Playing soccer at Telopea

I was a new boy in Third Form at the start of 1964 and I was sent to see Mr Price, the English Master, to be assigned a class to attend. Mr Price fumbled through my papers for a considerable amount of time then looked up at me and asked, "Do you play soccer?" When I answered enthusiastically in the affirmative he then said, "I want to start a soccer team at this school, will you help me?" This was like music to my ears even though I was having difficulty calling football 'soccer'!

Early days
Soccer at Telopea was open to all ages. It is a game where size and weight do not matter as it is mostly a game of skill and intelligence. Therefore, the first winter sports day saw a game made up of players from First Form through to Fifth Form. Fourth Form boys, Willie Huber and Ian Rooney, were good players and I quickly found out that a number of Asian students were also experienced footballers. That first game was played on a dry paddock opposite the Hotel Wellington. There were no goalposts, just jackets laid on the ground a few paces apart to create the goals. Later, we moved to York Park, just off Brisbane Avenue, to an equally dry and bumpy ground, but it did have goalposts. Jim Knox, a Scot who had shed his Glasgow accent for a London accent, arrived at Telopea a few months into the year. Jim was an enthusiastic player not only in school soccer but also at weekend soccer where we played Under 16s together for Ainslie Rovers.

There was no Inter School competition and this was something Mr Price was working toward establishing. In 1965 two events happened that lifted the interest in school soccer in Canberra. Manuka Oval saw a visit from the famous English team Chelsea to play an ACT select team and ACT High Schools were invited to form a representative team to play a NSW representative team.

Chelsea visit
Jim Knox and I played for Ainslie Rovers against Watson North End in a curtain-raiser before Chelsea defeated the ACT by seven goals to nil. It was an exciting day for me. I had a Science Exam scheduled for when my match was to be played but I was given permission to sit the exam earlier in the day so I could be free to play. The following day, my Science Teacher offered her congratulations, in front of the class, to my having been selected to play against Chelsea! I enjoyed the glory for a brief moment before correcting her. On reflection, that was the closest I ever came to being a soccer star! School sport had allowed all interested in soccer to attend the Chelsea game and that applied to other Canberra schools so the attendance was boosted by many enthusiastic schoolboys.

At the game, I obtained the autographs of the Chelsea players and the team’s manager, the flamboyant Tommy Docherty. He engaged me in conversation about coming to live in Australia and mentioned that he thought that I’d played well in the curtain raiser. Many years later 'The Doc' came to coach in Australia and on meeting him I reminded him of what he had said. His response to this was that he’d told so many wee boys that they’d played well that he couldn’t remember one from another!

Representative game
Mr Price called me into his office one day to say that a rep team from NSW were coming to Canberra to play the Royal Military College at Duntroon on a forthcoming weekend. Did I know of any boys playing soccer who were still attending some of the other High Schools in Canberra, was his question? The match was scheduled for a Friday afternoon and we had sufficient experienced players to form a reasonable team. The one exception was we did not have a goalkeeper. I suggested to Mr Price that Michael Wright would be willing to have a go. Michael was a good all-round sportsman with a preference for Australian Rules Football. I felt sure Michael would have no trouble with the high balls and with a bit of coaching he would pick up the finer points of goalkeeping. For the next week and a half we trained at lunchtimes and after school and Michael’s sure ball handling and confidence were evidence that he would make a good fist of a difficult job.

Telopea was well represented in the team that ran out that day. Michael in goal, Kit Charuvastra at right back, myself at left half, Ian Rooney at outside right, Ray Reavley at inside right and Charlie Chavanich at outside left. Stuart Scott, Taso Samios and Bobby Orford from Canberra High plus Brian Fogwell and Ralph Kennedy from Dickson High made up the remainder of the team. Ishak Bin Ahmad, from Telopea, came on as a second half substitute. We held our own in the first half being only down 2-0 at half time. They ran all over us in the second half, however, and we ended up loosing 9-0.

Our captain, Bobby Orford, was an outstanding player and playing at centre half he was the only player in our team who could match the NSW boys at their level. Many of us gave away at least two years in age to our opponents but it was mostly their experience that we could not match. They had just completed a tour of New Zealand and all their boys played grade competition in Sydney or Newcastle. Two of those boys went on to represent Australia at senior level.

Michael Wright had an outstanding game. He commanded his penalty area well, was quick off his line to cover long balls, and he caught all the high shots and crosses. He was only beaten by low shots and although he was beaten nine times the outfield players were beaten more often only for Michael to make good saves. What a pity Michael didn’t continue a soccer career but Aussie Rules was his first love and in recent years (while a life-long Carlton fan) he has been the Secretary and President of the Fitzroy Junior Football Club. Michael gives his name to an award that recognises outstanding contributions to the ongoing development of the FJFC, community-based football and young people.

Inter School competition
Interest and participation in soccer was growing in Canberra and in 1967 we eventually had an Inter Schools competition. Telopea played matches against Queanbeyan, Deakin and Narrabundah while north of the Lake, Lyneham, Dickson, Watson and Canberra High Schools played against each other. The top two teams from each group played off in the final with Lyneham defeating Telopea 3-2 in a close game. The Canberra Times gave us a bit of publicity with an article about Telopea’s team of internationals. There were times when the team we fielded contained eleven players all of a different nationality. The Lyneham boys should have been included in that article as they had a different set of nationalities, a point some of them remind me of to this day.

The referee
Mr Price organised his friend and local restaurateur Petar Vidovic, owner of the Carousel Restaurant on Red Hill, to referee some of our games. Petar was a former Australian international player and coached a local junior team in his spare time. Mr Price 'volunteered' me to help him coach that team as thanks for his refereeing duties! In one game, our outside left, a young lad whose father was a diplomat at the Yugoslav Embassy, and who had very little English language skills wasn’t playing quite as I wanted him to. Petar was able, on my behalf, to give him instructions in words that he understood. Petar later remarked how that was probably the first time a referee had coached a player!

Postscript
Some years later an ACT High School Soccer rep team won the Australian High Schools Championship. Soccer is now played at all levels of schooling throughout Canberra and the area has produced a number of outstanding players. At Bill Price’s funeral, a few years ago, his son told how his father had come to Australia, with his family as a 17 year old, leaving behind the opportunity to have football trials that were offered by Aston Villa and Manchester United. On hearing this, I wondered if all those years ago Mr Price looked at me, when I went to his office, and recognised a wee boy from Scotland who was missing his football. At the school, I note that the rugby posts have been replaced by combination rugby and soccer goal posts. And finally, there is a push nationally to have the game called 'football' rather than 'soccer'. Things are looking up!

Jim Gillespie