Thousand-Game Milestone for Stuart Beltz

Published Wed 04 Jun 2025

This past weekend at the Aurora Energy Tasmanian Hockey Centre saw Stuart Beltz play his 1,000th game with the DiamondBacks Hockey Club. Stu began his playing career in Under 13s back in 1978 and he went on to play at the highest level in Club, Masters, State and National competitions. He has served his club as a junior coach, senior coach, president and vice president and continues to be a great contributor to not only DiamondBacks but the entire Tasmanian hockey community.

Stuart Beltz first started playing in Under 13s in 1978 as a ring in from his Mount Stuart Primary School Principal and coach Bernie Gillon - one of the great hockey enthusiast families.

Whist watching his older brother play in U15s at Prince of Wales Bay, Stuart was asked to play as the Under 13s division 2 were short. His first coach for the club was Arnold McShane whose son Matthew was in the same team and would become a lifelong friend of Stuart.

The teams Stuart played in for his junior years were starved of success, within a strong competition, and his first premiership came about in Under17s in 1983, but along the way he would be coached by some great mentors in Wayne Smith, Peter Shea and Leigh Grining.

Missing a season in 1984 Stuart returned in 1985 playing in 2nd Grade with coach David Skinner and subsequently played in 1st reserve and then debuted in A Grade in 1986, the same year winning the A Reserve Best and Fairest.

Stuart was in the first Tas Institute of Sport squad in 1987 and 1988 and played against USA in a curtain raiser for a Kookaburra Test match for the TIS. Stuart’s first State level competing was U21's in 1988 in Hobart held during his engineering exams.

Stuart would play A Grade until the late 2000s winning 6 Best and Fairest awards along the way. Settling into A Reserve, Stuart would win his 4th Best and Fairest some 23 years after his first. He also coached A Grade for 8 seasons in three stints.

Stuart played one season of AHL for the Tassie Tigers in 1995, finishing the last game the day before Josh was born.

Stuart was eligible for master's and played in 2004, winning the Best and Fairest in that year and the following. The team would also win Masters back-to-back premierships, a personal drought for flags for 21 years was broken. Highlights include playing alongside fellow 1000 game players Bob Harris, Peter Holmes and Stephen Oliver.

Recovering from a serious knee injury in 2008 Stuart would then spend near on a decade playing 2nd grade alongside many of his best hockey friends including Stephen Oliver, Stuart Robertson and Tim McCrae. However, premierships would illude him through injury and University's golden run of grand final wins. Stuart would win five Masters Best and Fairest awards during that time.

Stuart's last season in A Reserve (now 1st Grade) was 2016 where he won the prestigious "Black Rat" Award.

Stuart has played many grades since 2016 including 3rd and 4th grade, winning the 2024 Premiership alongside long-time friends and teammates Stephen Oliver and Scott Thompson.

Stuart played for Tasmania Masters winning Bronze in Hobart (2012) and Perth (2014), winning Silver for South Australia in Bunbury / Busselton (2019), and winning Gold in Hobart in the over 50s (2024) including three Player of the Championships in his age group. Many of these occasions was with club teammates Stephen Oliver, Gary Street, Steven Welch, Stuart Norris and Marty Bissett.

Internationally in Masters Stuart played O'45s in the first Masters World Cup in Canterbury England in 2012 winning Bronze, Trans-Tasman Masters Gold in Melbourne in 2015 winning Gold, and as Co-captain in his second World Cup in Barcelona Spain in the 2018 O'50s.

Highlights are undoubtably playing along his long-time friends for Club, State, and Internationally - and of course, continuing to enjoy quality hockey.