Mooster, Russell, Eight Ball & the DCA Club.

How many of our former Netley employees could confess to spending many hours at the now demolished DCA club, the current site of IKEA.

Lots I would think.

It was the favourite watering hole for Johnny Bryant (Mooster) for decades and he regularly invited his many friends at the Guv to join him on Friday nights for a long session of booze at cheap prices.

Colin Rawlings used to frequent the DCA club regularly and the end of year deli shows were held there on several occasions.

In the 1980s, members of the Netley Printing Office even fielded teams in their 8-Ball competition on Wednesday nights.

Johnny Bryant played for various teams for years, whilst Mike Pearson, Doug Long and Rob Davies formed the nucleus of a team, which I think was called the DOTOPS. Robert Padfield even played for a period of time.

Rod Stone, Russell Wight, Lewis Murray along with a few relatives played one season as TYPE HIGH and after a change of name to RCs, took out the Division 2 premiership and then defeated the Division 1 Premiers to take the overall title.

They were great nights.

Russell Wight is often reminded of the night that Rhonda Wilson beat him to the delight of everyone there.

Rhonda was a great friend and neighbour of John and Margaret Bryant, and probably only ever won one game in her whole career.

Another highlight was the night Mike Pearson only had to pot an absolute certainty on the BLACK to win the game.

He started to celebrate a little too early so Rod Stone picked up the cue chalk and dropped into his beer just before took his shot.

It worked, Mike missed an unmissable shot, and we went on to win the game. Mike’s wife was livid. Winners are grinners.

An unconfirmed story suggested that the day the demolishers moved in to knock down the old DCA club, they had to prise Johnny Bryant off the stool at the bar.

Sojar