Most people once they reach their 90s would want to take a step back from active involvement in sport.
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However, despite being 92 years young Benalla’s Rupe Cheetham has no intention of slowing down.
Having played hockey most of his life it was only a car accident that led to him not signing up to an over-80 Masters Hockey league in the past few years.
However, the sport of life ball has been part of Rupe’s life for 25 years and, despite the Benalla club folding in 2025, he still drives to Wangaratta once a week to umpire and play.
Life ball is an Australian invention, having been developed by Colleen Wilson-Lord in NSW, in 1998.
It’s a modified, low-impact team sport combining elements of netball and basketball, designed to be able to be played by anyone.
Only four years after its invention it arrived in Benalla.
“I started in Benalla in 2002,” Rupe said.
“I was a coach here for 14 years before I went up to play and umpire in Wangaratta.
“I still go up with my friend Pat Menzies every Tuesday.”
The Benalla Life Ball Club was run by U3A, which is how Rupe first got involved.
“A lady in U3A had heard about it,” he said.
“She arranged for Colleen Wilson-Lord to come to Benalla to give us a talk.
“And we knew that Deniliquin had a strong club, so some of their members came down and helped us get started.”
There was about 15 players at the first Benalla Life Ball Club meeting.
“We grew from there,” Rupe said.
“We have what we call fun and friendship days once a year, where other clubs would come along.
“And we would get about 150 people to those.
“Some days we had four courts going.
“And it’s not club against club, all the members are mixed in together.”
Rupe said one of the interesting rules of Life Ball was that players take on every position during a game.
“There are three zones; back, centre and forward.
“So, if you start on the back line you move into the centre in the next game and into the forward line in the one after that.
“So nobody becomes an expert in just one position, everybody does everything.”
Rupe’s love of the sport led to him going to Wagga Wagga to undertake an umpiring course.
“After that Colleen Wilson-Lord asked me to become a ‘Roving Ambassador’,” he said.
“I tripped all around Australia in that role, playing (or umpiring) at over 40 different places.”
Rupe joked that he may well be the most experienced and travelled life ball player in Australia.
Well before Rupe took up life ball, he first moved to the Rose City in 1955 to work at the Country Roads Board.
He would stay in Benalla for several years before moving to Port Moresby, PNG in 1961, then down to Tassie. Rupe returned to Benalla in 1977.
“In Tasmania one of my children ate a lolly which was poisonous,” he said.
“But there was no doctor in the town where we were. After a mad rush to the hospital we decided it was best to move back to Benalla.”
However, Rupe’s love of sport began many years before moving to the north-east.
“At 12 years of age I started playing hockey in Ivanhoe,” he said.
“I played there up to under-16 level then I left Melbourne to play in Albury.”
By this stage, he was living in Benalla where he began to coach the women’s hockey team.
“The women asked if I could get a men’s team together to give them a team to practice against in pre-season,” he said.
Rupe tapped into his contacts to make that happen.
“Two week’s later someone from Shepparton rang me and asked if I could organise a Benalla men’s team (to join the local league),” he said.
“So we started a men’s team, I think that was 1978.”
Once he got to a point he was unable to keep up with the younger players Rupe discovered there was a Masters over-40 Victorian country team.
“I put my name down, went to a practice and scored a goal,’’ he said.
“So I got selected. I then went from over-40s to over-50s, over-60s and over-70s.”
There was a time Rupe was a two-sport man.
Having discovered life ball in 2002, he would continue to play Masters hockey until 2014.
“Last year I heard there was an over-80s team,” he said.
“So I went to my doctor and asked if I could play.”
The doctor initially told Rupe to go ahead, until Rupe disclosed a leg injury.
“I’m part of the astronomy club and one day we’d been out until 3am,“ he said.
“I had a fun and friendship game at Myrtleford the next day.
“The next morning, at 8 o’clock I was driving up there with cruise control on, so I know I was going 100km/h.
“And I fell asleep. I hit a gum tree at 100km/h and smashed my leg up.
“So I was out of action for a couple of years ... And it took four operations to get my leg right.”
It was this injury Rupe told the doctor about.
“By the time I got the information from my doctor they'd selected the team,” he said.
“So I missed out on that one.”
Rupe’s legacy of playing hockey in Benalla, however, has been immortalised, with the hockey pitch at Churchill Reserve bearing his name.
“I still love reading the hockey reports in the Ensign every week.
“I’m happy the club is going strong.”
While Rupe still loves his hockey, he encourages anyone with an interest to get involved with life ball.
“It’s designed to be played by anyone. So no running, it’s all at walking pace,” he said.
“There’s no throwing above your shoulder and it’s completely non-contact.
“It’s called life ball because you’re able to play it for life.”