Year (OLD)
1971
In 1928, volunteers began work on draining the "Melbourne Swamp" to create the sporting ovals. These ovals would later be classed as among the best in the State.
In 1955, the touring MCC team played for 3 days on one of the manicured ovals and in 1956, 13,000 people turned up to see international athletes stage a "mini Olympics".
In November 1971, No 1 oval flooded enough for Don Suckling and Ross Simpson to take their boat and water-ski on it. The oval was drained in time for the next football match to be played on it.
Tag
The little building next to
The little building next to clubhouse was the timekeepers box. It also doubled as the scorers room in cricket season. The main scoreboard was almost directly opposite on the right of the main entry gate as you looked from clubhouse. I remember many a great day when my mate and I would sell "Followers" (the footy program for the LVFL) at the gate from opening time till about midday then one of us would head over to scoreboard to man it. We would both or all be there by about three quarter time in the seconds game and follow the scores intensely in the main game, doing our best to keep it accurate. It had those fabulous old rollers that sent the numb ers spinning after a goal or behiind was scored.
I also remember the legendary goal umpire David Drane who was one of a kind. Mr Perfection. He would always signal to us if we had missed something and would confirm our scoreboard at the end of each quarter. I could be wrong but I think he might have goal umpired both games on many a Saturday. For many kids it was a bit of an honour to sit on the edge of the scoreboard with legs swinging and getting a great view of No. 1 oval. The only "rule" was not to stand up in case someone's view of the scores was blocked............ great days.
The top photo is accurate, the bottom one is reversed. Timekeepers box was on right of clubrooms as you looked at it.