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Western Australian Ice Hockey Association

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Ice Hockey Western Australia
SportIce hockey
JurisdictionWestern Australia
AbbreviationIHWA
FoundedFebruary 1950
AffiliationIce Hockey Australia
HeadquartersPalmyra, WA
PresidentSydney Fricker
Vice president(s)Alicia Kelly
SecretaryDeon Shearer
Official website
www.icewa.com.au
Australia
Western Australia

The Western Australian Ice Hockey Association, currently trading as Ice Hockey Western Australia is the governing body of ice hockey in Western Australia. Ice Hockey WA is a branch of Ice Hockey Australia.

Ice Hockey Western Australia (IHWA) was formed as the Western Australian state branch for Ice Hockey Australia. It is responsible for organising the four state leagues.[1] It is also responsible for selecting the state teams to compete in the national tournaments.[2]

IHWA operates its leagues across two venues – Cockburn Ice Arena and Perth Ice Arena. Teams are fielded in the leagues by four clubs. Two clubs are based at Cockburn Ice Arena - Hawks Ice Hockey Club and Bravehearts Ice Hockey Club. The other two clubs are based at Perth Ice Arena - West Coast Ice Hockey Association and Northern Ice Hockey Association. The IHWA current president is Sydney Fricker.

History

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1949: The First Ice Rink in Western Australia

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On 22 September 1949, a prospectus was written to introduce the first ice rink to Western Australia.[3] The first ice skating rink built in Western Australia was the Perth Ice Palais. It was located on Beaufort Street, Northbridge inside the remodeled Tivoli Theatre. The rink was being built by Ice Palais Ltd. and Bruce Carrol was the chairman of directors, who stated that even with the completion date of the rink being weeks away there were already plans by Perth sporting clubs to make ice hockey teams. The rink surface was much smaller than other rinks in Australia at only 29m (95 feet) long and 26m (85 feet)wide.[4] Though private skating lessons first began at 9:00am 12 December 1949, the rink was officially opened at 8:00pm 14 December 1949 by, then, Perth mayor Mr. J. Totterdell. The first manager of the rink was Edson R. Banks.[5]

The first competitive ice sport conducted by the Ice Palais Pty LTD was ice basketball and approximately 60 members of the Collegians High Sports Club began training for ice sports, assisted by Mr. H. W. White.[6][7] The Collegians were the first Perth based ice sports team formed 30 January 1950, and were quickly followed by[8] the formation of a second team called the Western Dodgers the following month. The intention was to train to play ice basketball as the rink surface was too small to play ice hockey on, being less than half of the required length of a standard ice rink. The teams would train every Sunday at the Perth Ice Palais and the Western Dodgers had the help of 2 premiership winning Victorian players, Ray Abbot and Bob Cody, for coaching the first team.[9]

The first game of ice basketball in Perth was between two women's teams, the Wildcats and the Bulldogs on 22 May 1950.[10][11] The men played ice basketball for the first time in the Perth Ice Palais on 13 June 1950 in a game between the Western Dodgers and the Collegians. There was the intention to play ice hockey as well a month later with the Collegians and Western Dogers having already invested a total of £500 in ice hockey equipment combined.[12]

Formation of The West Australian Ice Hockey Association

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The formation of the first ice hockey association in Western Australia began at the time when a second club joined the Collegians in forming an ice hockey team in February 1950. The original 2 teams that formed the West Australian Ice Hockey Association were:[13]

  • Collegians
  • Western Dodgers

The first game of ice hockey in Western Australia was between the Western Dodgers and the Colligians[14] on the evening of 3 July 1950[15] at 8:30pm.[16] The Western Dodgers won the game by a score of 4 -2.[17][18]

Some of members of the first 2 teams were:

Collegians – W. Rossiter, Peter Logan, Brian Strack, D. Whitehead

Western Dodgers – Laurie Anderson, R. Cody

Shortly after the first game of ice hockey played in Perth a 22 year old recent migrant, Bob Pals, began planning to form a team composed entirely of Dutch migrants. Bob Pals had represented the Netherlands in the 1948 World Amateur Championships held in Montreux, Switzerland. Bob's younger brother was the goaltender for the Netherlands in 11 internationals. Other members of the proposed Dutch team were a 7 time medalist for long distance skating in the Netherlands, Lue Markies; a leading figure and dance skater Louis Kramer; and another member of the national ice hockey team for the Netherlands, Rudi Williams, who also played ice hockey for the Amsterdam Icebergs. There were 3 potential names that were going to be used for this new ice hockey club; the Lions, the Penguins and the Icebergs.[19]

The name for the new Dutch migrant ice hockey team was the Penguins, who formed on 28 September 1950 to expand the Association to three teams.[20]

When the 1951 ice hockey season began, the West Australian Ice Hockey Association expanded to 4 teams with the addition of a new team called the Magpies.[13]

State Leagues

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  • Premier League – The top senior league in Western Australia. This is a male-only checking league.
  • Senior League – Non-Checking mixed league currently with five divisions.
  • Junior League – Under 18, divided into age groups 9/U, 11/U, 13/U, 15/U and 18/U.
  • Sled Hockey - run in conjunction with Inclusive Skating.

Australian Leagues

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IHWA fields teams in the following national Australian leagues run by Ice Hockey Australia:

  • Australian Ice Hockey League - Perth Thunder
  • Australian Women’s Ice Hockey League - Perth Inferno
  • Australian Junior Ice Hockey League - Perth Sharks

2012 teams

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Teams playing in the 2012 season:[21]

2013 teams

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Teams playing in the 2013 season:[22]

2014 teams

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Teams playing in the 2014 season:[23]

Presidents

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  • 1986 - Ian Curedale[24]
  • Paul McCann
  • Sydney Fricker 2022–present

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Ice Hockey WA Leagues". IHWA. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  2. ^ "IHWA Constitution" (PDF). Western Australian Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
  3. ^ "Prospectus". The Sunday Times. 16 October 1949. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Ice Sports Planned For New Rink". The West Australian. 25 October 1949. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  5. ^ "Ice Skating". The West Australian. 8 December 1949. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  6. ^ "Ice Sports". The West Australian. 15 March 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  7. ^ "Perth May See Ice Basketball". The Daily News. 25 February 1950. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  8. ^ "Perth Has Its Ice Sports Club". The Daily News. 31 January 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  9. ^ "Ice Basketball Is Catching On". The Daily News. 3 April 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  10. ^ "Basketball Played On Ice". The West Australian. 23 May 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  11. ^ "Skaters Play Basketball". The West Australian. 23 May 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  12. ^ "Perth Ice Sports Popular". The West Australian. 16 June 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Perth Ice Hockey Players' Move To Boost Game". Western Mail. 1 May 1951. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  14. ^ "Ice Hockey Makes Perth Debut". Western Mail. 6 July 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  15. ^ "Gear Costs Skaters £500". The Daily News. 3 July 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  16. ^ "Ice Hockey In Perth". The Mirror. 1 July 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  17. ^ "Ice Hockey". The West Australian. 5 July 1950. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  18. ^ "Ice Hockey Makes Perth Debut". Western Mail. 6 July 1950. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  19. ^ "Ice Hockey Stars Among Dutch Migrants". The West Australian. 27 July 1950. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  20. ^ "Sportsmen On Skates". Western Mail. 28 September 1950. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  21. ^ "WAIHA (Winter 2012)". Pointstreak Sports Technologies. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
  22. ^ "WAIHA (Winter 2013)". Pointstreak Sports Technologies. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  23. ^ "WAIHA 2014". Pointstreak Sports Technologies. Retrieved 2013-05-20.
  24. ^ "Ice Skating". The Canberra Times. 1 July 1986. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
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