1956 - RAIN, SUSPENSIONS AND 
ANOTHER TRAILERMEN TITLE 


St.Catharines Athletics organisers move to the Garden City Arena paid
off one year later.  In 1955 they had moved indoors in time for a
sweltering, humid summer.  Didn't look like a good move at the time but
when the rains came in '56 their fans were glad to be dry. The worst of
the wet weather hit at the end of August, just in time for the playoffs.
 Unluckily the A's were matched against Peterborough and the Miller Bowl
witnessed four rainouts in the series.  The end of outdoor lacrosse was
nearing.

Peterborough lost player/coach Bob Thorpe for the bulk of the season due
to suspension.  Thorpe didn't start his year until the fourth game of
the playoffs.  St.Catharines also entered the post season shorthanded.
Frank Farley gave Al Frick a blow which needed five stitches.  Referee
Chuck Simpson gave no penalty on the play thus Frick went after Simpson.
 That earned him a suspension for the final three regular season games
plus the entire playoffs.  Even in Junior Lacrosse the officials were
not safe.  Longtime referee Joe Murphy had turned in his whistle to
coach the Long Branch juniors.  In one game he became so upset with
Mickey McDonald that he threw a few punches at the official.

Long Branch's three successive OLA junior championships translated in a
move to the senior ranks.  They joined the four returning clubs.
Hamilton had survived the off season and were back.  The Lincoln Burners
signed Ross Powless as player/coach, then added Max Woolley, Leo Teatro,
Jack Sibbald, Al Doyle, Denny Peterson and Roger Smith.  All those
imports would help them to a winning record and second place.  Fergus
was back with plenty of promise.  It didn't work out.  After a 2-10
start the Thistles dropped out of the league.

Peterborough was still the team to beat.  They were once again
frontrunners thanks to 19 wins and only 6 losses, ten points clear of
their nearest rival.  This club's greatest asset was depth.  Bob Allan
had headed to Nanaimo, joining ex-Trailermen Don Ashbee and Arn Dugan.
All three would be top ten scorers and Allan would win the scoring
championship with a record setting 89 goals!  The '56 Petes could not
boast of a single fifty goal scorer.  Bob Curtis came closest with 47,
while Jim Heffernan's 60 points were third best in the league.  Ike
Hildebrand also made the top scoring list.  Junior call up Paul Parnell
saw his first taste of senior action.  He scored a goal and an assist in
four games.

St.Catharines and Hamilton both finished with 14-11 records.  The
Burners were awarded second place.  This marked the first time in OLA
history a Tie break was not played.  Long Branch finished a distant
fourth with seven victories.

Ross Powless won the scoring race with 59 assists and 89 points.  The
A's Doug Smith gave him chase but fell 18 points shy.  He might have
finished closer had he not spent 60 minutes in the penalty box.  There
was little to choose between the top three offences.  Peterborough
scored 275 goals while both Hamilton and St.Catharines registered 269.
The Burners had only one other top ten marksman, ex-Excelsior Jack
Sibbald.  Double Blue littered the scoring list.  Al Frick placed fourth
and Ted Howe was close behind him.  Defending ICLL champ Jim McNulty
found the going tough back in the OLA.  He finished eighth with only 31
goals(compared to the 77 he'd scored out west the year before).  Long
Branch Monarchs struggled to score 219 goals.  Ralph McCormick was their
solo top ten performer.

Hamilton disposed of Long Branch in four quick games to begin the
playoffs.  The Peterborough/St.Catharines series was a longer one
practically before it could start!  Game One was twice rained out before
the defending champs dumped St.Catharines 14-8.  Bob 'Rock' Batley, Dan
Quinlan and Ike Hildebrand each had hattricks.  The Athletics surprised
Peterborough by winning the next contest 11-10.  Doug Smith scored four
times and Jim McNulty added a trio.  The Trailermen responded with a
confident 16-9 win.  Bob Curtis bulged the twine six times and Jack
Mason aided the cause with six points.  In his first playoff game Paul
Parnell scored two goals and three points.  Back at the Garden City
Arena the Double Blues evened the series at 2-2.  The scoring was well
balanced as they won 11-7.  Bill Allen had a pair of goals in his first
game of the series.  It was also Bob Thorpe's first appearance.  He
counted two goals and two assists.  Netminder Pete Morningstar was the
A's star of the game.  The victory was marred by an ugly penalty box
brawl which drew both benches in.  In the midst of it all was Rock
Batley who hit timer Bill Frick over the right eye.  Plenty of fist and
stick swinging followed.  After ten minutes the lights in the arena were
turned out.  The squads definately needed to cool off before the next
encounter and Mother Nature cooperated.  The fifth game at the Miller
Bowl was twice postponed because of rain.  Finally the OLA shifted the
match to St.Catharines.  Indoors the Trailermen ended the homer series
with a 10-8 triumph.  St.Catharines was without Jim McNulty and none of
his teammates could manage to beat Lloyd Wotton more than twice.  Bob
Curtis' hattrick led the Petes and Junior scoring champ Ron Jay tallied
a couple.  Eventually the weather cleared and the series returned to the
Miller Bowl.  The defending champs finished the A's off in style with a
20-5 romp.  Six goals each for Hildebrand and Batley.

The well rested Lincoln Burners waited.  Peterborough easily bounced
them 13-5 on September 6th.  Curtis and Batley both registered
hattricks.  Hamilton came back with a 15-10 home win.  Max Woolley
scored four times and Ivan Thomas chipped in three.  Next the defending
champs were give a scare at the Miller Bowl but escaped with a 12-10
victory.  Ross Powless scored six points in the loss.  Curtis' four
goals saved the home side.  Ray Hill stumped the Petes' shooters in Game
Four, a 10-8 Burner victory.  Thomas was high man with three goals.
Peterborough continued to be perfect at home thanks to a 9-4 win.  A
crowd of only 1,000 cheered the Trailermen on.  Hamilton coach Powless
protested the game due to what he considered inefficient refereeing from
Lewis Vipond and Chuck Simpson.  The protest failed.  Peterborough
claimed their sixth straight league title the next evening in Hamilton.
They won 14-12 as Thorpe and Lou Nickle both scored four times.  Powless
also had a four goal night.

Nanaimo Timbermen were on their way east.  They easily won the ICLL
championship with 28 wins and only 6 losses.  They also averaged over
fifteen goals per game.  Their high powered offence featured five top
ten scorers, four of them Ontario boys.  For the Mann Cup they picked up
Jim Bradshaw and Bill Bamford from Victoria.  Bradshaw would play in all
five games, while Bamford would see action in three.  Two Timbermen, Bob
Allan and player/coach Harry Wipper, had been on the '55 Trailermen
squad.

Peterborough would count heavily on pick ups and junior call ups for the
series.  Ike Hildebrand would play in only one game due to his hockey
committments.  Pick up Ross Powless would be the Trailermen's second
best scorer.  Max Woolley and Doug Smith would appear in four and three
games respectively.  Junior Ron Jay would score five goals in five
games.  Dan Quinlan and Paul Parnell would also play in every game.

Only once had a western team won in the east.  Back in 1908 the New
Westminster Salmonbellies had won the Minto Cup in Montreal and taken
the trophy back to the west coast.  Almost fifty years later BC Lacrosse
would have another breakthrough.  Loaded with six eastern boys, who
scored 30 of the Timbermen's 50 goals in the final, Nanaimo upset
Peterborough in five games.  The Trailermen outscored the westerners
51-50 but lost all the close games.  The worm had turned on the eastern
champs.  Due to their success, lacrosse was booming in Peterborough,
meaning that the Trailermen could field their most local team ever.
Local, accept for the loss of Peterborough boy Bob Allan.  Allan crushed
his former team with nine goals and fifteen points to lead the series in
scoring.  Derry Davies and Bob Curtis both scored ten goals, as Davies
was named MVP.  Allan would return to his hometown the next year.  The
Trailermen continued to move away from relying on imports.  However
Vancouver Island was teeming with eastern stars.  On top of that New
Westminster was about to get into the act.  The '56 win for Nanaimo was
a sign of things to come.  Home advantage would no longer help the OLA
champs.