(LM) - Life Member

Des Piper and Robert 'Chicken" Howell - two leading hockey players in Melbourne had a quiet drink in the Vines Hotel in Frankston. They were tired of traveling to Melbourne from their Frankston homes to train and play every week. They knew that there were an number of others of a similar mind as so was born the Frankston Hockey Club.

The first test was the 1973 Moomba Carnival - which we won.

Success from there on has been a familiar experience at the club.

The first ground was on Railway Parade in Seaford -sharing change rooms with the local soccer club. The local council were particularly helpful in most areas but refused to remove a tree from one on the two grounds until it had lost all its leaves. Founding players quite fondly remember the tree on about the 25 yard line on the ground - it could be quite a surprise during training as dusk settled to run up against this "extra defender".

The club then moved to new grounds at Eel Race Road - a few kilometres up the road to Carrum. A few year passed an we had change rooms, showers and a club room. The cold winters night chill were held at bay by the roar of the little pot bellied stove -  which often glowed red from the heat of the briquette it had been fed. The grass ground were always dry, even when most of Melbourne was under water - benefiting from being built on sand that cover an old tip.

The club had many early characters - least amongst them were the two founders - Des Piper and Robert 'Chicken" Howell. Add to them Bernie Stewart, Scott McLennan, Russell Whitney, Alan Davies, the Sheridan brothers, Neville Lewis and  Terry 'Rance' Edwards, Steve Buchannan.

Early juniors at the club were Michael Edwards, Mark and Keith Stephen, Kevin Mayor, John Jolliffe, Steve Kendal.

The list of founding members can be seen on the club Honour board.

It took until 2002 when the club formerly amalgamated with the Frankston Peninsula women's club for the club to have a women's section. The women's club had its genesis  in the local PWHA and a desire of a number of players to move ahead into the Melbourne competition. Quite a few of the founding players of this club are still playing or active members of the Frankston Stingrays.

Success is a familiar feeling in the women's section having won several premierships in the Hockey Victoria competition.

Contact: webmanager@frankstonhockeyclub.com