Celebrations at Redcliffs

Press, 26 October 1982, Page 6

Celebrations at Redcliffs

Three old boys of Redcliffs Primary School — (from left) Alan Chesney, of Perth (who attended from 1957 to 1962) Tony Ineson (1958 to 1963) and John Christensen (1953 to 1960) — attend to the barbecue during the school’s seventy-fifth anniversary celebrations at the week-end. The trio won gold medals as members of the New Zealand hockey team at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Tony Ineson was the captain.

Before the barbecue, they had played in the anniversary hockey match between the Redcliffs club senior team and a team of former representatives from New Zealand or provincial sides. The representatives won, 2-1. An earlier match between the school’s old boys and its present pupils was drawn, 11. The barbecue yesterday afternoon was to have been held at the school grounds, where a marquee had been

erected. But the week-end storm put paid to the marquee, and the barbecue was transferred to the Cave Rock Hotel. Other events planned for the celebrations also had to be held elsewhere. A get-together on Friday evening and the official opening of the celebrations by the Mayor, Sir Hamish Hay, on Saturday afternoon were held in the 480 sq. m marquee. Then the wind and downpour early on Saturday

evening persuaded the organisers to transfer the ball that night inside the school itself. The marquee was pulled down soon after to avoid damage in the strong winds. The band that had been hired for the ball bad left its instruments in the marquee, where they were waterlogged in the downpour, so there was no band music to dance to. “We had a ball anyway,” said the chairman of the

anniversary committee, Mr A. McLauchlan. “Everyone ended up singing old school songs they hadn’t heard for 20 years or more, and sat at their old school desks talking about their school days.” On Sunday, a church service was transferred to the Redcliffs Union Parish Church. ? Mr McLauchlan said that about 500 people attended the celebrations, about 370 of them former pupils.