Charlie Caulfield attended New Town High School from 1968 to 1971, and was a very popular member of his year group.
The school leavers group of 1971 held a 40 year reunion towards the end of 2011, and Charlie was a very keen participant in activities associated with the reunion, including many “old” school mates from what seemed like so long ago.
Charlie at ‘his’ cricket ground.
Charlie made a special effort to attend, and travelled down from Queensland to do so. He has also made a number of trips back, and stays in regular contact with a lot of his school friends.
On leaving school, Charlie spent a number of years working at the old Zinc Works in Derwent Park, and continued a keen interest in supporting the Hobart Football Club.
However, in 1982, Charlie decided to make the big step of moving to the Sunshine State, where he still enjoys life in the painting industry on the Sunshine Coast.
In his early days on the Coast, Charlie’s social nature kicked in, and he was disappointed to find that there were no organised or even social cricket matches in the Coolum area.
With true New Town High School grit and determination, Charlie and others set about rectifying that, and the North Shore Cricket Club was eventually born.
The North Shore team resulted from the amalgamation of social teams from Pacific Paradise Bowls Club, Surfair and Coolum Hotels. The Coolum Hotel had three social teams that played against each other in ‘State of Origin’ teams; QLD, TAS and The Rest of the World. On Sundays, drums were rolled out into the middle of Birtwill Street, Coolum, and were used as stumps. The losing team shouted the other teams a keg of beer at the end of a very enjoyable day.
The Cool Cricket Club is born
These Coolum social teams provided the players who originally played 6th grade with North Shore in 1986/87. They played for a few years and eventually won their first title in 1990/91. By this time the North Shore team was dominated by players from Coolum, so it was suggested that the club change its name to Cool Cricket Club.
In 1991/92 the Cool Cricket Club became the Coolum Cricket Club, and officially registered with the Sunshine Coast Cricket Association in 1991/92.
The club nominated one senior team and one under 12’s junior team. The club won a Div 6 premiership in its foundation year.
For the next ten seasons Coolum CC continued to train and play out of the Coolum Primary School, bringing home six hard earned titles as well as playing some very enjoyable games of cricket. In 2002/03, after receiving government grants, construction of a new playing surface and clubhouse facility was completed and Coolum CC, along with Coolum Junior Rugby Leagues Club moved into new premises at the Coolum Sporting Complex.
Since then the club has grown to now field three competitive senior teams. And ten junior teams from U/10’s to U/16’s and started its own U/8’s competition. Improvements, such as new practice nets, machinery, storage sheds etc, have been ongoing with the aim of producing a first class turf facility in the near future thus enabling Coolum to field teams in 1st and 2nd Divisions.
Caulfield – Chambers Oval
Charlie’s drive and motivation has been instrumental in assisting the Coolum Cricket Club reach the stage where they now are, with facilities that are comparable with many in perhaps more professional competitions.
It speaks volumes for the respect with which Charlie’s contributions have been valued, in having the main cricket oval in Coolum jointly named after him.
The Caulfield – Chambers Oval is the result of a lot of effort, especially with life membership of the Coolum Cricket Club being bestowed on Charlie. Given Charlie’s prowess with a paint brush, who knows, one day the signs at the oval may just read “Caulfield Oval”.
Congratulations Charlie, your years at New Town High School have stood you in good stead in terms of your determination to see the job done, and done well.
Do you have an idea for an ‘Old Boy’ story?
There are plenty of characters amongst the old boys. If you have an idea for a story, please email Ian Peppiatt on ipeppiatt@bigpond.com
It’s OK, you can dob them in…