North Adelaide Hockey Club approx 1901. Standing: Lorna Waterhouse (third from left), Helen Waterhouse and Joyce Waterhouse (5th & 6th from left)
The sisters’ father, Arthur Waterhouse, was a wealthy businessman and, after being granted access by the city council to a paddock in the parklands, the Waterhouse Hockey Club was established.
The Waterhouse sisters – Lorna, Helen and Joyce – had learned to play hockey while students at Cheltenham Ladies College, England, and were the North Adelaide team’s driving force.
Upon their return to Adelaide in May 1899, they were determined to introduce the game to their friends.
Their parents supported this interest and in 1900 their father, Arthur Waterhouse, a wealthy Adelaide businessman, was granted access to Paddock 6 by the Adelaide City Council for the Waterhouse Hockey Club.
Once the practice area was available, the sisters taught their friends how to play the game.
Initially they enthused their friends at Methodist Ladies College. The game was taken up quickly and then spread to other private schools for girls. The Waterhouse Hockey Club became the North Adelaide Hockey Club and on 22 August 1901 it played the first game in Adelaide against the Glenelg Club.
From The Advertiser 1901:
“On Thursday afternoon eleven dainty young Atalantas, representing the North Adelaide club, tried conclusions with a similar number of fleet-footed young maidens, who uphold the honour of the Glenelg club, the match being played on the seaside oval, in the presence of a large number of ladies and gentlemen.
The game was started by what is technically, known as a “bully,” in the centre of the ground, the centre forward on each side striking with her stick, first the ground, then her opponent’s stick thrice, after which the ball was in play, and very merry the contending players made the game, lithe figures and twinkling feet skipping rapidly over the green sward, and sparkling eyes watching warily the passage of the bounding ball. Stick clashed on stick … “
