Harry Basterfield Life Member (deceased 2006)
In 1954 when Harry and his wife Shirley built their home in Avenel Road Gymea Harry was
playing soccer in the Sydney premier division with Metters/Canterbury Marrickville and
coaching teams in the Canterbury District. . This made him very interested in the development
of the Gymea Soccer Club.
As well as being President in 1966 Harry coached many teams and in particular coached his son
Jim. Between 1966 and 1971 he coached Gymea A grade teams from Under 8 to Under 13 and in
this time they won four premierships and were runners up twice. During this time he also
coached a for a few years the Sutherland Association representative team and won the NSW
State Championships on two occasions 1968 (Under 10) and 1969 (Under 11) Picture of medal
below.
Shirley Basterfield managed the Canteen for two years around 1966 to 1968. She would
spend Friday night preparing and cooking rissoles to turn into very popular rissole sandwiches
at Saturday’s canteen. There was definitely no hot chips or cappuccinos in those days.
Anecdotes from the 60s
Harry was a long time committee member and while the club had little facilities at the oval the
committee would hold their meetings in the lounge room at the Basterfield home. Thanks to
Harry and Shirley’s hospitality including home baked suppers the attendance at these meetings
rose dramatically!
Shirley recalls all the excitement in the neighbourhood when they moved the old School of Arts
building onto the oval. The building was previously situated in Sylvania Road South and is now
known as 26 Grey Gum Place. At 26 Grey Gum Place you can still see the concrete slab which
supported the stairs to the old hall.
It was also around this time when the club stored the training balls and the keys to the
floodlights with the Basterfields. Many former players would recall crossing the road from the
oval and knocking on the front door of Number 15 to ask for the training balls or the key to the
lights.
Fundraising events in the 60’s were family affairs and social nights in the hall were popular. The
nights when a hypnotist entertained were always a sellout and certain club members were
talked about for years to come. Mystery car rallies were always highly competitive and thanks
to no seat belt laws and many families not having cars it wasn’t unusual to have 8 or more
passengers in the family sedans.
The end of season Gala Days on the oval were enjoyed by all the families. This was in the era
before female soccer so the Mothers versus Fathers game was always a highlight. One year
Laurie Dean dressed as a woman including balloons for a pregnancy. After running out onto the
field with the mothers’ team to much laughter he ‘collapsed’ on the ground and was ‘rescued’ by
some fathers who threw him into a wheelbarrow and wheeled him off the field. A great joke
enjoyed by everyone.
This may be of interest too
This picture was taken from the Toyota Cup Program for September 23, 1975. On this day the
Champion Schools from South Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales were
meeting in a knockout. Representing NSW was Kirrawee High School and the majority of the
Kirrawee team were Gymea United juniors players. Kirrawee had won the state wide Tasman
Cup to be chosen for the Toyota Cup. Unfortunately I don’t know the results of this tournament.