THE WACKERS

The Wackers are one of the original teams and Cal Wise was the founder. Other original members  were Bob Willis, Charlie Hunter, Ken Foster, Harold Blakey and John Andrews.  Cal lived in Thacker St, hence the “Thacker Wackers”. There was a team initiation – Meet the Cannon. Cal had a little cannon which he fired for new team members and other unwary players. It fired blanks and was very loud. Some existing competition members would remember Cal’s cannon. In 1984 the team moved to Wilkinson St. (now Sandpiper Crt) and dropped the “Thacker” off and became just the Wackers. The 1984 team was Ron Franklin, Cal Wise, Joe Warren, Ray Pickering, Charlie Hunter, Harold Blakey, Roy Birch and John Andrews. Because space will be at a premium in our 40th Anniversary booklet it is not possible to mention all those who have played for the Wackers over the years. I will, however, again mention Sue Franklin’s father, Joe Warren who, in 1996 was the Club’s oldest player at 81 years of age.

The current team is Roy Tan, Tony Zhang, Neville Ludeman, Henri Stunnebrink, Karl White and Brian Munns. Bruce Michell joined us for a short time in 2015. We lost Les Jackson (Boomer) through ill health the same year.

Following a tragic accident in 2002 Ron Franklin passed away (he was President at the time). His wife, Sue, has continued to let the Wackers play at her house  for which we are very grateful.

She is a gracious host and looks after us very well. No one misbehaves at Sue’s because she has a little camera which enables her to watch us play from her lounge room.