Club History

History of Northern Suburbs Hockey Club

Summary

The North Ipswich school team were runners-up in the 1953 School Premiership and wanted to remain as a team and play Grade fixtures. They approached Noel Harvey who was then president of St Stephens Hockey Club in an attempt to form as a club, 'St Andrews' in North Ipswich.

No one from St Andrews was keen enough to look after the boys, so an approach was made to one of the player's fathers if he could help them.

So in 1954 the Northern Suburbs Hockey Club was formed and Caleb Pampling became the foundation president, a position he held for 20 years and became the club's first life member.

Patron of club was 'Gov' Clark, foundation Vice Presidents were Les Morris and Richard Kitchenham.

Mr Fred Young coached the side and the team was undefeated, conceding only one goal and won the Junior Minor under 16 Premiership in their first year of competition. This team also won the premiership in 1956.

The A Grade side was entered in 1957 and the club has always been able to field a team in the A Grade competition for the men since that year. The first A Grade Men's Premiership was won in 2000.

Norths Women began in 1973 when Julie Grulke and Gillian Curtis approached Caleb Pampling and Fred Young about entering a women's team into the Ipswich Competition. The first North's women's team consisted of 14 young women who went straight into A Grade Ipswich competition.

In return, the women were to help work the Pie store, which was located beside the old East Ipswich Hockey ground clubhouse. The uniform was made up of a red and white princess style dress with an N with an arrow point north, which was used to symbolise Norths. The women wore the white socks with the red stripe around the top, the same as the men.

The club has been successful in A2 and Reserve grade Men's with a special mention to the A2 men who have played in 18 Grand Finals, winning 12 of these.

The first premiership for Norths Senior Women was won in 1983 by the A2 women's team under the coaching of Kel Iszlaub.

The Reserve Grade women under the coaching of Terry Sparks won the ultimate in 1984 and 1985.

In 1999 Adrian Summerville was appointed coach of the A Grade men which he managed to take through to the final only to lose on a drawn result (the team with the highest points was deemed the winner). Russell Pocock was appointed coach in 2000. He managed to achieve the ultimate elusive A Grade Premiership that year.

In 2005 the A Grade Women won their first premiership after going close the previous years.

The Junior teams have done very well over the years with Premierships in all junior Grades and have done the club proud.

Over the years there have been a number of players who have made Queensland sides from U13 to QLD Country.

Several players have made the Australian level of playing with Fred Young, Glen Mortimer, and Tobias Figura all making the grade.

In more recent times our Officials have also been selected at high levels with Steven Rogers and Duane Blake both being selected as Umpires at Australian and International Championships.