Meet the Mandurah APL Teams: Gnowangerup
Played Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th September 2016 The town of Gnowangerup will be represented for the first time at the Mandurah APL Cup with the bowling club having accepted their invitation to compete.
The town site of Gnowangerup was first surveyed for development in 1905. The name of the town comes from the local Indigenous word Ngow which means mallee fowl. Much of the region’s early history was built upon the timber industry with the local colonisation starting with lumber camps to take advantage of the area’s abundance of sandalwood. A minor boom occurred during the economic depression of the 1870s when the industry created work. Now days much of the town’s industry comes from agriculture in particular grain and sheep. In particular Merino sheep make up much of the shire’s livestock. The region was also used as a hunting ground by the Goreng Noongar people.
Despite the departure of many men on active service the Gnowangerup Bowling Club was formed in 1941 to be one of four country clubs formed during the Second World War years. Many more bowling clubs were to follow in the post-war boom era of 1945-1963 during which a League restructure was proposed to deal with the extra bowling clubs in the country regions. Gnowangerup would become part of the newly formed Central Great Southern League which would later be restructured again to be now known as the Central Stirling Bowling League. With 2 synthetic bowling greens and a reasonably stable membership of 44 men and women, the Gnowangerup Bowling Club continues to be a central part of the Gnowangerup town and surrounding community.
Gnowangerup bring an experienced side to Mandurah ready to show the value of that experience in the short format of the game. Their side is made up Arthur Crabbe, John Dye, Karen Dye and Kevin Heberle.
Arthur Crabbe boasts one of the competition’s more stacked résumés. The 34 year veteran has been one of the Western Australian country’s better players over a long period of time. To go with his innumerable inter-league and inter-zone round robin appearances Crabbe has been selected as a Country All Star no fewer than 15 times. Helping to earn those representative honours are his 12 league championship across all disciplines. Crabbe has shown an ability to win in all formats at club level and his club achievements include nine singles wins. In the middle 2000’s Crabbe proved his ability to win outside his own league with an appearance in the 2004 Country Week Singles final and a 2005 Country Week Fours win. Crabbe finding his best form will be important if Gnowangerup are to contend in Mandurah.
Broomehill’s John Dye will play for Gnowangerup under the rules that allow country sides to pick one player from within their league to join the side. Another player who brings 30 of experience Dye will be hoping that his success at league and zone level will translate to big stage at the APL Cup. Dye has been selected for both the league and zone sides in the past including the Central Stirling League’s successful round robin campaign in 2008. Nine club singles championships at Broomehill works out to almost a one in three strike rate with two league singles highlighting Dye’s singles strength as well. Far from a singles specialist however Dye has won league championships in all disciplines. The APL Cup will be a good opportunity for Dye to prove his calibre outside the country arena.
Karen Dye is the current joint Penny Needham Brooch winner after an impressive season. Already a multiple time club champion Dye had an incredibly consistent season. Dye won all four of Gnowangerup’s club championships last season with the singles victory being her fifth in her ten year career between Gnowangerup and Broomehill. Dye also found success at league level this season winning the league fours and triples championships. Dye has won all the league championships as well over her career including the league singles in 2015. She was also part of the Southern Zone’s victorious inter-zone round robin team that year. Now she finally gets her chance to prove she can mix it with the best at the APL Cup. If her recent club form translates then Gnowangerup will be a tough team to get over.
Reigning Central Stirling League singles and fours champion Kevin Heberle rounds out the Gnowangerup team. Another vastly experienced player Heberle has been playing since 1983 and the list of accomplishments he has compiled in that time stacks up with the rest of his team mates. Last season’s league singles completed the set of league titles for him having won six fours, three triples and pairs championships. His name isn’t a stranger to the honour board at Gnowangerup either with eight fours, six triples, seven pairs and two singles club championships to his name. Across his 33 seasons of bowl Heberle has been selected for his league side 24 times and has multiple last eight appearances at Country Week to his credit. Like his team mates Heberle might not be a huge name up in the city but his country résumé clearly shows that to take him lightly would be a costly mistake.
The Gnowangerup side comes full of experience and accomplishments and it will be interesting to see how they stack up against the other sides in the competition.
