Vale Tom Crossen (1934-2022)

VALE TOM CROSSEN

Last week saw the passing of Tom Crossen, a man who was pivotal in the major developments of the Tasmanian Hockey Centre that commenced in the 1980s.

Tom arrived in Hobart in the early 1980s when he was appointed as the Director of Parks & Recreation at the Hobart City Council. I had been alerted to the fact that Tom was a highly respected New Zealand hockey player, and in my role of President of the Southern Hockey Association, I met with him to see what we could do for hockey in Hobart.

We were due for the National Championships and our Grounds 1,2 & 3 where our two main artificial turfs now stand, were in less than ideal condition. Tom organised a meeting with the late Bill Casimaty, the proprietor of Strathayr grass surfaces, and he organised for our three grounds to be re-turfed with this new pre-grown product. The end result was that we had excellent surfaces for the Championships, despite the fact that the turf slipped in a couple of places due to a little lack of time for the roots to grip into the sand under-surface.

When we won the right to build the new Tasmanian Hockey Centre under the International & National Sports Facility Programme a huge committee was formed which included four hockey representatives, one each from THA, TWHA, STWHA & SHA, members representing State & Federal Governments Departments (which included Robin Hood) and Tom Crossen from the Hobart City Council.

Artificial surfaces were just being considered in Australia and the Tasmanian Hockey Centre was to be one of the first. Tom Crossen was so important in assessing suitable surfaces and fighting with us to get Astroturf 90 approved as the surface we wanted. Equally, he supported the Project Manager’s recommendation to have drainage through the surface with permeable asphalt and drainage to the side over the “turtle back”. That was a first with it proving its worth when one of those regular Risdon Road floods caused little disruption to our playing programme.

With Tom’s help every alderman supported this development despite the strong opposition of the East New Town Progress Association. His contribution to the Tasmanian Hockey Centre needs to be remembered.

He played Veteran’s for the State and University Club team in his accustomed left-wing position.

Our sincere condolences go to Marjory, Alayne, Tom Jr, and their extended family at this sad time.

John Soundy

31/1/2022