After earning the Wainfleet Athletic Association title, they defeated Beachville to advance to the intermediate final against St. George, and then having tied that series 1-1, the St. George team defaulted to acclaim the Lighthousemen as champions.
Denied a definitive victory, this crew, described as "rough and ready," faced the Mitchell Hawks for the senior championship in the Port Colborne arena.
They turned in their best performance of the season, "showing sparkling combinations and capitalizing on every scoring opportunity, the Point Abinos overwhelmed the always trying Mitchell Hawks" by a score of 10-3, boasted the newspaper of the day.
Clarence Grimes assembled the team in 1934 from the roster of the Willson hockey team and financed and managed the team to their all-Ontario win two years later.
In 1935 they were beaten in the playoffs, but the next year, Bill Holmes, a star forward with the NHL's New York Americans, coached them to ultimate victory.
The Lighthousemen flirted with disaster as well, when on St. Patrick's Day that year, the roof of the Fort Erie arena collapsed under the weight of an unprecedented snowfall during their scheduled practice time. Fortunately, the snowfall had kept the team away from the rink and no one was in the building.
Bob Grimes, son of the manager, was a young boy at the time and was the team's good-luck mascot. He entertained the crowds between periods by chasing a puck up and down the ice with a stick that was bigger than he was.
He also provided the following memories of the team.
Their flashy uniforms were Toronto Maple Leaf sweaters ordered from the Eaton's catalog. The emblems were taken off and replaced with one designed by Marie Near, wife of one of the players. A Kellogg's Corn Flakes box was used to make the pattern and the felt was stitched onto the sweaters.
Harry Dell helped finance the team and card parties and turkey raffles were organized to that end.
Until the collapse of the arena, the Lighthousemen played indoors and had become accustomed to the hard ice surface. For away games, they often played outdoors on softer natural ice, which sometimes put them at a disadvantage. After the collapse, Port Colborne became their home ice.
Clarence had a brand new 1936 Chevy coach, which he used to transport the players. Equipment, and quite often the stick boys, was hauled in a trailer. Not everyone had a car in those days, so anyone who drove usually took a carload of people.
It wasn't unusual for 2,000 people to watch a game. The whole town of Ridgeway showed up. Holmes was a good coach. He seldom raised his voice. All he had to do was look at someone and they knew what they had done wrong. He was stern, knew hockey and knew how to handle men.
Members of the team were Steve Brodie, Bruce Gorham, Vic Teal, Rolly Zavitz, John Bishop, Harold Huffman, John Guite, Ed Baer, Em Baer, Harold Weary, Joe Dell, and Vin Teal. Earl Michael was the treasurer, and Bill Pietz and John Schooley were stick boys.
Other team members prior to and after 1936 were Pelee Near, Jack Benner, Art Simons, Art Box, Grenville Bailey, Allan Beam, Ed Burger, John Stickles, Vic Lamping, Walt Bailey, Dave Ellsworth, Ray Burger, Stan Box, Ray Burger, Fred Crown and Sherwood Jansen.
