By Eric Weil

FOR THE HERALD

he Lomas Athletic Club, which has an important place in the history of Argentine sport, recently published a book to celebrate its 115th anniversary last year -Lomas Athletic Club 115 Años,Fundador de Pasiones (Lomas Athletic Club 115 Years, Founder of Passions) in which the history of the club is traced in photographs of teams, sports scenes and its installations more than in a wealth of text. It therefore provides an easier "read" than many books published about clubs' histories.

The club was founded in March, 1891, by pupils and former pupils of the Lomas Academy, but changed its name to the present one two years later. The founding committee were Thomas Dodds -its president for the first three years - James Gibson, John Cowes, R. I. Goodfellow, T. M. Lees and W. W. Hayward and a few of of these sumarnes are still prorninent at the club today.

The sports played at the club, are rugby, field hockey, golf, tennis, cricket and bowls and Lomas AC were among the founding members of the associations of all these sports with the slight exception of field hockey which the men joined two years after the first championship was played in 1908 and the women played in the first women's championship in 1924 under the name of Diamonds. But when the club was founded in 1891, cricket, rugby and soccer were the sports practiced and it is not generally realized that Lomas AC had the country's first great soccer team.

River Plate's "La Maquina" of the 1940s is generally acknowledged as Argentina's greatest club team of the professiona1 era and Alurnni the most famous of the amateur era at the beginning of the 2Oth century. But Lomas were the first dominant team in the 19th century when the game was in its infan cy here and rarely made the news.

Scotsman Alexander Watson Hutton is generally acknowledged as the father of Argentine soccer after founding the English School from which Alumni, composed of his pupils, emerged. But the same time an Engishman, W. W. Hayward, founder of the Lomas Academy, taugh his pupils the game and they later played for Lomas AC

In 1983, the Association Argentine Football League was formed to organize the first official charnpionship that year with six tearns, mostly made up of members from the British Comminity with Lomas AC winning the first title followed by five more in a row. During that time -until 1898 -they were practically uIibeatable as they won 46 of their 60 matches; drawing 11 and losing only three during those six years, according to officia1 records (although the book shows a 47-9-4 record).

A team photo caption of the first champions of 1983 mentions the names of T. Bridge, P. Bridger, A. Buchanan, P.Rath, W Cowes, F. Jacobs, C. Reynolds, F. Carter, G. Leslie, H. Anderson, W. Leslie, L. Nobili and coach  A. Leslie.

Later rugby became the most popular sport at the club and this gradually weakened the soccer team. While they continued playing in the championship for another 11 years, they frequent1y finished in low positions as the opposition was a1so getting stronger with more Argentines taking up soccer. After finishing bottom of the 10-team league in 1909   with a 1-6-11 record, their last appearance was in the first round of the Cópa Competencia knock-out in which Estudiantes (Buenos Aires) beat them by 18-0 ...a sad end to great team tradition.

This soccer history is not all in the book, but I mention it to pinpoint Lomas AC's important contribution to Argentina's most popular game.

But the book also mentions how each of the sports played at the club started in the world and then Lomas' part in it, which really reflects tlie history of these sports in Argentina,

Lomas won the first rugby championship in 1899, their only title so far but after struggling in lower divisions for a number of years , they are now a prominent first division team with  Pablo Gomez Cora representing Argentina at highest level

and his brother Santiago who is the international all time sevens try scorer.

They have been prominet in cricket right from the association's formation in 1913, although as mentioned, they played the game long before that and 13 of its members have represented Argentina.

The club organized the first womens open championship in the country in 1895 at their course in Links while leading Argentine golfer Jose Jurado was the pro there and represented the club, winning the Argentine Open seven times between 1920 and 1931.

Lomas has always been prominent among tbe five c1ubs playing bowls, all in Buenos Aires, and six of its men and women players have played in world championships.

Tennis has had its successes in interc1ub competitions and last year they had 19 teams (both sexes) in different divisions.

But it is field hockey currently bringing the club the most success. While having teams in both the men's and women's Metropolitan first divisions, it is the women who are current champions and who, after taking their first title in 1938, have won other 16 since 1977 which left with nelghbours Qullmes AC as leading title  winners.

 Hockey is undoubtedly the most important sport. Last year the club had 32 teams in diferent divisions with over 500 players. Nineteen of its women players have played for the national team, goalkeeper Mariela Antonyska and Alejandra Gulla becoming world champions and Olympic medal winners.

An interesting note is that F. H. Cheva1lier-Boutell, its third president, held the post for 24 years (1894-1918) and on the whole, there have been few changes. Robin Stuart held the position for 12 years, John C. Rodman for 20 and Alberto Echeverria, the first criollo, in 1974, for 10. Patrick Campbe1l is the current president. This indicates a certain settled atmosphere.

Yet the club has not settled on its achievements.

Apart from the central insta1lations on Arenales Street near the centre of Lomas de Zamora, they have playing fields in Longchamps and a golf course at Links, but found that this separation at three different venues has caused the farnily group to disperse, increased costs and even decreased membership. The book explains their 21st Century Project of building a country club on 12 hectares next to the Links golf course which conveniently has Links railway station (on the Roca 1ine) next to it. There 85% of the space wi1l be devoted to recreational activities -four rugby fields, a hockey sta- dium, six tennis courts and space for bowls and cricket. There wi1l also be 90 plots of land of 1,000 square metres looking onto the golf course.

The current insta1lations on Arenales Street will be used for training of sports teams during the week, the use of the indoor swimming pool and social events ...an ambitious project by an ambitious club of which the district should be proud, not only for its sporting successes.