Wally Watts

Who is Wally Watts?

Walter "Wally" Watts was an Australian sportsman, soldier, blacksmith and inventor, best known as the oldest ever player in the West Australian Football League. 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. Watts later moved to Midland Junction, where he worked as a blacksmith for the Midland Railway of Western Australia at the Midland Railway Workshops. He was a foundation member of the Midland First Grade cricket team, 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. 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.

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. 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. Watts and another "old-timer", Dick Hardie, replaced two of Watts' sons, Frederick and Albert, who were injured, in the team. In December 1917, Watts enlisted in the Australian Army, and was made a 2nd Corporal in the Railway Unit, Section Three, of the 15th Battalion. He returned in 1918 and was discharged on 24 September 1918. After retiring from the Railway Workshops, Watts invented and patented a number of track devices, including for a universal movement switch. He also represented the Midland-Guildford Cricket Club on the Western Australian Cricket Association, andserved on a number of committees. Watts died in July 1946 at his home in Midland. Watts had nine sons and two daughters with his wife, Alice. Five of his sons played First Grade cricket, and another three played senior football. Albert Watts, one of his sons, captained Perth for four seasons, and captained Western Australia in eight matches. Two of his granddaughters later married Laurie Bandy and Ted Tyson, both noted sportsmen during the 1930s and 1940s.