Information

[the deacon]

Guys,
As I am now in the process of updating and (eventually) printing a new colour edition of my book 'The Origins of Canoe Polo', I would appreciate it if I could get some information from any of those Australian canoe polo players who had been active in the period of time 1980-1992 and maybe are still active or have access to information on that period of time.
I would like to know the names of some of the Australian clubs which were most dominant in that period and the names of top atletes who in your opinion excelled and should be mentioned (at least for recorded posterity)
Any information on this subject will be highly appreciated. You can PM directly on this site.
Thanks!

[Steve Jenkins]

Guys,
As I am now in the process of updating and (eventually) printing a new colour edition of my book 'The Origins of Canoe Polo', I would appreciate it if I could get some information from any of those Australian canoe polo players who had been active in the period of time 1980-1992 and maybe are still active or have access to information on that period of time.
I would like to know the names of some of the Australian clubs which were most dominant in that period and the names of top atletes who in your opinion excelled and should be mentioned (at least for recorded posterity)
Any information on this subject will be highly appreciated. You can PM directly on this site.
Thanks!

Hi Deacon, I was an original polo player in the late 70's (77-78 ish) in Brisbane (I was around 15YO) It was being driven by our club President Ian Butler of the Wynnum District Canoe Club at that time. We held several test/mock up comps in slalom boats with tennis Balls on the end of our boats and we also had players in canadians (will try and dig up some photos) (it was fun really) before we eventually got hold of a jelly bean bat mould.

We held comps in QLd against the Indooroopilly club, and also the QLD Cruisers, Pine Rivers and the Logan Clubs as well as the Bundeberg and Townsville Canoe clubs which were pretty strong back during that period and had lots of help from the Jindalee property developers at West lakes in QLD with prizes etc.

I then competed as part of the QLD U18 junior team at the inaugural Polo Champs in Cairns in 1980 which in those days was held as a part of Aust Slalom & WW championships which were on Barron Gorge that year. I paddled SLalom and WW races as an individual then played polo the next week.

I think NSW, QLD and Vic had a team there in Juniors and not sure on Open and Womens teams.

I also remember playing at Baggara in QLD (QLD champs I think), OZ champs in Grafton NSW in 81 I think (Again was run as part of the Slalom champs) , and I also played in Sydney in August 83 or 84, and then I left Oz in 85, played in the UK for 2 years, then got back home and moved to Darwin and helped start polo up in Darwin in the 90's and played for the NT at several Oz champs and worked in the guys from katherine NT to get a comp running in the NT.

I now live in SA and am playing at the Masters game in SA, so if your there I can bring some pics etc.

I am a shocker for names and dates, but if you email me I can provide you with names to chase down. Some to start with are Ross Cook of Rosco Canoes very involved in the early days, Ian Butler, Darren and Bill Solomon of Wynnum club, and someone from the townsville region may be able to help.

My email is stevewj@iprimus.com.au

Steve Jenkins

[Steve Jenkins]

Deacon, I am not sure if the dates are all correct but he canoe.org.au site mentions these dates.

I was not at the 79 comp but I thought the slalom champ in Cairns were first real nationals, maybe they were an interstate comp.

Quote"
Marathon achieved full committee status in 1979 and a Canoe Polo Steering Committee was established following an interstate competition at Brady’s Lake (Tasmania) between NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania.

In 1980 the first national Canoe Polo Championships were conducted at Easter 1981 on the Murray River.

80 and 81 is this stypo on their part of is a year missing. Cairns certainly was in there somewhere.

More info here.

http://www.canoe.org.au/default.asp?Page=9019&MenuID=About_AC%2F93%2F0%2CAustralian_Canoeing_His tory%2F69%2F0

[Ken Chew]

Hi Steve and Australian mates,

A short write-up had been summarised based on the above info at
http://www.canoepolo.org/wiki/index.php/History_-_Australia

Feel free to update and modify anything. In particular there are some abbreviation that you might want to help us understand.

thanks!
ken

[the deacon]

Guys,
Any chance of getting names of the top Australian male & female athletes who excelled in these last few years? And the names of the clubs that they belonged to?
What about including a 'period' photo too? Even if it means having a photo of a cuddly koala paddling in a polo boat! I'll take it whatever you can throw at me :D
and ASAP?
Thanks!