Chairman’s Corner

Roger Parks

Board Chairman and Club President

Brian O’Connor

I was saddened to receive advice recently that Brian O’Connor will not be returning to bowls for health reasons.

Brian was Chairman of the Northbridge Bowling Club for 18 years and oversaw the difficult task of winding up that club. He was instrumental in bringing almost all the Northbridge bowlers to Roseville and many then moved to the Lindfield Rollers.

His friendly manner and skill on the green will be missed.

New Faces

A number of new faces have been seen on the bowling green. These include Cyril Shilansky, Gayle Macready, Vivienne Goodearl, Janice Olverson, Jeff Ware, Rob Van der Wahl, Melanie Rubin, Karin Bendit and Barry Lund.

A very warm welcome to all of you.

Board Arrangements

At the Annual General Meeting held in October the following members were elected to the Board:

Chairperson – Roger Parks

Deputy Chairpersons – Barrie Jones and Gerry Ryman

Treasurer – Ian Kimmorley

Directors – Phil Lewis and Garry Lowder

Gary Forster and Nick Wiener are Board-elected directors and Lorraine Forster is also a director, being President of the Women’s Bowling Club.

Following this year’s AGM, the Board allotted various responsibilities to the Directors and other members. These included:

Joint Bowls Committee

Louse Amos, Lorraine Forster, Phil Lewis (Bowls Secretary), Gerry Ryman and Bob Silversides

Greens and Property

Gary Forster and Barrie Jones

House & Catering

Ian Kimmorley, Nick Weiner and Rob Stutchbury

Social

Garth Aston and Marlene Black

Newsletter and Uniforms

Garry Lowder

The Men’s Bowling Club elected Phil Lewis as Bowls Secretary and Louise Amos, Gary Forster, Ian Kimmorley and Bob Silversides as the other Representative Selectors.

Roseville College @ The Rollers

Over the last few weeks, Year 10 girls from Roseville College have enjoyed an introduction to lawn bowls on Friday afternoons. Gerry Ryman and a team of assistants have enjoyed seeing the girls improve their skills while having fun.

Roger Parks

Chairman

From the Women’s President

Another exciting month for our Women’s section!

Di McBryde, District Vice President, North Shore Women’s District Committee, Billi Maas, District Head of Match and Jen Cox, District Match Committee, attended our club on Saturday 24th September to present the Division 2 Pennant Flag to our winning Pennant Team of Louise Amos, Ngoc Hau, Julie Dunn, Susie Meares, Anne Rands, Janice Crocker, Lap Chen, Lee Gardner, Marlene Black and Jenny Rowland. Congratulations to all the ladies involved! Our Division 2 Pennant Flag is now proudly flying on the flagpole at the Club entrance.

The Division 2 Region play off was held on Sunday 16th October against Dee Why, at Belrose with Belrose claiming the title.

The proud winners of the Division 2 Ladies Pennants for 2022

Congratulations to Louise Amos who won a very tight singles match against Susie Meares to claim the Lindfield Rollers Women’s Major Singles title.

**Louise Amos**

Winner of the Ladies Singles competition for 2022

**Susie Meares**

Runner-up in the Ladies Singles

Congratulations also goes to Susie Meares and Lap Chen who won through to the semi-finals of the District section of the State Women’s Senior Pairs Championship going down by only two shots 16-14 to the Turramurra Senior Pair of Jenny Wallis and Bridget Nelson, who won the District Final.

A Women’s Minor Singles and Women’s Minor Pairs events are currently in progress for the first time in many years. The number of entries has been very encouraging.

Warrawee held a President’s Day Luncheon for Division 9 clubs on September 26, and I was very pleased to be invited. Officials from the District attended with a full room including nine Presidents from the various clubs.

During our AGM, held on October 29, WBNSW Service Awards were presented to Marianne Coningsby, Monika Fluckiger and Margaret Bourke - award for twenty years and Margaret Bloxham - award for ten years.

A Rookies Super Wednesday mixed event was held on Wednesday, 2nd November where our new members had an opportunity to experience playing in all positions of a bowls game. The event was very successful and received many positive comments.

Lorraine Forster

Women’s President

A Word from the Editor

Newsletter Frequency – At its meeting in October the LRBC Board decided that, in the interests of more and better content, the Newsletter frequency would be reduced to Quarterly from the beginning of 2023. This means that the next Newsletter after this one will appear in January, followed then by Newsletters in April, July and October. The success and appropriateness of this change will be reviewed later in 2023.

New Members – As Chairman, Roger Parks, has noted, it is really good to see a healthy flow of new members coming into the club, seventeen in number over recent months. This clearly will be beneficial to the longer term viability of Lindfield Rollers and will add significantly to the regular player base, making the social selectors’ jobs easier. But there is no case for resting on our laurels, as more new members are certainly welcome and will not only add to our talent pool but also increase the diversity of the games we get to play. At the other end of the scale, bowls must be good for longevity, as we have lost very few players in recent times due to ill health, or a more permanent reason for absence.

Christmas is Coming – With the end of the year fast approaching our calendars are becoming a bit crowded, so be sure and mark Sunday, December 11th for our Club’s Christmas Lunch. This will be held at the clubhouse and will be fully catered, with a very tasty buffet planned, commencing at noon. Garth Aston has advised that the delicacies on offer include:

Turkey breast with cranberry and sage stuffing
Carved orange and maple Leg Ham
Salads with home-made vinaigrette
Warm roasted root vegetables
Green beans and almonds
Home style gravy and mustard
Dinner rolls and butter

There will also be four different deserts and coffee/tea.

Drinks will be available from the bar, with wine on offer at $20 per bottle.

This all comes for a bargain price of $70 per person (Club-sponsored). At this stage there are only ten positions remaining so if you have not signed up as yet, don’t delay.

Garry Lowder

newsletter@lindfieldrollers.com.au

Know Your Fellow Bowler

Olivia Wong was born and grew up in Hong Kong, going to school there and obtaining an Honours Diploma. She then went on to Hong Kong Baptist University to complete a Degree in Office Management. While at school she showed her breadth of talent by winning awards for Recitals, Drama and Cheer Team Leadership.

In 1994 Olivia migrated to Australia, where she undertook an MBA degree at the Sydney Graduate School of Management, part of Western Sydney University. For the past twenty one years, Olivia has been employed as an IT Business Consultant/Senior Project Manager by Westpac Bank, where she continues to work. Olivia is one of four siblings, including two brothers (one older, one younger) and a younger sister. They and their mother all still live in Hong Kong, her father having passed away when Olivia was only three years old.

Olivia started playing bowls at the Lane Cove Bowling and Recreational Club in late 2014, where she was taught the skills and finer points of the game by a lovely lady coach. Her allegiance shifted to Lindfield when the merger with Roseville took place and in recent years, she has represented Lindfield in Pennants, as well as qualifying as an Umpire. Olivia is a committed sportswoman, having played volleyball, tennis, badminton and squash at school, while continuing with bike riding, swimming and skiing today. She did try her hand at golf but found that it “wasn’t my cup of tea”. Her other interests are diverse and include travelling, dancing and listening to music, where her tastes spread to wherever her mood takes her, from Classical to Jazz and from Country to Pop, as well as music for dancing. When it comes to food, Olivia’s favourite cuisine is Japanese, although Italian and French food are also in the mix. It is probably safe to assume there are a few Cantonese delicacies in there as well.

Olivia’s sentimental side is expressed in her love of the movie classics such as Gone with the Wind and To Sir with Love, while musicals and stage performances are very much on the agenda as well. Shows such as The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Les Misérables, Grease, Moulin Rouge and Mamma Mia exemplify her eclectic tastes. When it comes to reading, Olivia is also something of a classicist, loving the greats like Pride and Prejudice and Little Women. At university she delved into current affairs magazines, including TIME and Readers’ Digest, and of course consumed the necessary leadership and management texts while doing her MBA. Since those days she has read a number of motivational and self-help books but nowadays Olivia is more into cooking and gardening volumes.

When asked about personal influences in her life, Olivia nominated her late grandmother, who, unlike most Chinese women of her era, was well educated. Grandma Ho Wei Jin played a big role in raising both Olivia and her three siblings, stressing the importance of education, while applying strict but fair discipline, which the Wong kids respected very much. Today, in turn, Olivia is a much-valued and respected member of Lindfield Rollers Bowling Club.

What’s been happening?

Club Competitions

The Club Triples competition was won by Gary Forster, Neil Gosbell and Willie Mok, who defeated Adrian Meredith, Kuzma Petkovic and Ngoc Hau in the final.

Gary Forster, Neil Gosbell and Willie Mok, winners of the Club Triples competition for 2022

Kuzma Petkovic, Adrian Meredith and Ngoc Hau, runners-up in the Club Triples

Other competitions still underway include the Club Fours (nearing completion), the Mixed Pairs and the Club Handicap Triples. The aim is to have all of these outstanding competitions wrapped up by mid-December, in time for the Club Presentation Day, which is scheduled for Saturday, December 17th. Then, as we go into 2023 we will be able to focus on the upcoming Pennants Competition, which will be mixed gender and begins on February 25th, running for the next ten weeks. Selectors are currently assessing the pool of players who have expressed interest in playing Pennants next year, with one Grade 5 and one Grade 7 team the likely outcome.

The Club has been well represented of late in outside competitions, with Julie Dunn and Phil Lewis playing in the State Mixed Pairs, where they struck a particularly tough draw and did not win either of their matches. Also, Louise Amos joined a player from Belrose in that competition, winning one match and losing the other, which meant they did not proceed further.

Lindfield Rollers entered two teams in the Zone Reserve Triples competition, comprising Ian Kimmorley, Bob Silversides and Willie Mok in one, and Gary Forster, Ian Holden and Phil Lewis in the other team. The matches were played at Pittwater memorial Bowling Club on 29 October. Unfortunately, neither of our teams progressed beyond the first round.

Looking ahead …

An interclub match has been arranged against Neutral Bay at Lindfield for Saturday, 19 November. The format and numbers involved are yet to be finalised and the selectors will be conscious of the need to complete our own Club competitions.

A little further down the track, the Roseville Shield is set down for Saturday, December 3rd. It is hoped to have a total of twenty teams competing. As we expect to have only two of our greens operative at the time, there will probably be only four rinks available for social bowls on that day.

A Smile on Your Dial

Amanda says she recognizes me from the Vegetarians Club, but I swear I’ve never met herbivore.
I got some batteries today that were given out free of charge.
Ralph had a photographic memory but it was never fully developed.

Wife: Shall I prepare Curry or Soup today?
Husband: First make it; we’ll name it later.

A married man's prayer :

Dear God,

You gave me childhood, You took it away.
You gave me youth, You took it away.
You gave me a wife ... It’s been years now … just reminding You

Its his first day without Mummy to check his attire, so ….

And while in England …

An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman were walking on a beach debating the relative merits of their respective countries when they came across a bottle, half buried in the sand.

“Let’s take a closer look” suggested the Irishman, who picked up the bottle and rubbed the wet sand off.

Then, POOF, out popped a Genie, who offered each of them one wish.

The Scotsman went first saying, “I’m a fisherman, my dad was a fisherman, his dad was a fisherman and my son will be too. So, I’d like the seas to be full of fish for ever.”

Then, in the blink of an eye and with a loud POOF, the seas were teeming with fish.

The Englishman, who was finding his companions very tedious, was next, saying, “I’d like you to build a wall around the whole of England, protecting her and keeping the dreadful Gaelic riff raff out.”

Another blink of an eye, and POOF, a giant wall appeared, surrounding all of England.

Then the Irishman said, “Mr Genie, I’m curious, tell me about this wall.”

The Genie answered, “it’s 50 m high and 10 m thick.”

“Is it completely sealed, with no gaps?” asked the Irishman, looking thoughtful.

Again, the Genie answered, “oh yes, nothing at all can get in or out.”

“Okay then,” said the Irishman, “fill it up with water.”

A sign of the times …

Finally:

“Gold is money. Everything else is credit.” - J.P. Morgan

Till next time …

November 2022 Newsletter