THE FIRST 4 PLAYERS OF OCTOPUSH (UNDERWATER HOCKEY)
| John Ventham |
Alan Blake |
| Jack Willis |
Frank Lilleker |
As time is going by, it is necessary to provide for the record a definitive account of the circumstances and conditions that caused the creation and subsequent evolution of Octopush and Underwater Hockey. A sport that has spread to many countries with an unknown development or future requires suppositions clarified or corrected. To fully understand it has been necessary to take you back to the time when resources were slender and primitive compared to the present 'accepted norm'. So a little of my early involvement in diving, the conditions, and 'how and why' there's a sport called
OCTOPUSH
I started diving in 1949 from scratch.
In England, there was NO equipment what so ever on the market and no books
on amateur diving or any divers I had seen or heard about. So, why go
underwater? Crazy as it may seem, I found a 1930's book in the Public
Library by Dr William Beebe- 'One-Mile Down', in his Bathysphere. There
was no inspiration to emulate the Doctor's exploit. Sitting inside an
iron ball dangling in the sea on a mile of wire filled me with as much
enthusiasm as travelling to the sun in an igloo. However, there was a
tinted photograph of the good Doctor walking on the seabed off Bermuda
surrounded by brightly coloured fish. He was wearing a hardtop divers
helmet strapped on; Greek sponge diver style, air hose and lead boots.
I was hooked for life.
The experiments and making of 'crude' equipment got me underwater for
those first years. For 1952 I had flippers, mask, snorkel, an adapted
DSEA [Davis Submarine Escape Apparatus], and bathing costume. Equipment
was creeping into the country from the France and Italy. So to '52, still
no divers about. Personal column advertisement - zilch. Article for local
newspaper - rejected as being absurd and having no local interest.
Frustration. End of '53, I hear of
a strange new club called British 'Sub-Aqua' Club. After several meetings
with the Founders Oscar Gugen and Peter Small,
I agreed to become a branch! - with
the promise of an Aqualung if I got another 23 members. Resuscitated article
alluding to US having an Aqualung
- accepted by local paper. 24 members plus aqualung - Southsea Sub-Aqua
Club Branch No 9 came into existence. A bit higher number than it could
have been, but after all, I had negotiated the Aqualung.
Summer 1954. Southsea now numbered
about 60 - 40 paid up - 20 pay laters. We were extremely active diving,
expeditions by coach [Durdle Door etc.], ferry and train to Isle of Wight
sites and chartered fishing boats plus 2 swimming pool nights 3 lungs
by now. However by July/August I was getting concerned, a great First
Summer, but what of the First Winter?
Five years getting a diving club off the ground, the only finances being
the surplus from the swimming pool hire; [the BSAC collared the subscriptions].
The whole Club could disintegrate if the members were only able to plod
up and down a swimming pool for six months. I had no experience to draw
on as to the continued enthusiasm of my fellow members, not withstanding
the successful summer. There were no suits then, we just shivered. I had
to put something together to keep the branch up to strength for next Summer.
I came up with several ideas, but eliminated them as fast as I thought
of them. Too rough or violent, too much equipment, uncontrollable, impractical,
expensive, damage to the player or the swimming pool, too heavy or awkward
to cart around on a bus or a cycle [ordinary folkz like us didn't have
cars]. On top of all this, I had to be able to assure the Bath Superintendent
that we were not going to break his damned tiles or make him responsible
for 'drowning' ourselves. Believe me, when I first tried out wearing a
thick pullover in the pool the Bath Attendant told me to take it off as
it would drag me down. Ha ha, but it was a long-standing assumption. Eventually
with all contingencies sorted out, I had resolved the parameters of what
was necessary to create a competitive sport for our Winter. Problem, I
could not go further without help. Ideas were one thing, transforming
it to reality another.
It was one evening after a pool session,
about 9.30; six of us got off the bus. Jack
and Ena Willis, Frank and Hazel Lilleker plus my wife Sylvia and I,
[the wives were active members in the Club]. I put it to them that I had
an idea for a winter sport that we could develop. They appreciated the
thought and we all trouped round to Jack and Ena's place, as they had
to relieve their babysitter. There we sat at the kitchen table with cups
of tea as I set out my parameters. Eight players a team, a circular lead
weight propelled to the opposite end of the pool with a bat curved to
suit the lead disc. The name Octopus [for the eight players] Squid [as
in slid or slide] for the lead disc and Cuttle [rhyming with scuttle]
for the goal. All the same fishy family. As we chewed the fat and drank
innumerable cups of tea, the sport was finalised. During the discussion,
the propelling of the SQUID, which
we had agreed, kept being referred to as being pushed, so it became logical
to refer to the 'bat'as a PUSHER.
Bingo: I already had the PUS, so bung an H on the end of the Octopus
and I had OCT-O-PUSH. Eight pushing.
The Cuttle fell by the wayside in favour of Gully
as the goal. There was still the equipment needed. The Pushers
and the Squid. This task was a liaison between
Jack Willis and Frank Lilliker. Jack
had to make the Squid before the Pushers
could be finalised by Frank We knew that we needed the Pusher
to encompass the Squid by about a third in
order for the Squid to be passed and not
be stuck in the horns of the Pusher. Jack
had to find a suitable mould in which to cast the lead. I believe an old
sweet tin was eventually used. Second problem was the acquisition of the
lead. We appealed to our members for their old lead toothpaste tubes,--
yes toothpaste [1954 Note: it was then normal to rub mercury powder into
the gums of teething babies]. My landlord lost a few inches of unnecessary
waste pipe, but Jack found enough eventually. The Pushers were then completed
to fit Jacks dimensions. Questions remained. Was it a possible game? .
Would the squid move on the bottom easily? Would the Pusher release the
Squid for passing? So far, everything had been hypothetical. There was
only one way to find out. In the pool.
The
first game of the Sport of
OCTOPUSH
Armed with the Squid, Pushers, and the rules on our Notice Board, which
we always towed around then [we did not have a clubhouse] we descended
on the pool [the old Portsmouth Guildhall Baths]. Roping in John Ventham,
Jack, Frank and me formed into two against two to test out the action
of the Pusher v Squid
v player. It worked and no adjustments were apparent to prevent it being
considered as a viable game. Fortunately, we did have sufficient time
to come to that decision, because as soon as the others at the pool realised
that the gear was there they were in the water all having a push. It was
only when I took their 'ball' away [at great personal risk] did we get
to playing approximately to the Rules.
That night OCTOPUSH
was delivered
Octopush was now played regularly,
but we transferred it to the Royal Marine Baths at Eastney, the commando
training pool [canoes. rafts and frogmen]. We had almost unlimited free
access with the occasional expert training by the R.M.s. The longest session
I can remember was 7 to 1 o'clock. This pool was slightly heated until
6 o'clock and we could use the residue!! It was the ideal size for Octopush
and approximates to the present day dimensions. Most of the playing was
between our own members but also matches against visitors, particularly
Bournemouth and Brighton. To promote club membership we held Exhibitions
and Galas when Jack explained and we demonstrated Octopush
and entertained with a variety of U/W games, such as shooting at balloons
with spear guns etc. Seated in the balcony at a Gala was a young fellow
called John Towse who eventually became a member and helped arrange the
National Octopush Ladder in the 70's. In my monthly contribution to Peter
Small the Editor of Neptune, the original BSAC Journal on the Branch Activities
I informed him of Southsea's new game Octopush.
This he announced in the November 1954 issue.
In 1954/55 as Branches were starting
or in embryonic stage many faced failure with training impossible. The
Bath Superintendents were not permitting the use of our basic needs i.e.
mask, fins or snorkels in their pools. It so happened that it fell to
me to persuade these all-powerful officials otherwise. It became my brief
when on the National General Committee. Just a sample of quite a large
number -Gravesend - Stoke Newington - Woolwich - East Greenwich- West
Ham - Birmingham - Halifax - Bradford -etc. etc., the list goes on of
the baths banning this very basic equipment. This undertaking on my part
was primarily for the advancement of the whole diving sport, but influenced
my Abbreviated Rules for Octopush.
Two items in my Rules, which are directly attributable to that
current situation, are:
1] In Rule 2. I specify 'but in no circumstances using over arm strokes'.
The reasons being.
a] One hand must hold the Pusher so the arc swung with an overarm
stroke could not strike another player. Although I was not unduly
worried about the injury I was concerned that he may break someone's
facemask and cause merry hell with the Bath Superintendent for broken
glass in the pool. This was the main gripe of these esteemed gentlemen,
along with contamination.
b] As previously mentioned, Southsea were given instruction by Royal
Marine 'frogmen'. In consequence, all the early Southsea divers used
straight legs and knees when finning and ankles together when submerging,
in the case of the frogmen the technique was to avoid detection as
well as efficiency. This had an advantage in that there was less surface
disturbance and with the limitation of the overarm thrashing there
was a better opportunity for the poolside spectator to view the goings
on under the water.
c] The most important consideration was that 1954 BSAC Rule Handbook
forbade jumping in from the poolside and the use of overarm strokes.
2] In Rule 4, the reason for it was to pacify our Bath Superintendent
by not using metal snorkel that may break masks. Secondly, it was to
initially prevent the snorkel being used as an extra pusher. It was
never enforced.
It has been suggested that knocking a diving weight around
the pool bottom with our snorkels was the origin of Octopush in a form of
hockey. At no time did this happen.
Although it may appear to be the natural evolution, it is fantasy on
the part of the later day perpetrators of this myth. Logic dictates the
impracticability.
1] The snorkels in general use in the 50's were of an anodised thin
metal tube, copper coloured. There were two types. Both had a U bend
with a small rubber mouthpiece, in one type the other end was either
similarly bent with a rubber cage and a ping-pong ball as a valve, the
other was straight with a rubber water exclusion valve. As new members
joined, proud of their posh snorkels, we first had to assure them that
if they took the appendage off water wouldn't gush into their lungs.
Such were the days. Apart from being very thin and dentable, the wretched
mouthpiece had a tendency to slide off the tube. I had a strip of paper
wedging mine on. In addition, instead of coming off, it also went the
other way and you ended up with two inches of tube down your gullet.
From the foregoing it is highly improbable that we would have risked
bashing away at a lump of lead and the pool bottom with our relatively
expensive and delicate snorkels. Another reason was as we only had one
each it would have necessitated lifting our heads out of water to breathe.
2] The diving weights for our Siebe,Gorman were 1 lb., roughcast lead
1 inch thick, the sharp bend of the snorkel was long and approx. 2 1/2
inches across. It would have been almost impossible to propel the weight
from a vertical hockey type movement.
3] Throughout our formulation of Octopush by the six of us, the word
'hockey' was never mentioned or contemplated.
To backtrack a little. Did I succeed in my initial objective, which was
to keep the Southsea branch together? I cannot tell whether Octopush played
any part in why Southsea held together, but it became one of the most
successful clubs in Britain. It won the envied Heinke Trophy 3 times,
had two Divers of the Year Awards, one by Alex McKee for the discovery
and initiating the raising of the Mary Rose. The other, John Bevan who
achieved the deepest simulated dive. Southsea is still producing high
calibre Octopush players several for the British team and 2nd generation
ones now.
In 1958 I worked in Malaya and became a founder member and Diving Officer
of the Malayan Sub -Aqua Club. Octopush was introduced to the 40 mainly
Ex-pat members in the Kuala Lumpur baths. I often wonder whether any took
it back to their own countries.
Well there is the tale of
my part in Octopush or underwater hockey, longwinded as it may be. At
this stage, I regret the constant use of the first person singular for
which I apologise. So, let me provide the original basic Rules of Octopush.
It appears to me that in constructing this Web page that I have rambled
on about unrelated matters, but to most of you your knowledge of the early
50's is vague and what your fathers or grandparents prattle about. They
were strange times indeed. Much of it though has a point. In 1954, I thought
up the 'game'. How? If I hadn't would someone else have done it and would
it have got as wide a spread. You can't reinvent the wheel. I believe
I found the answer.
It's part of the Theory of Chaos. Long, long ago in Outer Mongolia, a
butterfly flapped his wing. setting off the chain of events which ultimately
led me to pick up that dusty, old book of Dr Beebe, to founding a club
containing two erstwhile colleagues,-- et cetera, et cetera.
AND SO MY TALE IS TOLD
It only remains
To wish all Octopush /Underwater
Hockey Folkz Past and Present
Enjoy
Postscript ---
Should you get a broken rib or lose your front teeth when playing,
DON'T BLAME ME
BLAME THE BLUDY BUTTERFLY
|
Chicago Underwater Hockey Club