE but as SKYE ROVERS, the ROVERS being suggested by PAUL FARRELL.
The Club colours would be GREEN shirts, BLUE shorts with two GREEN stripes down each side and BLUE socks with WHITE and EMERALD bands at the top. The Juniors would share the facilities at BALLARTO ROAD, SKYE, with the Seniors.
The Mums were not to be kept out of the picture a LADIES AUXILIARY was formed to raise much needed cash, EUGENIA SAMBELL became its first PRESIDENT.
Two local schools KARINGAL PRIMARY AND St JOHNS PRIMARY were canvassed with leaflets to attract new members and the phones began to run hot.
In 1979 we managed to field teams in three age groups. Coaches for 1979 were TONY HALL, ALAN PARROTT and MIKE McGIVERN.
It was decided to organise a competition amongst the boys to design a Club badge, the winner proved to be ADAM PARROTT his basic design was used but instead of a soccer ball featured in the centre an ISRAELI JET AIRCRAFT was chosen the aim of SKYE HIGH being the motive for this.
The Club had been joined by the STORER family ELAINE, MIKE and their two boys, they were to have a strong influence in the Club for besides coaching MIKE later became Club PRESIDENT, ELAINE acted as team manager to WAYNE STORER's team.
MIKE was a printer by trade and through his and GRAHAM BAULK's efforts the Club began to produce a fairly regular newsletter, which included many photographs.
MIKE McGIVERN through a contact had Club caps made these were then sold to members and it became quite fashionable to be seen in the GREEN and BLUE caps.
In efforts to raise money stalls were held in CENTRAL PARK manned by girls from the LADIES AUXILIARY, can you imagine about two hundred ex-Vegemite bottles being washed out in baths in girls homes then sold as drink glasses or MADAME EUGENIA the CARD READER.
The Club decided to organise an Under 7's Carnival, Clubs were invited both locally and further afield, August 12th was chosen as the big day. CRANBOURNE SHIRE COUNCIL loaned the Club a caravan for the day and the girls and mums were kept very busy serving food and drinks. Despite the rain falling right up to finals time the day itself was a huge success and I believe it was part of the making of this Club.
( As a footnote I would have liked to have said that we had topped the day by winning our shield but we would have to wait till a much later date for this to happen, our friends from SEAFORD proved too good on the day. )
The carnival was to be a forerunner to future carnivals at this age level as well as holding future carnivals at BALLARTO ROAD in other age groups.
The original committee continued in the early part of 1980, however PAUL FARRELL resigned due to his son DAVID changing to AUSTRALIAN RULES. YVONNE GRAHAM changed employment and her new job forced her to resign also.
KEVIN GOLDFINCH accepted the TREASURERS position, he was yet another destined to play a part in the future of the Club. GEOFF CHURCH replaced PAUL on the committee and took on the unenviable job of EQUIPMENT OFFICER.
It became apparent that some accommodation was needed at BALLARTO ROAD, MIKE PARRY ( a Senior Player ) managed to purchase an on site A V JENNINGS hut as a temporary measure, CRANBOURNE COUNCIL began building official dressing rooms later that season, these would be shared by CRICKET, TENNIS and of course SOCCER.
Unfortunately apart from the first two years it was not an harmonious arrangement with fellow tenants, we began to feel like poor relations.
On the playing field we were able to field many more teams, partly due to extending our coverage of schools to Mt ELIZA NORTH PRIMARY.
PENINSULA JUNIOR SOCCER CLUB approached the Club with a view to an amalgamation, however after a committee meeting it was decided to turn the move down as it was felt that we would be unable to handle the large influx of new players.

In 1981 the Club experienced an explosion of new players especially at Under 9's level, so much so that we fielded three teams, the JETS, the GUNNERS, and the HAMMERS.
The new clubrooms started the previous season were completed which was gratifying, rooms now to change in and a canteen.
A grant was applied for from the MINISTRY OF SPORTS and RECREATION for the installation of floodlights, it was with great delight that we heard our application had been accepted.
ANGUS MORRISON and HARRY SALISBURY installed the lights for us at no personal cost to the Club.
PRESIDENT KEVIN FINDLAY switched on the lights in front of a large crowd of Club members.

MIKE STORER's Under 11's squad was invited to the 1982 HASTINGS FESTIVAL WEEKEND, the event proved to be an outstanding success, the team was overall competition winner. BILLY FLEUTER was the outstanding player of the competition and ANTHONY SMITH was the winner of the penalty kicking competition.
The Club was asked to provide helpers for the SKYE HORSE PAGEANT, money raised would go to overall improvements of the Reserve.
Our neighbouring Club FRANKSTON PINES staged the 1982 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS it was our honour to provide boys to lead the VICTORIAN team in the march pass.
GRAHAM BAULK's Under 9 MAGPIES finished the season
( Played 18, Won 16, Drawing 1 and Losing their last game of the season ), an effort worthy of mention.
However this was overshadowed by the supreme effort of the JETS, eighty eight goals for with only four against, with SIMON PARROTT kicking fifty one of the goals.

VICTORIAN JUNIOR SOCCER FEDERATION pennants started to arrive at the Club in 1983. The Under 11 JETS won their league very convincingly, whilst the Under 11 GUNNERS were Runners Up in their league.
Players from the Club were selected in greater number to represent our region. It seemed as if all the Club was striving for was beginning to bear fruit.
PAUL HELMORE and the Club were also delighted to hear that he was selected for REGIONAL's for the third consecutive year.

In 1984 we had so many eager youngsters wanting to kick the round ball that several of our teams became based at what now is the Senior ground at McCLELLAND DRIVE.
The move proved to us that we had now outgrown the naturistic ground at BALLARTO ROAD, despite the fact that we spent over $1000.00 making a new pitch for the Under 7's and 8's we just didn't have enough room.
It was to be another successful season for the Club, the Under 12 JETS continued to march on, now playing in EASTERN A, but just missing out on the title. The Under 12 GUNNERS finally Won the league which had eluded them the year before, in fact we were to have a hat-trick of titles, both our Under 11 sides under coaches GRAHAM BAULK and HARRY CHALKITIS winning their leagues also.

SID ROSS's Under 8's started 1985 off with a bang when his team won the prestigious SPRINGVALE CITY CARNIVAL.
Our JETS squad played at the M.C.G. of soccer OLYMPIC PARK in the final of the BUFFALO SUMMER CUP, unfortunately KNOX CITY proved to strong winning 2-0.
It was an important year for the JETS as they had been promoted to the SUPER LEAGUE, the first team to play at such a high level in the Club's history.
The Under 13 GUNNERS finished Runners Up in their league to complete three top seasons of soccer.
ALAN PARROTT became coach of the VICTORIAN UNDER 13 TEAM, another great honour.
LOU CIBURA coached his Under 9's through an unbeaten season.
Throughout 1985 negotiations between members of the committee and the FRANKSTON COUNCIL on a new ground for the Club were conducted and it was thanks to the hard work of MIKE STORER, DANNY BURROWS,
MARALYNE DUFFY, PETER LUKEY and TONY HALL on the Clubs behalf whilst on the Councils side PETER LOVE, TED HOLMAN, ALBERT KNOWLES and GARY BURLEIGH that ROBINSON'S PARK was allotted as our home ground for the season 1986.
Two pitches would be available initially and an area for Under 7 and 8 competition, four pitches would eventually become available.

1986 saw our dreams come true a magnificent new complex, our old green hut was carefully brought from BALLARTO ROAD and a temporary dressing room in the form of a large garage was set up.
View plans of new rooms
It was a year of change, the Club's strip changed to WHITE shirts, with BLUE and GREEN trim, still the same colour shorts and socks.
Once again SID ROSS won an early season competition the PENINSULA SOCCER CLUB UNDER 9 COMPETITION.
LOU CIBURA did the double, was his team invincible?
TONY HALL was presented with VICTORIA's 150th ANNIVERSARY medallion for his contribution towards Junior soccer in Victoria.
DARREN LEE coached our Under 8 squad to win the SEAFORD CARNIVAL.
The season was to end on a very high note, the team you just can't forget the JETS won the VICTORIAN Under 14 Cup at SEAFORD beating SUNSHINE GEORGE CROSS 2-0, our highest honour to date.

1987 saw the start of the building of new Club rooms by the CITY of FRANKSTON at an estimated cost of $80.000, these were actually completed by early 1988.
HARRY CHALKITIS's Under 10's proved to be our team of the year closely followed by GRAHAM BAULK's Under 9's.
FRANKSTON SOFTBALL ASSOCIATION we were to learn would be co-tenants at ROBINSON's ROAD.
Whilst JOHN GILLARD worked very hard organising a SUMMER CUP competition with our JETS side competing.

Perhaps due to four pitches now becoming available or the completion of the clubrooms but 1988 will go down as one of the most exciting years in the Club's history.
However to begin on a sad note the Club lost the SPYVE family to QUEENSLAND, anybody who new LYLE, NOELEEN and their three boys will realise the contribution they put in at SKYE.
On the field HARRY CHALKITIS realised how good his team was when winning the League and Regional competition, the JETS also won their Regional's.
CRANBOURNE Under 8 CARNIVAL was won by LAURENCE HALL's team, definitely a chip of the old block.
Saturday September 17th was the Club's biggest day ever, the JUNIOR SOCCER FEDERATION honoured our Club with the BICENTENNIAL JUNIOR CUP FINALS. Clubs from all parts of Victoria competed at our ground for Cups at various age groups.
That the day was a great success would be an understatement.
SKYE's contribution to the finals was ( you guessed it ) the JETS, drawn against ALTONA GATE a team they hadn't beaten in several years, however after an exciting game going into extra time we ran out Winners 2-1.
This was to be the teams final season in competition together, a magnificent
finale under coach ALAN PARROTT.
Four boy's continue to play for the Club from the original number CHRISTOPHE LA CASA, GAVIN SAMBELL, LAURENCE HALL and SIMON PARROTT. All play at Under 16 level; CHRISTOPHE, GAVIN and SIMON have all represented VICTORIA whilst LAURENCE recently became the first boy to have played in all age groups by playing Senior soccer in the Reserves. (View Skye Rovers Flag)

SKYE ROVERS started off 1989 by becoming FRANKSTON UNITED a change brought on by structural change within the Club coupled with the acceptance of us being part of the CITY OF FRANKSTON.
A contract to deliver telephone books was undertaken and with the TRAYNOR, GRAY, CIMDINS, and CHALKITIS families a veritable army of helpers was organised, more families and individual boys helped walk the streets in Mt Eliza delivering books. It proved to be one of the best fund raisers ever.
As another fund raiser we ran our yearly Chocolate drive which was this year organised by STEVE GRAY and CADBURY's. It was again a successful money -spinner and many thanks to STEVE and everyone who participated. organised
The Under 16A side became League Champions in Eastern A,
LAWRIE FLEMING's squad lost only two games throughout the season and were worthy Champions. GRAHAM BAULK who had brought the team through from Under 7 level took over as LAWRIE's Manager and was able to share in the triumph.
The INAUGURAL UNDER 9 CARNIVAL SHIELD sponsored by
ROSS AUGUSTINE was won by LAURENCE HALL's Under 9's a great effort on the day.
ALAN PARROTT can never be left out of any season and his new charges the Under 13's won the Regional Shield.
HARRY CHALKITIS's dream of an excellent floodlight system, good enough to play matches under bore fruit during the year. Concrete poles were purchased from the S.E.C. and delivered to ROBINSON's PARK.
The poles were not long enough and HARRY took it on himself to make six extensions for the poles to give the correct height. The Club would be indebted to HARRY and a small group of helpers who put them together in the CHALKITIS garage, how they got to ROBINSON's ROAD only HARRY knows.
Another HARRY, SALISBURY by surname who all those years ago worked on the BALLARTO ROAD floodlights, gave his time to set up the lighting system. MALCOLM SMITH who worked for the S.E.C. sunk the poles in and it was all taking shape.
Finally TONY HALL stepped down from the Junior Committee, he hasn't severed his connection with the Club as he has stepped up to the Senior Committee.

1990 the beginning of a new decade, and new floodlights will be switched on for the start of the season.
This season teams were run in all age groups, except under 15 where we lost boys to other sports.
Training is in full swing at ROBINSON PARK now that the floodlights are in full operation. The standard of the lighting is that good, that we can proudly say, it's among the best in the state.
This season we welcome to the club new coaches for Under 14's IVAN SYMONS, Under 10's JOHN DARMAKIS, Under 13's STEPHEN GRAY, Under 9's MATTHEW PETRUCCI, Under 8's ROB LAW and LINDA MUIR and Under 7's WAYNE STEVENS.
This year saw the start of the delivering of the Telecom White Pages which proved to be an important fundraiser activity.

The following people assisted in the assembly and installation of the floodlights:
HARRY CHALKITIS, KEN ROBINSON, BRENDAN CHALKITIS, MATTHEW PETRUCCI, BRUCE JAMIESON, JOHN CAVALLARO, TERRY PALMER, ALLAN TRAYNOR, KEITH GRANGER, KEN TAYLOR, ROBERT RATH, PETER SIMMONS, NICK MARASCO, FRED BOLTON, CLAYTON LEE and TONY HALL. This will forever remain a memorable experience for all involved.

In what proved to be a very wet cold and windy Melbourne winter the club had much to show from the 1991 season.
Undoubtably our U14 squad stole the clubs thunder, under coach HARRY CHALKITIS the team won their League but unfortunately went down to BULLEEN in the VICTORIAN CUP FINAL played at SEAFORD, never the less a great season.
Perhaps the pick of the remaining great bunch was DAVID CLIFFE’s U7 “FALCONS” squad, beating all teams in their league and doing so well at carnivals trophy wise it became a great honour for the club.
In 1991 the REYNOLD’s family CHRIS and SUE and the boys joined the club, like many people associated with the club they would prove to have a say in the future running of the club.
During the season the seniors took advantage of the floodlights playing friendlies against other clubs in the area.
Overall the other teams had more wins than losses but competing as we know is the main thing.

1992, another season over, one that seemed to start off like any other but quickly deteriorated as one by one we lost committee members. In a matter of weeks we lost a president, a vice - president and our registration secretary as well as a number of committee members. This as you can imagine robbed the Club valuable expertise and it also meant that the remaining members were called on to fill in the gaps.
It was especially a great loss when HARRY CHALKITIS had to relinquish his services to the Club due to numerous other commitments, the contribution both HARRY and LIZ, put in could never be measured. The same could be said for SUE TRAYNOR and husband ALAN as Club's Secretary she was unflappable and like HARRY is now a LIFE MEMBER of the new Club
As for the season itself we started off with what has become an annual event the MELBOURNE BIG phone book drop, this really does help fill the Club's coffers.
This led on to the start of the season and the Club managed to field teams in all age groups apart from Under 12's and Under 16's, to off-set this we were able to field two Under 7's, 9's and 15's not a bad effort.
We were able to organise two Gala days for our Sub-Juniors and we even managed to choose days when it didn't rain. These days were both unqualified successes and for this we have to thank GARRY NAISMITH who did an excellent job in organising them. We even got to keep one of our trophies thanks to DAVID CLIFFE's Under 9 BLUE Team.
Although the Junior teams didn't win any Championships we came close with ALAN PARROTT's Under 15's team finishing Runners Up in the SUPER LEAGUE and DEREK MOORE's Under 15's finishing third in EASTERN A. The rest of the teams may not have finished near the top of their leagues but I'm sure they all had a worthwhile season.
I guess the one blight on the Season was the state of the grounds. In what was a reasonably dry winter we had to contend with conditions which made most of the pitches unplayable for half of the season.
ROBINSON's PARK has never had drainage laid prior to it being given over to soccer and unfortunately due to heavy use both in Winter and Summer by the Softball Club the surface began to deteriorate, the local council seemed to lack the funds to repair the ground or put the necessary drainage in.
The Softball Association began to assert their presence on the ground, and to many people it felt that Soccer was being pushed aside. The diamonds caused much damage to the soccer pitches and perhaps to crown it all batting nets were concreted in over several parts of the ground, unlike the goal posts they were never removed during their off season, soccer virtually had to mark pitches out in consideration of these nets.

During the latter part of 1993 FRANKSTON UNITED Seniors and Juniors began regular talks with near neighbours KARINGAL. Both Clubs saw a need to develop soccer further on the PENINSULA, each Club had reached a point in time where a merger was the most sensible idea.
A chapter would close in both Club's and a new one would open. A decision to play Senior games at McCLELLAND DRIVE and all Junior teams at BALLAM PARK was reached, the LAKEWOOD ESTATE complex would be left to the Softball club and any other sporting organisation who used it during the winter months.

1994 saw the birth of FRANKSTON STRIKERS.
Records I hope have been kept for these years in some form or another but unfortunately I do not have them.

On looking back over the history of SKYE ROVERS / FRANKSTON UNITED it is with a sense of pride and disappointment.
The Club has carried itself into the history of VICTORIAN soccer, hundreds of boys have learnt to play the Worlds biggest sport and yet only approximately thirty boys still play either for the new Club or others at Senior level, where did they all go to. Many now have families of their own and hopefully in years to come their sons / daughters will learn to play as they did all those years ago.
NICKY RADECKI who played at Under 16 level for the Club has represented AUSTRALIA at Under 21 level, the highest distinction by a Club player.

In years to come no doubt SKYE ROVERS will still come up in conversation, names from the past will come up and as like KARINGAL and its members they will be mentioned as the forerunner of one of VICTORIAN's best Club's FRANKSTON STRIKERS.
To all the people ever associated with the club we thank them for their skills on the field, their presence on the committee, their effort to raise funds and for just being part of the Club.

( NOTE:- Should information relevant to the Club not appear in this publication please notify e-mail website@peninsulastrikers.com in order that any future updates can contain same. )