Skating in the 60s

BRILLIANT MEMORIES: David holding a pick of one of his junior teams at Alfred Cox Park. Back: Bruce Kytola, David, John Chiplin, Noel Thompson. Front: Bill Vickers, Ralph Martin, Right Major Baty. Top right Noel Thomson and front middle Ralph Martin are future New Zealand champions. Picture by Paul Rickard

BORN and raised in Gisborne, David Roberts was 14 when the skate rink concrete was laid in 1956. He was part of a mass contingent of roller hockey players at the time who got up to all manner of mischief around New Zealand.

“It was quite a big thing in New Zealand in the 60s. I liked the speed and the challenge of staying on my feet.”

David was in a travelling team with Keith Pardoe, Ray Sheldrake, Noel Thomson, Ralph Martin and Johnny Roberts, who won the NZ championship shield, the Inter-Provincial Challenge Trophy and the E. C. Richards Shield in 1963.

They had a hell of a time doing it too. Big home games, lots of fun on their travels and in Dave’s case even romance.

“There were 10 or more ladies’ teams, it was really popular with the girls. That was neat for us guys. We didn't mind.

“I met my wife coaching one of the girls’ teams, Julia Corn she was at the time. Noel met his wife, Beverly Bothwell too.”

Julia and Noel have passed away, but Dave has a mind full of hilarious and brilliant memories to look back on.

The 60s were not a particularly safety-conscious decade. This is obvious when looking at old photographs of roller hockey helmets, similar to short-stops in baseball. They consisted of a face guard and about nothing else.

During a home game against Te Aroha-Thames, David smacked a ball right into the goaly's head and knocked him clean out, “senseless” as Gisborne Photo News reported at the time.

Crowd storms the rinkThe boys won the game and like something out of a Disney movie, the crowd stormed the rink cheering with delight.

“We got up to all sorts. I loved the friendship within a team of hockey players. We were the best in New Zealand for a few years.”

They might have been the best, but all work and no play was certainly not a phrase the Gisborne roller hockey boys lived by.

“We were at a tournament in Hastings once and it was raining, so we couldn't play hockey. We had to find something to do so we thought we would go out and annoy the police.”

The boys created a bit of a kerfuffle, “a riot” says David, and the police in the spirit of good natured fun, called the fire brigade.

“They showed up and soaked us with the fire hose.”

Enjoyed the social aspectHe never did much figure skating but admits he liked the social aspect of the rink.

“There were lots of figure skaters. We tended to be more rough and ready roller hockey players, they were more fancy.

“Where we would screech around and come to a big halt, they were a more graceful like ballerinas.”

The rink used to host provincial and local figure skating events and competitions too. It was touted as one of the finest surfaces in New Zealand at the time.

“We used to take dates to the skate rink. We would go straight after school, or not go to school and just go straight to the skate park.

“It was addictive, it was just so much fun.”

Alfred Cox Park seems not to have changed much. In David’s youth they played waltzes and whatever music was popular at the time at the park. The same thing still happens, except it is skateboards and rap and pop music, instead of roller skates and Elvis Presley.

“It was always packed back then too. It has changed with the times, everything has its day. I like seeing it still busy.”