Bowls Update Jan 2023
CLUB AMALGAMATION
We’ve had 2 meetings with our Club President Greg Stephenson, Women’s President, Helen Miller, Women’s Secretary, Kaye Taylor and myself regarding the structure of the bowls operations at Windang. These have included topics such as Constitution and By-Laws, Committees, Roles and Responsibilities, Membership Fees, Prize Money….and the list goes on.
To help us run our bowls at Windang, our By-Laws currently have a list of Bowls Policies attached to them. These By-Laws and the Policies will be reviewed and amended to incorporate all the changes required to run our bowls smoothly, as an amalgamated organisation well into the future. A list of our current By-Laws and policies can be found on our website at Club By Laws and Policies.
At this stage, we’ll complete the 2022-2023 bowling season as it is now, update the By-Laws and Policies and have the new structure in place at the next AGM.
ZONE REPRESENTATIVES
Congratulations to Blake Perry, Zoe Davies & Daniel Doyle. Zoe and Blake were selected to play for the Illawarra Zone 16 Junior side to play in the Junior Metropolitan Shield held at St John’s Park. Well done Illawarra, they certainly showed their dominance, winning the shield decisively. Daniel Doyle was selected to represent Illawarra Zone 16 under 25 shield squad, also playing at St John’s Park. The lads were looking at finishing in a strong position however, play was abandoned due to the rain. Congratulations Zone 5 for taking out the shield.
Illawarra Zone 16 Junior Metropolitan Shield Squad at St John’s Park.
Illawarra Zone 16 U25 Shield Squad at St John’s Park.
63RD SOUTH PACIFIC CARNIVAL
Congratulations to all of our bowlers who took part in the Illawarra Zone 16 South Pacific Carnival recently. This year saw the Carnival at Figtree Sports. A very successful Carnival and all credit to Figtree Sports for the way it was run. Windang was proud to assist as well, providing green space over fours days.
Congratulations to the winners and of course to our own dynamic duo, Judith Mitrevski and Daniel Doyle, taking out the Mixed Pairs discipline. Well done!
All results can be found on the Illawarra Zone 16 Website
63rd South Pacific Mixed Pairs Winners – Daniel Doyle & Judith Mitrevski.
ILLAWARRA CAMPIONSHIPS
The Illawarra Qualifying for the Men’s State Fours, Men’s Senior Fours, and Open Reserve Fours are now closed. We had 6 teams enter into the events, and the draw should be out shortly. I believe Windang will be hosting the Reserve Fours. This may mean there will be limited rink space available on the allocated weekends. Especially with Green 1 still out of action. The Singles nominations are now up on the Notice Board. Get your names in if you intend to play.
In the recent Illawarra Women’s District Association Minor Singles Championship, we had 2 entries. Carol Swan and Judith Mitrevski. Carol just going down in a close game to Lyne Hayes from Figtree Sports with a score of 22-25. Judith Mitrevski continued her success from the recent South Pacific Carnival, taking out the IDWBA 2022/23 Minor Singles title against Julie Harvey from Kiama in the final. Congratulations to all!
Results can be found on the IDWBA website.
IDWBA 22-23 Minor Singles Winner Judith Mitrevski, with Runner Up, Julie Harvey (Kiama)
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
We’re now down to our Major and Minor Singles Finalists. In the Major Singles, Grant McGarry faces off against Paul Cable. The date scheduled for this match is Saturday 4th February at 10:00am. The marker will be last year’s winner Rick Malley. The date for the Minor Singles has yet to be scheduled. John Hull up against Wolfram Thiele. The previous year’s winner, Chris Bradley will be marking that one.
The remainder of the Club Championships – Mixed Pairs, Major Minor Pairs and Senior Pairs have all been drawn. Draws available on our website under Club Championships or on the Notice Board at the Club.
Windang Women’s Club 2022-23 Minor Singles Final is scheduled for tomorrow morning (Thurs 2nd Feb) at 9:30am.Show your support for our bowlers and get on down to Club Windang! Our Women’s Minor Singles finalists are – Jan Thompson and Judith Mitrevski.
OPEN PENNANTS
A/P PENNANT TRIAL
Thank you to our bowlers who participated in the recent Pennant Trial against Albion Park, and of course thank you to Albion Park for the competition and the hospitality.
2 Grades over at the Park and 3 grades at home, including an in-house trial between 2 grades.
PENNANT GRADES
Our Open Pennant grades will be G1, G3, G4, G5, G6, G7.1, G7.2. 84 bowlers are required, and we have 128 bowlers who have indicated their intention to play pennants this season. 93 men and 35 women. The selectors will meet early next week to finalise the teams. I believe there are still a few names to go on the list as well! Another trial is scheduled against Bellambi on Sat 18th Feb. Grades 4 and Grades 6 (24 players). The teams will be finalised by then so we’ll expect those teams to play in the trial. The venue was going to be Windang but we’ll see how many rinks are required once the Zone Reserve Fours draw comes out.
Selecting the pennant teams this year won’t be an easy task for the selectors. Just to get an idea of what’s in store for them, have a go yourself. Go to the Selectors Resource page and click on the “Pennant Player List” and come up with your pick of the top 84 players to represent the club in the Open Pennant season……….easy right!
PLAYER UNAVAILABILITY
It is very important that players inform the selectors if they are unavailable for any particular rounds, especially prior to the initial team selections. There’s a sheet on the Notice Board with all the rounds and dates. Players should write their name on the unavailable dates. This is then updated to the website where selectors have access to all the relevant information. This can be found on the “Selectors Resources” page. This page can be viewed by players and selectors, so for obvious reasons it contains no personal information. The selectors can easily access relevant information with a mouse click…..or two.
2022-2023 OPEN PENNANTS WEB PAGE.
This page contains everything that you’ll need to know about pennants. State & Zone Open Pennant Info, Selectors Resources, Pennant Player Roles, Conditions of Play, Club Selection Policy, Open Pennant Important Dates, Pennant Draws, Teams for each round, Results and Team Performance. Any text in blue will have a link attached.
Remember the little cards that fit in your wallet? The ones that let you know wether you were playing at home or away. Click on “Club Draws” and you’ll get a digital version you can screen shot and save to your device.
DON’T KNOW WHAT YOUR ROLE IS IN THE PENNANT TEAM?
Click on the “Pennant Player Roles” get get an idea of what you and your team mate(s) should be doing when you play pennants.
Old mates conducting a post mortem of the recent pennant trial over a few ales.
WHAT’S NEXT?
With the amalgamation of the Men’s and Women’s Bowling Clubs, many things are bound to change. For some of us, it will be difficult to accept.
Sometimes we can get caught up in the resistance to change and end up attacking the old, trying to get people to drop it to move on. But we will get much better results if we focus on communicating the new benefits, letting them know what’s in it for them and why it is a good thing to do. It’s much easier to motivate people towards a better situation than pull them from the old ways.
Thank you everyone for your support. Looking forward to a great future at Windang!
Cheers Dave.