Walking down Memory Lane with the founder of North Turramurra Netball Club

Earlier this year, North Turramurra Netball Club President Cheryl Nolan met with Lena McManus, who was the original founder and President of North Turramurra Netball Club in circa 1969.

Part of the North Turramurra community for over 60 years, Lena only recently left our suburb in May 2020 to move closer to her family. In packing up a lifetime of possessions and memories, Lena came across an early 1970s North Turramurra Netball Club uniform that had belonged to her daughter. She rang me to tell me of her find and offered to donate it to our club. Along with the uniform, Lena also had a wealth of stories about netball and the club to share with me.

She recalled how in the early 70’s, club uniforms were all homemade - primarily by players’ mothers - so they all varied slightly, depending on the sewing skills in each family. North Turramurra’s uniform was a black and white checked cotton tunic with a wide white ribbon around the hip. Players could earn badges for playing each year (winners, runners - up and KNA representative badges) and these would be sewn onto the uniforms to be worn with pride in future seasons.

In those early days, players were formed into teams and allocated a parent coach and manager. Lena recalls providing teams with money each week to purchase half time oranges from Mr Tesseriero’s fruit shop in North Turramurra.

The North Turramurra club was one of the original members of Ku-ring-gai Netball (known as ‘women’s basketball’ at the time). Club teams trained each week at courts on Bobbin Head Rd at Samuel King Oval. Lena remembers playing alongside other clubs - including Kissing Point - at various courts in the district prior to the current courts at Canoon Road being established. There were five or six courts on The Comenarra Parkway, where Saturday games were frequently played.

In addition to founding the club, Lena coached her daughter’s team to seven successive wins and held a National C umpiring accreditation as well as managing KNA Fixtures.

Cheryl Nolan

Club President | 2022