Chapter 5: And Then There Was Three

With the 1956 Olympic Games to be held in Melbourne from November 22nd to December 8th , there was much work to be done and many hurdles to overcome in order to have Australian women compete in the Gymnastics competition.

As Alf Lorbach was the instigator of women's artistic gymnastics in Victoria through the formation of the Society, he wrote to other States and encouraged them to seriously consider forming training groups, so that Australia could have a larger pool of women from which to field a team. A full team would need to consist of six women. Interest was received from Queensland , New South Wales and Western Australia . Meanwhile back in Melbourne , publicity about Alf's gymnastics classes for women continued in the hope of raising the profile of the sport locally.

Training was stepped up for the women in Alf's classes, with two practice sessions slated each week. When not training, members of the Society worked hard raising funds to cover the cost of hall hire, correspondence with international contacts and remuneration of the coach's time in manufacturing new beams required for training.

The main sources of income were raffles and classes for children which were conducted in Alf's backyard. Many of the original members of the Society, found apparatus gymnastics and the increased training too difficult, however they stayed on with the Society helping out to raise funds, became committee members with some training as judges. Parents also took on these roles.

Those who chose to train as judges had never seen or experienced women's gymnastics before. Although many had a strong calisthenics background, which helped them to recognise artistic movements, they had never seen apparatus like the uneven bars, which presented them with a challenge to judge.

In early 1956, two women made the move to Melbourne to begin training as part of Alf's squad. The first Nelleck Jol (Jacoby) was a Dutch immigrant who arrived in Western Australia in 1953, a year after being chosen as a reserve for the women's gymnastic team to compete at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.

When Nelleck arrived in Australia , she found a lack of training venues for women and indeed the whole state of Western Australia was devoid of any form of women's gymnastics. “The only gymnastics available was through the YMCA and some church groups, but it was only for men,” recalls Nelleck. “I talked them in to starting a women's group, which I coached”, albeit utilising men's apparatus.

Inge Fraser was working on men's apparatus at the Brisbane YMCA under the watchful eye of Frank Vig, who had coached both men and women in his native country of Hungary . Inge had been a gymnast in Germany and migrated to Australia , having to walk to escape that country, before settling in Brisbane where she later married, became a naturalised Australian and decided to make the trip to Melbourne to join Alf's training squad in early 1956.

Both Nelleck and Inge lived in a shed at the back of Alf's home, whilst training with his squad in Melbourne .

Around April 1956, Alf stepped up his publicity and an article was published in the Melbourne evening paper, featuring Alf and his interest in fielding a team of women to compete in the 1956 Olympic Games. Alf requested all interested women to attend a trial, to assess their standard and suitably for his plan of forming a women's gymnastics team to represent at the 1956 Olympic Games. This article produced a lot of interest with Victorian Wendy Nicholls, deciding to attend the trial.

Wendy was only 18 when she answered Alf's call and attended the trial to be part of the training squad. Wendy had a strong grounding in calisthenics and was working in a city accounting office, making an evening train trip to Brighton , to attend training sessions.

Seventeen year old student Val Roberts was attending the University of Melbourne , where she was studying to become a Physical Education teacher, when Alf visited the University and invited all first year students to come and trial. Val recalls that due to clashes with her netball training schedule she was unable to attend the trial however after quizzing a few of her fellow students who did attend, was suitably impressed and decided to give it a go. Like Wendy, Val had to resort to a mix of public transport to get to and from her student accommodation in Armadale, to both Beaumaris and Brighton to attend Alf's training sessions.

Fellow Victorian, Barbara Cunningham had been involved in Alf's backyard classes for some time and was an original member of the Society. Barbara had also been heavily involved in a range of other sports, showing particular prowess at both speed skating and kayaking. By early 1956, she was a mother of three and had become an expert on the swinging rings, not an official women's gymnastics apparatus, but one she learnt in Alf's backyard classes.

Barbara, Nelleck, Inge, Wendy and Val; it was this core group of women that showed the most interest and potential in realising Alf's plan of forming a team to represent at the 1956 Olympic Games. Whilst their skill and determination cannot be denied, their journey to Olympic representation was to present far greater challenges than the rigours of Alf's trials and training.