Letter Added: July 2006

Tom Barnsley (1942-45) who once lived in Townsville but now in Victoria wrote as follows...

Something in recent stories in Signum Fidei awakened a sleeping memory of my days at Nudgee. Those concerned I believe were Peter (Pappy) Walsh (1943-46), Jock McKendry (1943-46) and Tim McEniery (1943-46). In those days we played football in a weight division of 7st 7lb which in today’s terms was roughly 47.6kg. Brian Lutvey (1942-45) fancied he had a chance to make this 7st 7lb side but found he was somewhat over that weight.

The three Nudgee gentlemen mentioned above decided to help him in his quest to shed many pounds. On the second oval they took turns at running – almost dragging him round and round. To increase the speed of the weight loss, they had him clothed in football jerseys, coats anything to keep him in a lather of sweat. They even put him into a hot shower. But still the scales would not drop below the limit. There was nothing for it but to repeat the dose over and over and they really applied themselves to this task. Consequently, Brian became fitter and fitter and lighter and lighter until he made the weight ready for the beginning of the trials.

Unfortunately Brian, after all this effort did not make the team but that night they fed him cream cakes until his eyes bulged.