Westminster Hockey Club has been involved in hockey in South Australia for over 30 years. A lot has happened in 30 years, with many clubs in Adelaide coming and going in that time. While we are currently one of the smaller clubs in Adelaide, Westminster has a proud and loyal culture that is generally admired by all clubs in Adelaide. It all began in 1979 when Peter Thomas, the founder of our club, gathered together a group of old school friends and entered two senior men’s teams into the Hockey SA competition.
Up until 1986, Westminster was one of the smallest clubs in the competition, until it decided to establish a Women’s team and promote the club through the district.
By 1988 we had progressed to five senior teams and had established some clubrooms at the Women’s Memorial Playing Fields in Eden Hills. By now we were 19th in size in a line up of 38 clubs. However we were still seen by our competitors as being only a social club with very few opportunities for talented players.
In 1991, we entered our first junior team into the U/13 grade – a group of T-ballers who were persuaded to stay together and play hockey.
In 1993, Blackwood Hockey Club approached us to consider amalgamating with them, and while it didn’t eventuate, it did lead to two of their junior teams moving across to play for our club.
Since then we have seen our sport predominantly shift from grass to synthetic surfaces and many clubs have either folded or merged, yet we still continue.
Today, 30 years on, we have two men’s teams competing for Westminster Hockey Club. And we hope that with your participation and support, we will still be going strong for another 30 years.