Peg Curtis: Shepparton’s all-singing, all-dancing all rounder

Curtis may have died on December 6; aged 93; but she lives on through her incomparable legacy of achievement.

And not just personal achievement. No; Curtis would also prove to be a saviour for local sport off the field as well as on.

While still competing she freely gave her own time to pull the local softball competition back from the brink of collapse. When her children took up netball there were no coaches. Enter Curtis, self-taught netball coach (and then player).

Yet despite all that success, those decades of dedication and a total dominance of any sport she would take up and turn into her own, there was a loser here. Terrie Crozier was the collateral damage of Curtis the superstar.

Crozier still gets a laugh out of how her mother’s reputation not just preceded her everywhere she went, it almost began to define her.

“Having a mother as good at sport as her, that was the hard part. When I’d try and play table tennis, people would say ‘you’re Peg Curtis’ daughter, you’ll be good at it. But I wasn’t. I was a tennis player,” Crozier explained.

“But when I played tennis, people would again say, ‘oh, you’re Peg Curtis’ daughter’,” she added.

“You could not escape it; not ever.”

That’s unfortunate, but also understandable; because ‘it’ was something only a very few chosen are handed.

‘It’ was a cloud of expectation hanging over your head; a genetic expectation that anything mum could do, you could do better.

That’s what life was like as Peg Curtis’ child.

Born Margaret Hope Cruse; to an English mother and Welsh father; Curtis grew up an Aussie, a fair dinkum denizen of Ardmona; and the queen of the round ball game.

Whether it was softball, netball, squash, tennis, golf – you name it, she mastered it. But table tennis is where Shepparton’s sporting doyenne would stamp her mark for all time.

Crozier knows better than most it did not matter what game, or level she was playing, her mother always brought her A-game and delivered like a true professional.

Asked to pin down ‘the’ moment of watching ‘it’ in action, Crozier could not split them.

“Oh; that’s hard (to choose), there are so many memories,” she said; reflecting on the endless highlights of her mother’s sporting career,“ Crozier said.

“But maybe I think it was when she won the table tennis state championship – that was possibly the first time I really got it all; it suddenly made me realise just how good she was.

“She travelled to Albert Park in Melbourne all week for the championships, and it was the only time she was ever away from us through sport,” Crozier said.

“We never felt like she wasn’t by our side, and I think that’s why that memory sticks out to me so much.”

A Curtis trademark was commitment – whenever she picked up a sport, she never put it down.

A commitment that came at a cost – the cost of expectation, the same challenge her daughter would face in the years to come.

Crowned Shepparton’s tennis, squash and table tennis champion; she couldn’t help herself in golf either; landing its holy grail with a hole-in-one. And then did it again because, after all, she was Peg Curtis.

She reigned as Victoria Country netball coach and representative softball mentor. And Peg wasn’t just there to play for the love of the game - Peg was there to win.

“It didn’t matter what we did – even if it was cards – she wanted to win. Mum taught us very early on we had to earn it if we were to beat her,” Crozier said.

“There was never any of what I call ‘medals for mediocrity’.

“She was a hard mum; but she brought us up really well, her and dad.”

When it came to hand down the champion’s baton to her children Terrie, Robyn and Peter, the hard exterior vanished.

What took its place was a kind curiosity and desire to learn, coupled with an almost unbelievable capacity to help fulfil her children’s dreams.

Crozier remembers the time she first picked up a netball at St Georges Road Primary School; there was no coach and not a lot going on in terms of a way forward.

“I went home and told mum we didn’t have a coach, and to that she said she didn’t know much about the sport,” Crozier recalled.

“So I told her she was going to have to learn.

“From memory I think she went straight to the library and learnt about how to coach netball from books; it went from there and soon she was our coach.”

Curtis’ curiosity didn’t stop at netball.

Funnily enough, when Shepparton Softball Association teetered on the edge of folding, it coincided with the one time Crozier wanted to try her hand at the sport.

Softball was on life-support and was still fading fast.

Enter Peg Curtis.

“Straight away mum went out and found another lady to be president, she was treasurer and when Margo Koskelainen came on board as secretary; the three of them resurrected the SSA,” she said.

“That was all simply because I wanted to play.”

That was the kind of woman Curtis was.

On the field she was never going to be your friend until after the final buzzer.

Despite that she had that certain something which inspired teammates to deliver their best – and would try any trick in, or not in, the book to pry the killer approach from them.

Her aura of drive and success made Curtis a beacon of excellence for those who ever crossed paths with her.

“If one of her teammates was giving 100 per cent but still wasn’t playing well, mum would say ‘okay, let’s fix it’,” she said.

“Mum was like a sponge when it came to coaching and/or playing. She always kept her principles; she never asked us to do anything she wouldn’t do herself.

“She was just an incredible woman.”

And an incredible woman; with, as it turns out, an equally incredible sense of humour.

Her wit and banter could easily entertain a crowd, such as when Shepparton full forward Rick Coates had a torrid game, struggling to hold marks; a frustration which finally defeated him as he stormed off the field, red faced and distraught.

Curtis belted from the grandstand: “If that’s the best you can do Coatsie, come and sit on the bench where you belong”.

The next moment a drink bottle was hurled in her direction by Coates, only to strike some unsuspecting spectator in the second row.

So while time may have finally failed her, it did very little to slow her down through her life journey.

A game of table tennis between Crozier and Curtis was often joked about; until it wasn’t funny, it was a showdown.

A showdown between a 51-year-old all-conquering veteran of the table top game and her confident 25-year-old daughter.

Confident enough her age and fitness would carry her through, so much so that she couldn’t resist throwing down the gauntlet to Curtis.

“Well, she ran me up and down the court, side to side – she thrashed me nine love, nine love without moving from the centre,” Crozier said.

“After that I said I’d never play again.”

Exit Peg Curtis.