Cairns Hockey Association
The foundation of Cairns Masters Women: With many thanks to Eileen Connelly and Jan Dienhoff.
The first Cairns Women’s Veterans was formed in 1985 to take part in the first Veterans Women’s State Championships which were held in Townsville in conjunction with the Senior Women’s State Championships on the Queen’s Birthday weekend in June.
The Cairns team was put together and played in the local competition in Division 2. All players had previously retired and decided if they were to compete, then playing in the local weekly competition would be needed, particularly for fitness. The team was named “Air Queensland Vets” and played in a yellow/gold shirt with royal blue trim and yellow/gold skirt. It was at these first championships where they played in this uniform, with the following year the introduction of the Cairns Uniform was worn.
The first team consisted of:
- Annette Dombrowski (now West-Bail) – Captain/Coach
- Jan Dienhoff
- Heather Law
- Fran Burns
- Lois Cross
- Yvonne Horton
- Gail Terrell
- Carol Leary
- Maureen Leet
- Sue McMennamin
- Liz Hayes
- Judy Williamson
- Eileen Connelly
Cairns played Brisbane in the final and were defeated. The above players were the basis of the representative team that played for the next few years.
The following year, six players were in two Queensland teams which participated in the first Official National Championships that were held in Melbourne later that year. It was this year, 1986, when Cairns shared the title of State Champions with Brisbane.
In 1987 Cairns were crowned State Champions, and have held this honour once since then, in 2008.
In the mid 1990’s there were enough players in the local competition who were age eligible for the first Veterans club competition to be introduced on a Wednesday night. It was from then on that the Cairns Hockey Representative Masters Women’s teams were selected.
Cairns Masters Women has participated in every State Championships since its inception, with exception of 1989 during the air strike and 2020 during the Covid Pandemic.
Long Service Awards:
- Rene Archer OAM 1981
- Eileen Connelly 1985
- Wilma Holmes 1988
- Maureen Leet 1990
