Hockey stalwarts turn 100, 102

ANGELA PIDDUCK

Marjorie Collier, the third president of the TT Women’s Hockey Association (TTWHA), turned 100 on December 29, 2017.

Surrounded by her three children, grand and great-grand children, too many for the still very alert centenarian to have kept count of, Collier was presented with a papal blessing during mass celebrated by her cousin Fr Anthony De Verteuil, at St Mary’s College Chapel, Frederick Street, Port of Spain.

And the first TTWHA president (1955-1963), Floris Jessica Kelshall, an optometrist, celebrated her 102nd birthday last Wednesday, with her three daughters, Kay, Joy and Kimi, six grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. Kelshall, who was married for 57 years to Kenneth, now deceased, is still mobile and full of the joie de vivre she has exhibited throughout her life . After a rip-roaring celebration two years ago on her 100th birthday, this year was more low-keyed.

Kelshall and Collier played hockey for Ventures Ladies Hockey Team and the TT Women’s Hockey Team. However, on marrying Arthur Collier, Marjorie (nee Urich) moved to the Pointe-a-Pierre camp where the couple worked with the Texaco Oil Company.

Says the still mobile and very chatty 100-year-old: “There was no women’s hockey at Pointe-a-Pierre and I would not sit down and do nothing about it so I started the Pointe a Pierre Ladies Hockey Team, which participated in the women’s league in the north, playing home and away games for many years. “I was the manager’s secretary at Texaco, and can truly say that I had a nice busy life.” Today Collier is back where life started, in the north, lovingly cared for by her three children, Ian, Gordon, who lives in Australia, and Carolyn.

Kelshall is the recipient of several sporting accolades as an administrator and national player. She is a Humming Bird Medal silver recipient, was inducted into the West Indian Tobacco Sports Hall of Fame for the administration of hockey, starting with the TT Hockey Federation in 1944, ending in 1963 with the TTWHA.

Kelshall played at inner right on the national team while Collier stood between the uprights in the early inter-colonial competitions for women between British Guiana and TT.