Karl Dix
Karl Dix "Dixie" - Retired from playing every year since 2004!
Club: Southern Districts Rugby Union Club
Vic Masters 5 Nations Team: Brittle Lions
Position: No 8 or Flanker or any other position these days to get a game.
Rugby:
Dixie’s rugby passion started when he was about 6 years old in the rugby crazy town of Gloucester in England. Most Junior rugby was played at schools in the 60’s & 70’s because rugby was mainly the No 1 sport in the city.
At 19, Dixie joined The British Army where he played more sport then being an actual soldier!
He represented his Regiments and Corp at Rugby and Football (soccer) & whilst serving in Northern Ireland he played a few games for Malone RFC in Belfast.
When Dixie left the forces in 1987, he was asked by one of his workmates to join local team Widden Old Boys where he played for 2 seasons.
In 1989, Dixie was asked to play for Stroud RFC where he made the 1st team squad and played his best rugby against some tough sides including current English Premiership sides, Gloucester, Worcester & Exeter.
His claim to fame during this time was to hold the tops point scoring figures for Stroud with close to 300 points in 1 season whilst playing at 8! hence his “Nickname” at the time of “ZinZan” after Zinzan Brooke who also liked to kick a few points! he was and still is one of his hero’s of the game.
During his time at Stroud, Dixie coached both his sons, Ashlee & Ryan and was also an active member of the clubs committee including a stint at Junior President.
In 2001, (aged 41) Dixie moved to Gloucester All Blues Rugby Club to continue playing 1st team rugby and even had a season as player/coach where he was joined by Ashlee (aged 17).
In 2005, (aged 44) Dixie finally retired from 1st grade rugby when he was offered a Work transfer to Australia.
On arrival in Melbourne, the Dixie’s settled in Mornington. Dixie searched the Web looking for a local club to join. He came across Southern Districts who had a masters team playing and went to Endeavour Hills in game day to find them, but to be told that they had a bye due to changes to the fixtures.
Whilst standing around there wondering what to do, a few of the Quins boys came over and asked if he was looking for a game, loved playing alongside these guys so much that he stayed with Quins for the season.
In 2006, after also playing for Souths in the prior season and making some great friends along the way, he transferred to Souths. Over the next 12 years, Dixie has not only been a masters player, he coached the U18’s to a flag, held positions on the club committee, Club President and even pulled on the boots to play 3rds & 4ths.
He has played in 4 Australian Masters Games with a mixture of Masters legends in the 35’s & 45’s competitions winning 4 gold medals, 2 Silver and 1 bronze along the way.
In 2008, Dixie took up the whistle and is still an active Level 2 referee which he managed to fit in between playing for Souths and the Brittle Lions.
In 2018, Dixie reckons that he has retired again, but we will wait until the season starts to see if that’s true.