History about who our pavillion is named after from his daughter Dawn Dickson….the club is proud to say that the pavillion still has Robert Bell’s name on it..
The pavilion at Noble Park is named after my dad, Bob Bell. I think his name is still on it! Councils have a tendency to take signs down. Dad was the voluntary care taker of the grounds through the years of the fifties and sixties. He was also on the Arena Square committee ( as it was known when the grounds were being established for footy and cricket – before it was given to the council).
My father rode his push bike from Noble Street to Moodemere Street and back every day through hot summer months to water. He would walk the bike back up the steep hill on the way home. The cricket wicket took a lot of his time. As kids we spent a lot of time there with him. There was an itinerant spud picker called Old Bill who lived at the back of the change rooms year after year, for months on end. And other people camped there on and off.
This photo was taken at a picnic at the footy club, around the time dad had been erecting fence around the ground. It would have been in the late 40s or so, and ever the gentleman, my dad is wearing a tie, and it looks like sipping some sherry or wine from little glasses, carried there in his leather case.
Some people think the pavilion was named after my brother Robert (Bob) Bell who played footy at Noble Park on and off through the 60s and 70’s before and after he played at Sth Melbourne, but it was definitely named after our dad, Bob Bell, who had also played there during and after WW2 and who, along with others, who kept the club going for many years.