Bowls WA Crowns Seasons best
Monday 31st May, 2021
The Bowls WA Awards Night Dinner was held at the Royal Perth Golf Club on Friday 28th May with over 170 people in attendance as the best performers on and off the green were recognised for the 2020/2021 season.
The recent covid outbreak in Victoria saw a late change to the MC duties with Bowls WA CEO Ken Pride stepping in to replace Clive “Rinkside Live” Adams who unfortunately was forced into 14 day quarantine after returning from Dandenong where he was commentating the Australian Championships. Ken did a great job at short notice interviewing the winners of the respective awards through-out the evening.
Along with Clive Bowls Australia President Bob Boorman and Neil Dalrymple who were due to present awards and give an update on national proceedings were also late scratchings, however they did manage to pass on their apologies and brief the Bowls WA board via Zoom earlier in the day which was acknowledged by Bowls WA President Larry Bandy who officially welcomed everyone to the evening including many Bowls WA sponsors representatives who attended. President Larry made a special point of thanking the many the club volunteers around the state at the 200 plus bowling clubs in WA for their outstanding service through-out a tough period for clubs and members with the covid-19 related requirements which has put tremendous financial pressure and a much bigger workload onto club officials than has ever been the case.
With many well-deserved winners announced during the evening several clubs shone through with multiple awards. Joondalup took out the Metropolitan Club of the Year and Geoff Stevenson was announced as Coach of the Year, the club having great success in 2020/21 including an amazing 51 new bowlers amongst their ranks. Boulder also had a night to remember being named the Country Club of the Year along with Chris Ace-Watson winning the Women’s Country Bowler of the Year award after a real break out season where she finished runner up in the Women’s State Singles and won the Country Week Fours with her Boulder team mates.
Mt Lawley and Tammin took out the respective Small club of the year awards whilst in a surprise Aaron Smith and Warren Holt shared the Men’s Country Bowler of the Year Award. Graeme Jacques from Maylands was awarded the Volunteer of the Year whilst Chris Lander and Lee Poletti were crowned the Over 60’s Bowlers of the Year. The future of the sport was also on show as 16yo Segan Pasalich was announced the Under 18 Bowler of the Year ahead of Callum Alberti from South Perth who is just 12yo. Segan who was a part of the Premiership side at Osborne Park has a huge future ahead of him and spoke very well giving plenty of thanks to his family for their support.
The State Singles champions Blake Nairn and Krstina Krstic were also presented their singles medal and brooch and both later returned to the stage as Bowlers of the Year. For Krstic it was another terrific season as she joins Therese Hastings as the only other to receive the Connie Hicks Brooch for the female bowler of the year four times. Nairn who received his first Rosenthal Medal as Bowler of the Year was particularly emotional after receiving the highest individual award on offer. Blake has always shown plenty of promise at the top level has worked extremely hard to achieve success in the sport and it clearly meant a lot to him to be placed amongst the elite male performers in the sport.
In summary from all the acceptance speeches and comments made on the night it was clear to note that bowls still really is a community sport where clubs rely heavily on the team-work and willingness of their members to pitch in and contribute to the success. Congratulations once again to all our winners on their achievements throughout the 2020-21 season.
Photos from the Awards Night will be available on the Bowls WA Facebook Page later this week.
A full list of the award winners
Under 18 Bowler of the Year
Segan Pasalich (Osborne Park)
Male Over 60s Bowler of the Year (Trevor Barron Award)
Chris Lander (Sorrento)
Female Over 60s Bowler of the Year (Norma Samuel Award)
Lee Poletti (Mosman Park)
Bowls WA Club Coach of the Year
Geoff Stevenson (Joondalup)
Bowls WA Volunteer of the Year
Graeme Jacques (Maylands)
Bowls WA Small Metropolitan Club of the Year
Mt Lawley Bowling Club
Bowls WA Metropolitan Club of the Year
Joondalup Bowling Club
Bowls WA Small Country Club of the Year
Tammin Bowling Club
Bowls WA Country Club of the Year (Jim Murray Award)
Boulder Bowling Club
Male Country Bowler of the Year (Vice Patron’s Award)
Aaron Smith (Esperance) and Warren Holt (Wagin)
Female Country Bowler of the Year (Penny Needham Award)
Chris Ace-Watson (Boulder)
Male Bowler of the Year (Rosenthal Medal)
Blake Nairn (Cambridge)
Female Bowler of the Year (Connie Hicks Brooch)
Kristina Krstic (Manning Memorial)
