Regional teams from across Queensland arrived at the Toowoomba Showground on a Friday afternoon, excited and eager to compete in the 11th Junior High School Boys State Championship and play and watch ‘good football’. The opening games would be played under lights, something the children loved to experience. But that was not to be. Toowoomba’s cozy atmosphere that night was terrifying and downright dangerous.
Before the championships could begin, a visiting officials’ conference was held. After completing all the paperwork; Accommodations were arranged and printed programs distributed, Darling Downs organizing officials informed visiting officials that a bus was not being accommodated to transport the two teams. However, no driver was assigned or provided to transport players to and from a hostel outside Toowoomba during the course of the championships. The championship coordinator asked if any visiting officials had a bus license. A teacher trainer indicated that he did have that license. He was asked if he would drive the bus since one of the teams was, in fact, his team. So he drove the bus that was carrying his team, Brisbane South, and the Gold Coast team. If he had known what awaited him that first night, he certainly would not have volunteered.
The opening night of the carnival, which was played at the Toowoomba Show Grounds, was a night of extremes. Toowoomba at best in winter at night is a very cold place in Queensland. Before the first game of the night, the weather turned nasty. As night approached, the temperature dropped rapidly and when the siren sounded, it was bitterly cold. But that was not all. A thick fog then enveloped the field so much that the referees could not see the goals at either end while standing in the timekeeper’s room in the center wing. They only knew a goal had been scored when the ball bounced down the middle. The way players managed to keep up with the game was also a miracle.
. A teacher remembers this about these championships.

Toowoomba showed very little mercy towards the game with a winter spell that had the Show Grounds covered in thick fog for most of the game. There are numerous stories of one of the umpires running near the coaches’ boxes and advising the teachers/coaches to head to the far wing where a player had been injured for most of the quarter.

The fog was so thick that no one could see the injured player. He was seriously injured. But he has a great story to tell his grandchildren.

Obviously, refereeing such a game was not the easiest task. On that first night, the two referees were able to control the game with great difficulty until the lights went out. But the weather deteriorated even more!
This fog was followed by a violent and windy rain storm that hit the fairgrounds. Light towers at fairgrounds were connected by long dipping power lines. As lightning and thunder abounded during the storm, the wind grew stronger to gale-force proportions. This caused the electric light wires between the poles to sway randomly. Sparks began to fly when the wire touched. Eventually, when they got really entangled, they merged the entire system. The fairgrounds were left in total darkness. The rest of the games scheduled for that night were postponed, since it was not possible to repair the lighting system until the storm abated.
The drama did not end there. The nominated bus driver had to transport him and the Gold Coast team to his hostel after the games were abandoned. Driving the bus through a violent storm on an unknown and winding mountain road turned out to be a great feat of human endeavour. He was forced to drive very slowly and carefully given his responsibility to make sure both teams of teenagers arrived safely. Sometimes the visibility was so poor; He had to get off the bus to see if he was on the way! On one occasion, he had to dodge a fallen tree. Every time the Toowoomba championship is mentioned, he reminds the audience of him that his experience that night was one of the most traumatic experiences of his life.

Despite that night and the need for some teams to play two games the next day, the championship was a great success. The championship ended on a high note for the Darling Downs supporters when their team won their first championship game on the final day of the championship.