Omnia   

benflHAROLD ‘Wicky’ Toma is one of Eaglehawk’s most revered past players and last month celebrated a huge milestone.


Mr. Toma turned 100 on August 25th and celebrated his special birthday with week-long celebrations, starting with morning tea at his church and ending at the Eaglehawk Bowls Club.
He captain-coached Eaglehawk’s 1946 premiership side --- they beat Golden Square by four points in the Big Dance --- and also played in the 1935 and 1941 flag-winning teams.
Harold was also in Eaglehawk’s beaten grand final side in 1945 and continued on playing till 1947 before a back injury forced his retirement with three flags to his name.
He was just 19 when the Two Blues won the 1935 premiership.
“I was the 19th man for the final that year and when one of our players got injured I went on just after half-time.
“The next week I got picked in the Eaglehawk grand final side and we won.”
“In 1941 when we beat South Bendigo I was the vice-captain. Our coach had been out injured for quite a few weeks so I had to take charge of the team coming up to the finals,” Mr. Toma said.
Following his back operation in 1947 he took up the whistle and concentrated on umpiring for a decade: 1948 to 1958.
“We umpired in the Echuca, the North Central and the Mid-Murray leagues. We’d go up and back in buses run by Con Delaney who had the run from Bendigo up-the-country, coming back through Kerang.”
And it seems Mr. Toma made a lasting impression on people from his days as a man in white.
“Quite often in later years when I was working for the timber company and taking timber around people would come up and say: ‘Oh, I remember you. You used to umpire in our league,” Harold recalled.

RETURNING to his playing career Harold said he’d been mainly a half-back flanker who could take a turn in the centre.
“When Reg Ford played on a half-forward flank for Sandhurst with their coach Bob McCaskill in the centre, I’d play on Reg as a half-back flanker.
“Then when McCaskill went out of the centre for a spell, Reg would go in there and I’d follow him in.
“And when we played South Bendigo ‘Pompey’ Davidson was their centreman. I’d go in there and play on him.
“So I played quite a lot of footy as a centreman although I suppose you’d say I played most of my football as a half-back flanker.”
Harold recalled the days when the Bendigo inter-league side regularly played VFL club Hawthorn.
“We played them three or four times. They’d come up by train on a Saturday morning and there would be a meeting of all the players from both teams in front of the Eaglehawk Town Hall.
“Then we’d all go up to the Eaglehawk Mayor’s office and have a cup of coffee,” he remembers.
The entire Eaglehawk half-back line, featuring ‘Wicky’ Toma, was Bendigo’s representative half-back line to take on the VFL’s Hawks.
Now, ever since I watched his son Greg play for the successful Two Blue teams in the early 1980s I’ve always wanted to know how the Toma family came by the nickname ‘Wicky’.
And this week Harold revealed all. It seems one of his cousins came up with the nickname one day.
“I don’t know where he got it from and why he gave it to me. I never really asked him.
“I’m pretty sure it didn’t come from my days at the eucalyptus distillery --- I had the name well before I went to work there. The name just stuck.
“And then Greg came to be called ‘Young Wicky’. They used to call it out from the grandstand. He went up to Rainbow for one year and then to Mildura where he’s been ever since,” Harold said.

AND his recipe for living such a long and fulfilling life?
“I’ve never smoked and never drank. I’ve only ever lived the natural life and never went in for fancy food or anything like that.
“I’m an ordinary person who just likes three good meals a day – and a cup of tea and a biscuit at supper.”
What about when his Two Blues’ teammates were out celebrating a premiership win with a long-neck bottle or three --- in vogue back in the day --- at the after-match functions?
“Well, in those days as players we’d go around a lot by train to Echuca and Rochester. I’d have a cup of tea so it didn’t worry me that they’d go off to have a drink,” Mr. Toma recalled.
These days Mr. Toma lives on his own in the Borough with frequent visits from family members. Meals On Wheels volunteers make daily trips to his home so he remains well fed and nourished.

By Richard Jones