Robert Wildes

Bob joined the club in 1976 and was immediately appointed Treasurer, whoever made that decision should be roundly congratulated, because it was a position he was to hold for seventeen seasons.  As if that wasnt enough he also serverd as Secretary for another 6 seasons.

Serving as Treasurer and Secretary for 23 seasons is enough to earn a Life membership however that is far from all that Bob contributed. Apart from doing all the other jobs expected of a committeeman, Bob also took on the job of watering the grounds for many years. In those days there were no automatic sprinklers. Bob had to put in and move the bayonet sprinklers by hand on both grounds.  A job that took many hours each week.

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Following his retirement Bob took on the job as curator and was responsible for rebuilding the Football Ground pitch and the laying of Howley Oval.  The club was incredibly lucky to have Bob caring for the pitches for 15 years.  During which time they were regularly used for representitive cricket including hosting the Australian Country Championships.

While Bob is acknowleged as a great curator his is also human and is famous for one year over enthusiastically air rating the cricket pitches. Others prefer to remember it as ploughing the pitches. Bob unfortunately set the rotary hoe a little bit to deep and actually uncovered stones from the pitch foundations. Players remember finding stones in the pitch for two seasons after.

With all that work he still found time compile a more than handy playing career as can be seen below.

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Memorable moments include the laying of the cricket pitch on the football ground Bob fondly remembers a prominent shire councillor stated there would be a cricket pitch on the footy ground “over my dead body”.

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