Member Profile - Clive Gaunt

I was born in Malaysia in 1963, where my dad was stationed with the British Army. We (me, dad, mum and my sister) then moved to Germany with the army before heading back to England. I was too young to (now) remember either of those countries and have only limited memories of our few years in England before mum and dad signed the family of five up as £10 poms, and we landed in Brisbane in 1971.

My only recollection of football when we lived in England was supporting Manchester United. We lived a long way from Manchester but not close to any major football club so I can only imagine I was attracted by the success the team enjoyed in the 1960s.

After arriving in Brisbane, and a short stay at Wacol Migrant Centre, we found a home in the Western Suburbs and dad took me down to Kenmore Rangers soccer club where I joined the under 9Ds. We were premiers in 1972 and were promoted to C grade in

1973. The trophy I still have indicates we won the grand final that year. The biggest trophy I have was from 1975 when I won the club’s best and fairest award. I remember being presented with the trophy and a fancy jacket by Haydn Sargent, who was a celebrity

media personality of that era.

Around that time, I moved from the local state school to a private school on the other side of the city and gave up club football to play for the school.

But it was a rugby school and it seemed like we were always secondary third-class sportsmen as players of the round-ball, or wog ball as it was sometimes derisively referred to. After finishing grade 12, I played for the school ‘old boys’ team for a time, then returned to Kenmore, where I played Fourth Division Reserves with some of my former junior teammates.

Last year, a new face at Perry Park Thursday night Walking Football wandered up to me and said I looked familiar… It turns out we (that is Neil Brunner and I) played together in Fourth Division at Kenmore in 1989.