Wednesday 12 October 2011

A Day at the Football


This photograph was taken in the 1960s and is of Duguid Memorial Park. The park was used mainly for rugby league and was at the northern end of Queen Street where Sams Warehouse and Officeworks now stand. It was named after Alfred Duguid, a local shoemaker, who was referee and treasurer of the Campbelltown Kangaroos football club for nearly 30 years from 1913. The ground hosted many enthralling games over the years. At one memorable game in the mid-1930s, a supporter fired a revolver into the air to stop brawling spectators!

Do you have memories of watching football at this park?

References:
Campbelltown: The Bicentennial History by Carol Liston (1988)


Written by Andrew Allen

20 comments:

  1. Yep, lots of memories of watching football at Duguid Oval.
    Just a little off-topic...just wondering if you know the name of the football oval that was down behind the Old Town Hall (now where C'town Mall is)? It used to be the home ground/training ground for Lithgow Street Bradbury rugby league team. For the life of me, I cannot think of the name....

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  2. I don't know Linda but I will try to find out. The library has an aerial photograph of Campbelltown taken in November 1970 and this oval can be seen clearly. I didn't know that team used it. Stay tuned for an answer! Andrew

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  3. One of my sources referred me to the following passage taken from the Campbelltown Collegians JRLFC: In 1961 the inaugural meeting of the Group 6 Rugby League was held. It wasn't until 1970 that the "Collegians Junior Rugby League Club" was formed. Teams entered into the competition that year were under 12's, 14's & 16's. The home ground was behind the old town hall. (This is the present site of Campbelltown Mall.) Hope this clears that up for you Linda.

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  4. Thanks so much for taking the time to look into this for me, Andrew. Is it possible that it was called Hurley Park Oval? That is what a few people have suggested that it was called, but with there already being a Hurley Park in Allman Street, I wondered whether this was correct or not.

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  5. Linda, Another of my contacts believed it never had a name and that it was just known as "the oval behind the town hall". It had no facilities whatsoever and sloped down towards the railway line. I couldn't imagine it would've been Hurley Park Oval.

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  6. That does make sense, and is probably why we can't remember the name - it didn't have one! lol I do remember watching my brother play football there & that it had no facilities. Thank you so much for all your effort put into finding out for me, Andrew...very much appreciated :)

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  7. Lithgow Street Bradbury rugby league team. For the life of me, I cannot think of the name.... [Fishers ghost oval.]was the nameof the oval played many a football game there for lithgow st we had the old police sgt as a coach, tommy raudonikis the mortimer brothers and some real lgends of the game were around at times tommy presented me and all the other kids with their trophies one year whoo hoo

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  8. Lithgow Street Bradbury rugby league team. For the life of me, I cannot think of the name.... [Fishers ghost oval.]was the nameof the oval played many a football game there for lithgow st we had the old police sgt as a coach, tommy raudonikis the mortimer brothers and some real lgends of the game were around at times tommy presented me and all the other kids with their trophies one year whoo hoo

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  9. Thanks for sharing your memories Ned! I'd never heard of a team from Lithgow Street.

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  10. Yep I played for Lithgow St Bradbury JRLFC in 1981 u/14's. Our colours were dark green & white & we made the semis that year.

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    1. Thanks Michael. So where was the home ground?

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    3. Sorry for such a long wait for an answer but I just stumbled on this again. Our home ground was Bradbury Oval behind the swimming pool.

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  11. I played for the Lithgow St rugby league football club from 1967 to 1974. We won two or three premierships and were undefeated one year under Teddy McGoldrick as coach and Bob Mullany as manager.

    Played my last game against Camden on the No1 oval in Bradbury Park

    The club was called Lithgow St because we formed and originally trained on Hurley Park oval, which has a frontage to Lithgow Street.

    In the 60’s the junior teams were based on weight.

    I remember playing most games in the late 60’sat Duguid Oval in the late 60’s. There were only a few teams in the comp.

    The ground behind the Old Town Hall became our Home Ground in the early 1970’s

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  12. I played a juniors for a few years for Lithgow st Bradbury in the late 70's & early 80's as did my 3 brothers. Collegians (red & blue if my memory is correct) although at this stage they rarley used it. Collegians used the oval closest to McDonalds & Lithgow st bradbury used the oval closest to the swimming pool.

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  13. Thanks for clearing a little bit of that up for us. Andrew

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  14. I lived in Rudd Rd. and can remember during the 60's a good source of pocket money in the winter was to go to the footy and collect Hay's cordial bottles for the three pence refund

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    1. Thanks for sharing. Imagine kids bothering to do that these days!

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  15. Also during the 60's I played junior footy there, I was with St. John's primary school, sometimes we played against the Shamrocks (central) Lithgow St school.

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