The St. Andrews Hockey Club was formed in November 1923, and entered an A Grade team in the Brisbane competition in the 1924 season. The team was runners-up for the trophy in its inaugural year. 1929 marked the first A Grade, division 2 Club Premiership.
The first premiership in A Grade came after 25 years in 1949. The team defeated Valleys 2-1. They repeated the feat in 1950 to begin an era of 5 or 6 years when the A Grade team was either Premiers of Runners-up.
The last A Grade premiership in the club was won in 1975 – in fact a dual win for division 1 & 2 – this was a strong era once again for the club and a position we hope to be building towards again.
In 1950 the club obtained its first home ground at Rasey Park, Herston. It remained there until amalgamating in 1987 with Pine Rivers Hockey Club, when the club was established at Rob Akers Reserve, Strathpine. Amalgamation brought benefits for both clubs of the day. St Andrews strengthened their Junior base, drawing young players from a growth area and Pine Rivers achieved the status of an A Grade club.
The St. Andrews Mens & Pine Rivers Womens Hockey Club Inc. was formed and has continued to flourish and has teams playing in the Brisbane competition in Mens, Womens, Boys and Girls, on both grass and artificial surfaces. At the beginning of 2000, the club once again moved to better fields to become one of the tenants at the grounds of the then new South Pine Sporting Complex at Brendale.
The club has a proud heritage to uphold. We have a hard working committee to carry on the clubs traditions and history and encourage all club members and their families to be part of that tradition.
In 2001, in moving with the times and having our base in the Pine Rivers area, a special meeting was called to vote on a name change. This new name voted upon was to be ‘Pine Rivers St. Andrews Hockey Club Inc.’
2001 also saw the first ‘home grown’ Pine Rivers St. Andrews Hockey Club junior player to become an Australian Hockey Representative. Liam De Young at age 20, played for Australian in the 2001 Junior World Cup and from there was promoted into the Kookaburras Australian Men’s Hockey Team. He represented Australia at the 2002 Men’s World Cup, the 2002 Commonwealth Games and numerous Champions Trophies.
From the time of amalgamation between Pine River Hockey Club & St. Andrews Mens Hockey Club, we have played in two different uniforms (Women – Bottle green & white. Men – royal blue & white). 2003 took us into a new look uniform. All players in the club are now playing under the one club shirt for the first time, a combination of royal blue, bottle green and white.
2003 and 2004 saw the club being fortunate enough to have the backing of the Pine Rivers Memorial Bowls Club as our major club sponsor. In 2004 Liam De Young was again chosen to represent Australia in the Kookaburras Men’s Hockey Team at the Olympic Games in Athens. The Australian team were victorious bringing home the gold.
2005 again saw our club being sponsored by the bowls club. Also in 2005, Liam De Young represented Australia in the following games: Australian Hockey League (Brisbane) Queensland came 2nd, Azlan Shah Tournament (Kuala Lumpar) Australia won, Hamburg Masters (Germany) Australia 2nd, Rabobank Trophy (Amsterdam) Australia 2nd, World Cup Qualified vs. New Zealand and Fiji (Fiji) Australia qualified and the Champions Trophy (Chennai India) Australia won. The Club congratulates Liam on his achievements so far and wishes him all the best for the years ahead in hockey.
2006 sees a change of trading name for the bowls club to ‘Club Pine Rivers’, which means any advertising carried out by our club will now have the new logo for the bowls club on it. The year also found our Mens turf teams joining forces with the Norths Mens turf teams, this amalgamation enabled both our div men and norths div men to field teams. The teams fielded were Div 1, Div 2 (wearing Pine Rivers St. Andrews uniforms) and Div 4 (wearing Norths uniforms).
2007 was our second year of our five year rebuilding programme, with our continuing partnership with Norths Hockey Club. We entered 4 mens teams into the BHL, fielding Divs 1, Divs 2, Divs 3 and Divs 4. Div 1, 2 and 3 wore Saints new singlets to help our top grade players keep cool in our hot climate and 4th Division played in Norths uniform. It also saw a new club shirt, making our club teams and spectators highly visible on game days boosting club spirit. GB Electrics (Major Sponsors) support continues to build the senior mens teams and provide affordable fees for all turf players.
2008 was probably one of the most successful years our club has seen in awhile, having won both jnr boys and snr mens club championship trophies. Our Senior Mens Divisions 2, 3, 4, 5.1, 5.2, Veterans and Classic League, Junior Boys J2, J3, U11 Div 2, all making it into the finals resulting with 4 Minor Premierships, 4 Memorial Cups, 4 Presidents Cups and 2 Grand Final trophies to Classic League and J2 Boys. Major sponsor GB Electrics financial support continues the resurgence of the Club in the Brisbane competition. Congratulations to our Womens DP5 and JG1 girls teams also making it into the finals. Liam DeYoung gains a bronze medal representing Australia at the Beijing Olympics.
2009 started with Liam DeYoung OAM playing his 200th game for Australia in Canberra, while captaining the Kookaburras in their series win against Belgium in February. The senior men won the club championship for the second year in a row, with Div 1,2,3,4,VHL2, CHL1 all qualifying for the finals. Div 4 won the Memorial Cup, Presidents Trophy and were undefeated minor premiers and premiers. Div 3 secured the Presidents Trophy and minor premiership, whilst VHL2 were runners up. Principal sponsor for the men GB Electrics funded new playing singlets for Div 1 and 2. They displayed the GB logo on the back and along with the new design shorts looked striking. In early December Liam DeYoung co-captained the Kookaburras to a Champions trophy gold medal win against Germany in Melbourne.
For the Junior Girls and Senior Women, 2009 was a good year, with our U13 Girls sharing the premiership in their grade and all other teams playing strong hockey to the end. Our DP5 Grass Women finished the season as Presidents Cup Winners, minor premiers and premiers. The Div 5 Turf Women finished the season a strong 3rd and only got knocked out of the finals in extra time. Thank you to our sponsors – CNW, SMEG and LIVE LIFE VILLAGES for their ongoing support of the Womens and Girls teams.
The Junior Boys section had a great year with the U7’s & U9’s developing into good hockey players winning a lot of their games. The U11’s, U13’s, J1’s & J2’s all made it into the finals, with only the J1’s successfully winning the Grand Final in 2nd Division.
2010 for the Junior Girls and Senior Women was a good year, with our U11 U13 and JG2 girls winning the Premiership in their grade and the JG3 girls being defeated in their Grand Final. Our DP5 grass women finished the season as Presidents Cup Winners, Minor Premiers and Premiers. Thank you to our sponsor’s – CNW, SMEG and LIVE LIFE VILLAGES for their ongoing support of the Womens and Girls Teams. The Junior Boys had a great year with the U7’s & U9’s developing into good hockey players winning a lot of their games. The U11’s, were joint Premiers and the U13’s & J2’s all made it into the Finals, with only the J2’s unfortunately going down in the Grand Final. Once again this year we had a large number of representative players at schoolboy/girl level as well as at Brisbane level. Max Gould was selected to represent QLD U19 Schoolboys on their tour of New Zealand.
2011 was another successful year for the Club. We won premierships with our BHL4 men, JT3 girls, JG2 girls, JG1 girls and U11B girls. We also had success with our U11 and J1 boys, our BHL1, BHL2 and BHL3 men making the final series.
Thank-you also to all our Sponsors for the 2011, your continued support is very much appreciated, as is the continued tireless work of our small band of volunteers (21 people doing 64 jobs).
We had a number of Representatives within the Club in 2011 at both school and Association level. Most notable of these were:
Mary O’Reilly QLD U12 Schoolgirls; Ryan O’Flaherty QLD U15 Men & Qld U16 Schoolboys (Shadow); Dan O’Flaherty QLD U19 Schoolboys; Manu Weerasinghe QLD U19 Schoolboys; Ryan Gibbs QLD Blades; Craig Smith QLD Blades; Brent Gaske QLD Blades; Liam De Young QLD Blades and Australia.
2012 was another successful year for the Club. We won premierships with our BHL4 men and U13 Boys with Grand final teams in J3 and U11 boys as well as DP5 women, JG1 girls, JGU13B girls and U11C girls all making the Grand final. Our notable representative players for 2012 were: Lewis Fossey QLD U12 Schoolboys, Liam Hart QLD U12 Schoolboys, Connor Robertson QLD U12 Schoolboys (Shadow), Ryan O’Flaherty QLD U16 Schoolboys, Liam De Young QLD Blades and Australia. We have also had a couple of Club members represent QLD in the Indoor competition – Mitchell Bolton QLD U21 Indoor and Max Gould QLD U21 Indoor (Shadow).
2013 saw a number of teams make the finals. We won premierships with U13 Boys and JGU13B girls with Grand final teams in J3 boys and JGU13C girls making the Grand final. We had a number of Representatives within the Club in 2013 at school, Association and State level. Most notable of these were:
Connor Robertson QLD U12 Schoolboys; Zac Day QLD U16 Schoolboys (Shadow); Ryan O’Flaherty QLD U19 Schoolboys; Lewis Fossey QLD U13 (Vice Captain); Liam Hart QLD U13 (Shadow); Matthew Petzer QLD U13 (Shadow); Liam de Young QLD Blades and Australia. With the increase in popularity of Indoor hockey over the summer we have a number our players representing “Saints” in various teams. A few notable players who have gone on to represent QLD in the national completion are: Lewis Fossey QLD U13 Indoor (Captain); Chandan Smith QLD U13 Indoor; Liam Hart QLD U13 Indoor (Shadow); Paul Comerford QLD U18 Indoor; Triston Parker QLD Open Men