Bendigo Advertiser | CALIVIL United is used to celebrating. After all, the club wins a senior football flag on average about once every four years.
This weekend the Demons will again celebrate, but it won’t be a flag being toasted, rather, the entire history of the club as Calivil United celebrates its 125th.
The club was formed in 1890 as Calivil, before taking on the name Calivil United in 1997 following a merger with Northern United after the Swallows folded in the Bendigo Football League.
Having initially played in competitions such as the Mitiamo District Football League and Pyramid Hill District Football Association, the Demons have been part of the Loddon Valley Football League since 1956.
The Demons have won 13 senior flags since joining the LVFL – including a record six in a row between 2003 and 2008 – but in total the club’s premiership tally stands at around 30, plus more than 25 at reserves and junior level.
Calivil United will mark its 125th anniversary weekend with a home game on Saturday against one of its oldest rivals Mitiamo – a club that celebrated its 125th last year.
The Demons’ senior and reserves players will wear a one-off heritage guernsey that features the Calivil emblem of a coat of arms and two kangaroos that was previously worn on the club’s blazers in the 1950s.
The event will be launched by Victorian National Party leader Peter Walsh, himself a former Calivil player.
The coin for the senior game will be tossed by one the Demons’ oldest former players, Darby Illingworth, while the club’s oldest former netballer, Bev Wild, will toss the coin before the A grade match.
The game will be followed by a gala function at Truscott Reserve on Saturday night to be attended by 485, including some who played with the club back in the 1940s.
Historian Darren Lewis has written a 272-page book detailing the history of the club titled The Red and Blues.
A bus to Calivil for Saturday’s game will leave the QEO at 11.30am and the Eaglehawk Town Hall at 11:40am at a cost of $10 per ticket.
To book, contact Owen Curnow on 0419 323 290.
Meanwhile, on the field Saturday’s battle between the Demons and Superoos will be a crucial clash for two improved teams striving to return to the finals.
With four rounds left in the season, the Superoos sit fourth at 7-6, while the Demons – coming off a bye last week – are fifth at 6-6.
