Well another Reunion has come and gone and 2015 saw the presence of greatness in our great history …..
Eric Robinson a frequent attendee of our reunions and old mates days was joined by another electrifying speedster and football wizard from yesteryear the one and only Merv Wright….
Merv is held in such high esteem here at Chelsea even though both he and Eric played for Alexandria Rovers in the centres it is not surprising that when Merv moved to the Coalfields after his time in Sydney he also made such an impression with the Maitland PumpkinPickers that Merv was voted by the Maitland Mercury newspaper readers as the Pickers fans most popular player ever, one vote ahead of Australian representative Terry Pannowitz who played in the same team and era. A link to the newspaper article is below
NewspaperArticle
The picture below is from his 5 years of grand final appearances with Maitland from 1969 – 1973 where he won 3 premierships in the Newcastle competition, 15 years before the Newcastle Knights were admitted to the NSW Rugby League competition. Note Terry Pannowitz and a very young Robert Finch.
Joining Eric and Merv in the photo above is another speedster Warren “Flash” Thompson from the same era who often relates the exploits of both Eric and Merv as undeniably something special.
I have also put the above photos along with some others in the photo gallery under Chelsea Reunions.
If you have any stories or photos from the reunion please advise by email or by adding comments below.
Thanks Scott Towers-Hammond
1 Comment
Great to see Merv & Eric together after all these years. It was almost 54 years back I had the honour of having Merv outside me causing the opposition heaps of trouble in a premiership Souths President Cup team. One year on from that and the same privilege with the side stepping mercurial Eric in Souths first grade side. Also at the reunion was Bob MacCarthy who was in both the above mentioned Souths teams.
As Scott informed us in his story above Merv was recently voted the most popular
player ever for Maitland. He was also selected in the top 20 best ever Maitland team. Getting together with mates from so long ago as well as the old mates we now see on a regular basis makes me very proud of our history.
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