Banks won an unprecedented 11 Waterloo Cups as either the breeder and/or trainer. One of these Waterloo Cup winners, Sylvan Prince also won three country cups and was runner-up to the immortal Temlee in the 1974 Maturity Classic. “He left nothing to chance in the preparation of a coursing greyhound. And he gave plenty of thought to breeding,” said incumbent NCA president Tony Mills, who was 10 years old when he started walking greyhounds with Banks. “I picked up a lot of things from Noel, from both a training and administrative perspective.”
Banks devoted a lifetime to sport but particularly to his first passion, coursing. Banks became a member of the NCA executive in 1955, representing the Tynong Coursing Club. He commenced as NCA secretary in 1969, initially for a three-month period, but stayed in the position for 17 years.
B efore joining the NCA, Banks was one of the original directors of the Melbourne Greyhound Racing Association (MGRA) and was appointed to the Greyhound Racing Control Board (GRCB) in 1964, which he served with distinction for 24 years. “Noel was proactive and always searching for ways to improve coursing. He was a deep thinker, and he didn’t want his name up in lights,” Mills said. “And he wouldn’t stand for any skulduggery. He was straight down the line and kept a lot of people honest.”
In addition to his work in greyhounds, Banks was a Justice of the Peace and a committeeman of the Bendigo Coursing Association. For 10 years he was president of the Kyneton Shire, the government nominee on the Kyneton Water Trust and a member of the Kyneton Sewerage Authority. He was also president of the Kyneton Football Club for six years, president of the Bendigo Football League for 14 years and president of the Victorian Country Leagues Association for six years, and acted as president and treasurer of the Kyneton Golf-Bowling Club.
Noel Banks was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1986. He passed away in November 2001, aged 80.
