The Tahs - Armidale Chapter
Armidale Waratahs (The Tahs) | September 05, 2024
Tahs members from Armidale, the original home of Waratahs Cricket Club from 1950-2006, met for lunch and fair splattering of what they could remember of how good they were.
Pictured from left are Mike Porter, former Easts stalwart and the main reason cricket still has breath in the Northern Tablelands town; Tahs Secretary Peter Langston from Tamworth, just a hundred clicks south on the New England Highway; Graham Frost, champion from Waratahs sides of the late 70’s and early 80’s; and the newest member of the Tahs, Garry Holloway, who has become the new club’s low marker, as the holder of the lowest membership number of the old Waratahs having first played nearly sixty years ago in his early teens.
The Tahs was formed earlier this year following the resolve of thirty or so former Waratahs members and opponents who held a reunion in October 2023. A social rather than a regular playing club, their aim is to provide social gatherings for former members of Waratahs, opponents, family members or anyone who knew of the former club. A second aim is provide support of one another and a third, aspirational aim, is to raise funds under the name of the Ian Campbell Scholarship (ICS) to support a junior cricketer from Armidale every year.
Ian Campbell was a Waratahs Life Member who not only provided five sons to the club but also mentored junior cricketers for years as they made their entry into senior cricket.
The Tahs is open to all, as an opportunity to reconnect or to stay connected to mates who were forged in the combat of hours and years chasing leather, talking up their game or reflecting on heroic events on the Saturday evenings of their pre-retirement youth. We already have members as far away as Hong Kong and New Zealand; from across Waratahs once five grades and 66 years; from blokes we faced off against; and from the wives and girlfriends and family members bemused at the time but admiring still our love of the game.
Join us. Membership is $2 (yep, two dollars). Application is via the link below and takes 90 seconds. There are no meetings in person and all responsibilities to the club are optional. When you register, you can donate $40 and receive the new club cap - an old style baggy royal blue, with club emblem. All funds go to the ICS. You’ll also have an opportunity to donate $5 each time an Aussie scores a ton or takes a Pfeiffer in a Test match, again for the ICS.
Our membership has reached beyond 50 since starting officially in February and we have recently been granted associate membership of the Armidale & District Cricket Association.
In December, we hold our first official function, attendance at the first day of the Brisbane Test v India and a cruise on the following day along the Brisbane River for members and their families.
Follow the link. Grow the game and your memories and join us when we catch up.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8yU97Plzmcc7jcx2pVGVBNGI7inqfJMPZ5zT-d8sWD4-hNQ/viewform?
