I have just read a book about woman's hockey called Queens of The Ice by Carly Adams.
I appreciate her efforts regarding woman's hockey and the team she featured, that being the Preston Rivulettes of the 1930 era.
Since I am Hilda Ranscombe's niece I feel the need to make some corrections.
I not only have copies of the newspaper articles written at the time of the games and I also have heard stories from both Hilda and Nellie about many things from the beginning of their hockey career such as the day Nellie and Helen Schmuck sat on the curb at the hotel trying to decide if they should go in and talk to Fanny (Bobbie) Rosenfeld.
They did go in and she encouraged them to form a team and they did. It was most of the ball players team they belonged to who became the Preston Rivulettes.
For posterity's sake, I feel that these errata should be corrected.
I'm Hilda & Nell's niece: Elizabeth (Betty) Barnes (nee Ranscombe) of Preston, now Cambridge, Ontario.
Claim: pg. 13 Hilda was born in 1917 in Preston Ontario
Fact: She was born September 11, 1913 in Doon Ontario, now part, of Kitchener Ontario.
Claim: pg 15 Hilda went to a pond near her home by the Rocks Springs
Brewery
Fact: Hilda practiced at Klotz Dam (aka Cressman pond) on Laurel Street near her home.
Claim: pg 20 She helped with household chores and taking care of her
younger brothers and sisters
Fact: As per pg 13, Hilda was the youngest of nine children
Claim: pg 16 The girls heard that sports writer Alexandrine Gibb was
staying in town at the Kress House Hotel
Fact: It was Fanny (Bobbie) Rosenfeld who was the sports writer
for the Toronto Globe and Mail and was staying at the Kress
House Hotel.
Claim: Pg 37 it was a benefit game to raise money for the Rivulette's
goalie Helen Schmuck who was confined to her home with an illness
Fact: As stated on pg 19, Nellie Ranscombe, Hilda's sister, was goalie. Sisters Helen and Marm Schmuck were forwards.
Claim: pg 93 Ruth Dargel - she had four older brothers.
Fact: Ruth had one brother, Ralph, who was about four years older.
Claim: pg 92 Ruth Dargel played her first game with the Rivulettes hockey squad on February 5 1938 she was only 16 years old.
Fact: Ruth was only 13 years old and at this date she is still living in Kitchener Ontario.
Claim: pg 13 They played about 100 games and lost only 2 of them
Fact: They played 350 games and lost only 2 of them.
They spent three days on the train heading to Edmonton and most of them arrived sick with the flu but still got on the ice on arriving.