Jeremy Salton has been on his Waimea Old Boys home turf for as long as he can remember.
His mother has been the club’s vice president, his father a team manager and barman, his brother played for the club, his son is in the Senior A side, his daughter was in the senior women’s team, and last year he watched his five-year-old granddaughter play her first game of ripper in the red and white jersey.
Waimea is very much in the Salton family’s blood. Jeremy pulled on his first JAB jersey more than 50 years ago and played through to senior level before stepping back to raise children. He and his wife Sharon eventually returned with their own five-year-old juniors and spent more than a decade coaching, managing and helping run the club.
Jeremy even stepped into the role of junior club president, a move he jokes did not make him very popular with Sharon for a time. He coached his son Jeen all the way through to under-16s, then during his time in the Waimea Combined team, before Jeen moved into Senior Division 1.
Although he remains on the club committee, Jeremy is now happiest behind the bar serving old friends, many of whom he first met as JAB players more than five decades ago.
"This is my happy place; everybody comes to the bar. The reason I come down here and do what I do is I see my friends that I started playing JAB with over 50 years ago, or even people I played against from another club.”
The Saltons will be one of many families coming together on Monday to celebrate 130 years of Waimea Old Boys history with a gala day.
Manager of the 500-strong club, Shar Lowe, says while it’s a celebration of the club’s history, it will also double as a fundraiser for the club’s future.
“We wanted to celebrate the fact that we’ve been going for 130 years and still going strong. But also, we’re working on a new strategic plan, and some of our actions from that, they’re going to cost money.”
A major project on the horizon is a new indoor training facility at Jubilee Park, which would allow the club to run midweek rugby programmes, night trainings and sessions during wet winter weather.
“Our fields are packed from Monday to Saturday so they take a big load. If we can take some of that load off the field so that we can run night games and all those extra things, it’d be great.”
The club also wants the space to support netball and community groups, and Shar says she regularly receives enquiries from organisations looking for venues.
The club is also trying to reduce barriers to children entering sport so have made the decision to remove fees for under-six and under-seven teams.
“Just so local kids can give it a go and parents don’t have to worry about those financial barriers,” Shar says.
Gala Day will kick off fundraising efforts with the club running 16 different stalls similar to what would be seen at a school gala – facepainting, candyfloss, chocolate wheel, and let’s not forget the hanging bar competition – how long can you hang?
The senior rugby teams will be running fun rippa games with the kids or maybe even against the kids, and around 30 market stallholders from across the region are confirmed to attend with eight food carts and arts and crafts.
“Because we’re so community based, we thought it would be so cool to have the community at the club and at Jubilee.”
Waimea Old Boys’ 130th Gala Day celebration is on Monday, 2 February, from 10am to 2pm at Jubilee Park in Richmond.
