FullName

Reg Barr

 

Details

Details

I was born in Chinchilla and attended Chinchilla State and High School, leaving home to work in the Magistrates Courts Office in Dalby when I turned 15 years old. I held a Queensland Primary School record for high jump and represented Queensland at Under 12s cricket. I played rugby league at school, then for Dalby Waratahs (Under 16), for Chinchilla (Under 17, Under 18, and A-grade) and for Brisbane Norths and Wests in lower grades. I was a representative rugby league player for the Dalby region. I stopped playing in 1973 at the age of 23, having incurring a knee ligament injury. After finishing playing league in Brisbane, I started putting on weight, and looked around for a sport which might enable me to keep fit. Warren Hutton, who went to school with me in Chinchilla, was starting up a touch team, and he invited me to play in his team. I used to play a form of touch whilst training for rugby league and thought that I would give it a go. In 1976, I started playing touch with Irrigation and Water Supply Sharks in a public service touch competition at Kalinga. We played at Kalinga Park on Sunday mornings from 7.45 am. We did not wear shoes and played 8-a-side on a full-size rugby league field, commencing the game with a kick off and having a marker at the play-the-ball. It was a very social competition, with wives and children coming to the games, after which we had drinks and BBQs while we watched the rugby league teams play. In 1980, the Sharks joined Brisbane Touch Football Association (BTFA) as HK Motors with the Sharks logo, playing in a Sunday morning southside competition with 8-a-side on a full-size rugby league field. I thoroughly enjoyed playing touch and making numerous friends. In 1985, I was selected for South East Queensland to attend the State Championships at the Sunshine Coast. In 1986 I played representative touch with Brisbane City in the over 35s team. The National Touch League (NTL) commenced in the mid-nineties and I continued playing and coaching with the Brisbane City Cobras till 2006. During this time, I won three Queensland Touch Championships and four NTL titles, and represented Queensland at the National Championships on four occasions. In 1984, I completed a Level 1 Touch Coaching course on the Gold Coast, and later completed a Level II course. I also attained a Level II referee’s certificate, although I did not do much refereeing as I preferred to play touch. In 1985, I became a committee member of Brisbane Touch Association (BTA) and attended the inaugural Brisbane City Touch Association (BCTA) committee meeting as Brisbane delegate. BCTA was convened to manage representative touch teams within the Brisbane region, which included Redcliffe. In January 1987, I was elected President of Brisbane Touch Association. At that stage BTA did not have a home field and conducted touch fixtures on fields all over Brisbane, which involved a complicated draw and players and referees travelling to different fields every weekend. As well, fixtures were played on fields belonging to rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules, soccer, hockey and cricket clubs. It was obvious to me that the touch competition could be run more efficiently if all teams and referees came to the same venue for fixtures. In mid-1987, when I took my household rubbish to the council dump at Whites Hill, I noted that the council had just finished dumping activities in the area which now comprises Fields 1, 2, 6 and 7. I approached Peter Allen, a former opening bowler for Queensland in cricket, who worked in the unit which looked after council leases, seeking a lease for BTA. He informed me that he could not help because there were two major affiliated touch associations in Brisbane and it would be unfair to grant a lease to BTA alone. I immediately approached Peter Ridgewell, President of Metropolitan Touch Association (MTA), and instigated moves for BTA to amalgamate with MTA for the purpose of obtaining a lease from council to establish a clubhouse and playing facilities at Whites Hill Reserve, Camp Hill. BTA and MTA amalgamated into Brisbane Metropolitan Touch Association in December 1987, with Peter Ridgewell as President, and Vince Morrison and me as Vice Presidents. I remained on the BMTA committee in various positions until 2003, when I worked as the groundsman for 10 years until I retired in 2013. In the meantime, I was still President of HK Sharks (1980-2003), which had 11 teams in the BMTA competition. Our home ground was Dittmer Park, Mt Gravatt where we ran fixtures and conducted a BBQ during games. In 1989, I applied for and obtained on behalf of BMTA a grant of $287,000 from the Commonwealth Government to build a clubhouse at Whites Hill. I was the Chairman of the subcommittee which oversaw the construction of the clubhouse. The other members were Terry Jacks and Rod Lees. In 1990, Sharks entered 11 teams in the BMTA competition. Construction of the new BMTA clubhouse at Whites Hill commenced. I applied for and obtained a grant from the State Government for irrigation and lights at Whites Hill. In 1994, BMTA obtained the lease of an additional three touch fields at Whites Hill from council. By this time, the Sharks had grown to 19 teams, and things were a bit hectic. I was offered a redundancy in my government job with Hansard and had to move to Perth for 8 months to remain in the workforce. During this time, I played for Southern Suburbs Association, attended the WA State Championships in Carnarvon, and made the WA Men’s Over 35 team. However, I moved back to Queensland before the National Championships and was selected for Queensland Over 40s, and naturally played with them. I was made a Life Member of BMTA in 1994. By 1995 I was a bit frazzled after years of organising touch teams, and administering touch, so I scaled back the number of teams in the Sharks club. We joined with Griffith University team to be called Griffith Sharks, of which I was President and Cameron Costello was Vice President. The club fielded 6 first division teams on Friday nights at Whites Hill. The women’s open team won several 1st division premierships under coach Peter Bell. In 2003, following an approach from Ken Willett of Chalkees Touch Club, I organised that Griffith Sharks would join with Chalkees to form Southern Storm Touch Club, which has gone on to be the largest touch club in Australia. At this stage, I commenced work as groundsman at Whites Hill and decided to step away from running the Sharks club and being on the BMTA committee. However, I continued with my own team of Sharks in the BMTA Wednesday night competition, to ensure the continued history of the Sharks from 1976 onwards. The team currently includes players with whom I have played for up to 35 years, such as Alan Fraser, Ross Bateson, Mike and Terry Batch, Trevor Kennett, Greg Larkin, John Carroll and John Hunter, who are all over 65 years of age. As at 2019 I am still playing touch on Wednesday nights at Whites Hill with the Sharks at age 70, having played in every touch season since 1976. I have attended every Pan Pacific Masters Games since their inception in the late 90s. In my 46 years of playing touch, I have had few injuries, apart from a torn cartilage and a few ankle sprains. My back has caused me a bit of grief at times, but I put that down to 15 years of fast bowling when I was young. I still love playing touch and will continue until the body lets me down. Over the years, I have made many good friends playing touch, and the exercise has enabled me to keep reasonably fit and healthy. Players in the first photograph are Mick Garvey, Don Alexander, Warren Hutton, Reg Barr, Alan Vizer, Grant Dreaver, Ray Head, Keith Carter, Wally Donovan, Gary Schramm. The second photograph has the names underneath.