Walter Watts (17 June 1872 – 9 July 1946) was an Australian sportsman, best known as the oldest player to have played a senior game in the West Australian Football League (WAFL).
Born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1872, Watts moved to Fremantle, Western Australia, in the 1890s, representing both the Imperials Football Club, and a number of Fremantle representative cricket teams which played against touring Victorian and Australian sides.[1] Watts later moved to Midland Junction, where he worked as a blacksmith for the Midland Railway of Western Australia at the Midland Railway Workshops.[2] He was a foundation member of the Midland First Grade cricket team (later Midland-Swan and Midland-Guildford), and was responsible for the improvement of the Midland Oval for the use of both the cricket and football team. The scoreboard at the ground is named after Watts.[3] Watts played for the cricket club for over thirty years, and as late as the 1927–28 season, when he took a five-wicket haul against North Fremantle at the age of 55, with help from a sticky wicket.[4]
Watts was also a noted player of Australian rules football for the Midland Junction Football Club, playing alongside several of his sons. He played his final game, against Subiaco on 5 August 1916, at the age of 44 years and 49 days, making him the oldest person to play senior football in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). He had been called out of retirement for one final game due to a player shortage at the club caused by a large number of players enlisting in the military.[5] Watts and another "old-timer", Dick Hardie, replaced two of Watts' sons, Frederick and Albert, who were injured, in the team.[6] In December 1917, Watts enlisted in the Australian Army, and was made a 2nd Corporal in the 5th Australian Broad Gauge Railway Company. He returned in 1919 and was discharged on 25 June 1919. After retiring from the Railway Workshops, Watts invented and patented a number of track devices, including for a universal movement switch.[7] He also represented the Midland-Guildford Cricket Club on the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA), and served on a number of committees. Watts died in July 1946 at his home in Midland.[8] Watts was married to Alice,[2] had nine sons[1] and three daughters[citation needed]. Five of his sons played First Grade cricket, and another three played senior football.[1] Albert Watts, one of his sons, captained Perth for four seasons, and captained Western Australia in eight matches.[9] Two of his granddaughters later married Laurie Bandy and Ted Tyson, both noted sportsmen during the 1930s and 1940s.[1]
^ abcdCricket Loses Great Stalwart – The Sunday Times. Published 14 July 1946. Retrieved from Trove, 15 January 2012.
^ abWalter WATTS – AIF. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
^The Midland Oval. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
^CRICKET – The Western Mail. Published 3 November 1927. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
cricket and football team. The scoreboard at the ground is named after Watts. Watts played for the cricket club for over thirty years, and as late as the...
as a couple and a team. Between 1976 and 1978, Walter J. Watts, known as "Wobbling" WallyWatts unicycled 12,000 miles around the world. Travelling eastward...
football Sampson Hosking (SANFL) 48 years, 159 days (interchange only) 1936 WallyWatts (WAFL) 44 years, 49 days 1916 Auto racing (Rallying) Sobiesław Zasada...
unicyclist Dustin Kelm, worldwide variety unicycle performer "Wobbling" WallyWatts, round the world unicyclist, April 1976 to October 1978 Ed Pratt, round...
vehicle for James Beck and also featured Arthur Mullard and Queenie Watts as Wally and Lily Briggs. Following Beck's death in August 1973, Bert and Betty...
Gus Williams, Wally Walker and Marvin Webster. List of National Basketball Association players with most steals in a game "Slick Watts". Basketball-Reference...
the equal fourth-most of all-time. He later married a granddaughter of WallyWatts, a noted sportsman who represented Midland-Guildford on the committee...
another brief comeback during 1945. Tyson married a grand-daughter of WallyWatts, a former Midland Junction player, and was also a brother-in-law of Laurie...
which Arthur Mullard featured as her husband. Watts also appeared with Mullard, playing Lily and Wally Briggs from Romany Jones, in the third On the Buses...
Sherri. Watts's mother, Velma Gibson Watts, was an associate dean at Wake Forest University and her father, Roland Watts, was chairman of Winston-Salem State...
Interview with Wally Olins on design and emotion Wally Olins at the Corporate Identity Gipfel in Konstanz on 26. March 2010 [3] The Brand called Wally Olins,...
Ash’aris or the Maaturidis are from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah, I say that they are from Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah in many things related to aqidah but in...
with a pair of body presses to wrap things up in the next nine minutes. "Watts defeated in mat feature". The Times (via Newspapers.com). August 2, 1970...
ticket, carried the state, Jones lost the election to Democrat John C. Watts. In 1978, Jones started a charter bus company called "Blue Grass Tours"...
established before the 1898 season. Notable players included David Christy, WallyWatts, Tommy O'Dea, and Tom Wilson. Wikimedia Commons has media related to...
a sequel, Yus, My Dear, was broadcast in 1976, in which Wally and his wife Lily (Queenie Watts) had moved out of their caravan into a council house. The...
other four are Freddie Brown, Gus Williams, Marvin Webster and Don Watts. "Wally Walker Past Stats, Playoff Stats, Statistics, History, and Awards"....
Pictures / Apple Studios / Plan B Entertainment / Smokehouse Pictures Jon Watts (director/screenplay); George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams...
as the threat in Watts. Watts involved a threat made "expressly conditional" on being drafted into the United States military. Watts, 394 U.S. at 708...
(Columbia, 1953) Wally Rose (Good Time Jazz, 1953) Cake Walk to Lindy Hop (Columbia, 1955) Ragtime Classics (Good Time Jazz, 1958) Wally Rose on Piano (Blackbird...
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