We were sadly advised of the passing of Margaret Clements recently who was a dedicated volunteer with the Heathfield Aldgate United Football Club. Margaret was the incredibly supportive wife of Frank, a past Mt Lofty Chairman and Life Member of both Heathfield Aldgate and Mt Lofty Football Clubs and mother of 6 children and their families including Mt Lofty Life Member, Paul who was President during the Triple A Grade Mt Lofty Premiership sides of 2006 to 2008.
Margaret’s family has been synonymous with the Aldgate, Heathfield Aldgate United and Mt Lofty Football Clubs where she was always a significant support to the family which played such a large role in the three clubs, spanning over 4 decades.
With Frank’s heavy involvement, daughter Lyn relates that Margaret eventually decided “if you cant beat ‘em’, join ‘em” which saw her host selection meetings, work in the canteen, making sure young players were provided with a decent meal, (especially with what became known as “Marg burgers”) and washing countless footy jumpers and hanging them in numerical order (even doing that again in her 70’s when Paul was President). Lyn adds “…yes OCD runs so deep in the family that we call it CDO as of course it must be in alphabetical order J There was one occasion when a shower of rain came over, so Margs dashed to the line, grabbed dry jumpers, and then rehung the still damp ones, again in numerical order. Once they were all dry and folded, in numerical order ready for game day, Margs was beside herself as there was one missing! When she gave Frank this information, he asked her which one and promptly started laughing when she told him the number…..apparently this was the jumper of one of the neighbours who had obviously jumped the fence to grab his jumper, not to mention to do Margaret’s head in!”
We will always remember Margaret with her wonderful disposition, a friendly manner, and who amazingly juggled a large family with her career as a nurse. After some years of ill health, she passed away last Friday, but while her family are in mourning, they are relieved that their very much-loved Mother is now at peace.
We extend our sincere condolences to Lynette, Richard, Debra, Heather, Andrew and Paul and their families.
Notice of Margaret’s passing appeared in 14 June Courier.
Margaret pictured with Rick at the 2016 Club Reunion.
We were proud to be joined at Arkaba Oval this week, by Richard ‘Dicky’ Symons, to do us the honour of tossing the commemorative Life Member coin for our match against Mt Barker.
Richard Symons who is a Life Member of one our Heritage Club’s, Heathfield Aldgate United Football Club, known affectionately over the years as “Dicky” was is excited to by joined on the oval his grandsons from Mt Barker FC, Alex playing and Jordan as runner, with wife Betty watching from the stands.
Dicky played some footy at Plympton High School but until he met his now wife, Betty, at work in 1968, he had not considered playing until she told him of the Heathfield Aldgate United Football Club of which her late father Sid Magor also became a Life Member. Until then he had been happy to follow the Sturt Football Club which was in its run of 5 successive Premierships. What a resumption of a career it was, with Dicky playing on the wing in the first of 7 B Grade Premierships and in his very first year.
Not many people can claim to have played in so many Premierships, but his record is even more impressive with an eighth GF win and not one loss. This followed the rare feet of playing in two Premierships within one week where he played in a C Grade Premiership and then, the next Saturday, backed that up with another B Grade Premiership. Over the years Dicky both Captained and Coached the B Grade, winning the 1977 and 1978 Premierships as coach, the 1978 success being the last of HAU’s 30 Premierships.
An amazing career for sure, but Dicky jokingly refers to his record at A Grade level as well, where he has a 100% disposal record – one game, one kick and one goal on Coach Warren “Sherg” Foster putting him on the ground late in the match when there was no interchange.
Like quite a few of their close HAU friends, Dicky and Betty were very active Committee members and Dicky went on to become a key member of a four-person subcommittee which undertook the myriad of tasks required to set up the Mount Lofty club between 1978 and 1979. He relates the legendary story that the Devils would have been the Hawks, had it not been for the fact that the then SAFA competition which it joined, already had a club with the colours of brown and yellow.
Dicky and Betty’s work with Mt Lofty came to an end after Dicky’s career in finance took him to Darwin and later Mt Gambier, before eventually returning to the Adelaide Hills as a resident of Mt Barker. He is long retired, but is still a very active lawn bowler and volunteer and is a proud follower of his two Grandson’s, Jordan and Alex Houlahan, playing with Mt Barker. Alex will shortly take his position with Mt Barker in this important game, while Jordan, who was drafted by Essendon in 2017, is unfortunately recovering from shoulder surgery.
Thank you for everything Dicky, to our clubs, and in the community.
Richard ‘Dicky’ Symons tosses his new life member commemorative coinCaptain Alex wins the toss and elects to go down hill change rooms end v Mt BarkerRichard ‘Dicky’ Symons with Grandsons Alex Houlahan (left) and Jordan Houlahan (right)
The Mt Lofty Districts Historical Society is holding its AGM on Friday 24 March, 7 for 7:30pm at the Coventry Library in Stirling.
MLDFC life member Chris Chardon has been asked to present as a guest speaker on how football has evolved in the Stirling district from the late 1890s up to the Mount Lofty Club as it is today.
You are invited and welcome to attend! Bookings essential : 0419 816 490
The history of our community clubs that encompass our arena will be forever remembered.
Thanks to the Mt Lofty Community Sports Club for arranging the bench seats in honour of Stan and Barb Evans for having the forth sight, inspiration and dedication to make our home what we know it is today. They also unveiled the new plaque to showcase the history of the space.
The CSC work with the Mt Lofty Devils, the Mt Lofty Cricket Club, Heathfield Netball Club and the Stirling Netball Club all of whom were there to represent on the day, and along with our Devils, two others happened to have family focussed event days booked in on the same day. What a great day for the hills, and hopefully, exactly the day Stan and Barb first envisioned when they planned a community oval in the area all those years ago.
From all of the Mt Lofty Devils current and past, thank you Stan and Barb ❤️
We would like to welcome to Arkaba Oval members of the Wissell family who are representing deceased Life Members of our foundation clubs and are doing us the honour of tossing the Life Member coin for this very important match against Lobethal.
Welcome to Shane and Kirsten Wissell and their sons James and Harry, James is wearing our current Mt. Lofty jumper and Harry is wearing his Pop’s, Brian, original Aldgate Football club jumper. These boys are the 5th generation Wissell’s to play for Mt. Lofty and its foundation clubs.
Shane’s great grandfather Jim Wissell was the first-generation Wissell to play for the Aldgate Football Club, commencing playing in 1901 and taking on many roles until the 1930’s. Jim holds life membership of the Aldgate Football Club.
Shane’s grandfather Harold ‘Chicken’ Wissell was the second generation of Wissell’s to play at Aldgate and was also honoured with Life Membership, playing and filling different roles from the 1930’s through to the 1950’s, he was an A Grade premiership player in 1934 and was the first President of the current Hills Football league.
Then came Brian ‘Woop’ Wissell as the 3rd generation to play and volunteer support in many roles from the late 1940’s until 2009, winning the A grade B&F in 1957. Brian was involved with Aldgate, HAU and Mt. Lofty and is a Life Member of the Aldgate Football Club.
Shane and his brothers Craig and David also played for HAU and then Mt. Lofty Football clubs and became the 4th generation of Wissell’s to add their flair to our club’s history with Shane winning back-to-back SAFA medals in the U16 competition in ‘84 & ‘85 and runner up in the ‘91 A grade mail Medal. The family history of playing and support now spans 121 years with James and Harry Wissell starting their playing in the Candy Stripes at the age of six in our Auskick program.
This family sits in rarefied atmosphere when it comes to support of our club and community, and we look forward to the Wissell tradition continuing at our great club.
Be sure to be a part of the day next weekend for our reunion round that will cover all the 1 & 2 years. Check out the Premiership photos so see if you or someone you know needs to a part of the action!
