The 2025 Rob Hancock Memorial

“…yet these same men labour at things which they know will not profit them in the least. He plants the trees to serve another age. “Caecilius Statius (c. 220-166 BCE) 

For his part of the players meeting for the Rob Hancock Memorial this year, Kim Holmes, the man who introduced Rob to flying discs back in 1978, mentioned some of the big trees that guard the baskets around the 36 year old course. He made the simple point that when Rob himself was playing object golf in the park in the early 1980’s, most of these trees were just saplings growing next to stakes in the ground. We never know what big things can grow from the little things we start.

The Hancock family have always supported the event. In the early years it was Rob’s Mum and Dad, Sam and Margaret. Since their passing it’s been Rob’s nephew, Dave Taylor, who has found a love for the game and was competing this year with his neighbour and good mate, Ben Edmonds. Dave read from an article written in 1984 by James Bellesini about Rob, in Vol.1 of ‘Chuckin’ Up’ – the new  WAFDA magazine. It was a bit pf a piss-take on the vacuum that Rob was going to leave in the Perth scene as he’d been transferred to teach in Bunbury. The piece compared him to a religious deity and was called ‘Life After Hancock’.  

“So is the legend of Hancock the Messiah. The spirit the essence of flight manifested in the form of a man. Sent by the almighty omniscient being – Kim Holmes – to spread the good news of the disc. The messiah has passed on to greener pastures to continue the word and it is now up to those of us left here to keep disc ALIVE.”  

Eerily prophetic of course, given Rob’s untimely passing in 1984. But also heartwarming in knowing that, here in this park, more than 40 years later, ‘disc’ is alive and well. Those of us who have been custodians of the tournament inevitably worry about who will carry it on when it comes time for us to move on to other things. So it’s been satisfying to see in recent times, the torch being passed so well. This year was Joey Darbyshire’s turn and he didn’t just pick up the torch, with the help of Knher Santos they sprinted off with it in a completely new direction, solving one of the looming problems for the event – that of it outgrowing Cockman Park. Spreading the course over to nearby Pennistone park (which is just 400m walk away), was a genius idea and allowed for the creation of 20 holes and a field of 80.  

The tournament slotted neatly into a fine, relatively warm window in between two cold fronts beginning the rainy season here in Perth and so we had sunny but breezy conditions all day.

The Rob Hancock memorial shield is awarded to the best performed 40 and over player on the day so all eyes were on MP40 at the start, with the occasional glance at MA40 in case someone from the Turkey Trio of Matt Beard, Brad Curran or Dave Briggs sneaks through. Chris Finn had the best morning round, coming in at 6-under-par and 3 strokes ahead of Patrick Willson, with a pack of Dave Bandy, Paul Noesen and Ken Summers a couple of strokes further back. That’s right – Dave Bandy was back after barely touching a disc in the last few years and right in the mix. The Turkey Trio were right there as well at only 2 and 1 under.  

In the afternoon round though, Patrick Willson made his move – shooting 8-under for the last 11 holes, taking advantage of the longer and more open layout at Pennistone to shoot 9-under-par for the second round pull away to a 3 stroke lead over Chris Finn. Bandy and Noisey both shot 6-under par for the second 20 too, doing enough to keep any of the MA 40 crew, particularly Matt Beard (who was in the top four on paper at one point), out of the final.  

Patrick dropped a stroke to the card on the first of the four hole playoff to open a tiny window for Finny to maybe sneak through – but he was rock steady after that and had the luxury of laying up and tapping in for the win at the end.