February 3, 2012

Hi Sherro !!

Moved to Sydney during last year and now living in the CBD after retiring at the end of 2011 !! after 51 years in Education -- was a great colleague of Steve Salamon as we played many carnivals with him when I was at NP club !!

Living in the city near our daughter I looked for a bowling club that was handy to public transport --chose Balmain --oldest in Australia --(1880 ).Small --only 2 teams !

Bowls here really opened my eyes !!!

Thought you readers may be interested in some things I have noticed to date !!

There are 577 clubs in NSW.

State divided in 16 zones . Zones have their winners in each grade.

Then they have state play-offs to find the State Grade 1--7 Winners and Runners-up!

These are pools 0f 16 and can be played anywhere in the state !-over a number of days! Country towns are very strong !

Pennants - surprise are only played over 10 weeks --no more ?? --no mid-week pennants !!- They start beginning of March - then play-offs !

Lots of time for inter-club visits --club events etc,. Barefoot bowls is huge --they get upwards of 100 to come to play-- big bonus for all clubs !!

Notice in my club they had a Summer Shield over 5 weeks - teams of pairs,triples and fours ! All games are 3 rinks only !!

They have never heard of Scroungers -- which apparently started in WA over 40 years ago !--surprised me -- as I loved playing it !!

High Schools competition is well entrenched !!

Am enjoying less bowls -- maybe in WA need to consider----\" less - is - more \" -- or less ??

It keeps raining all the time here --wonder when they play -- looks like I have to leave my Dockers and support the Rabbitohs !!

As well as my cheerio to Steve --thanks to Frank McGrath for the help at NP whilst I was there and other colleagues I knew on the green!!!

Hope to get back to you after the pennant season here !

Happy bowling WA __Bert Kralevch -- -- hope some readers find the comments of interest !!!

Bert Kralevch