Mt Lawley back to back small metro club of the year

by Aaron Delaporte on July 4, 2022

Bowls WA Awards Night – Small Metropolitan of the Year

For the second consecutive season Mt Lawley Bowling Club was announced as the Bowls WA Small Metropolitan Club of the Year at the annual Awards Night.

Announced by MLA Geoff Baker this award is presented to the club adjudged most outstanding during the season with less than 125 members. The criteria to be successful includes on green performance in Pennants and participation by members in State Championships along with off green achievements and community participation by the club.

A summary of all Bowls WA Award winners can be found via this link

Mt Lawley President Terry Conley received strong applause from the crowd in attendance along with some extra whistles, hoots and hollers when he arrived on stage in a bright pink jacket which certainly raised the fashion stakes in the room.

MLA Geoff Baker with Mt Lawley President Terry Conley

The reason behind the jacket was soon explained by Terry, “If you’re wondering why I’m in the pink, this is a Jacket which is called the Jacobsen’s Ladder Jacket. It’s a competition that we started two years ago when covid was right through the state and we had to do something to keep the club active through the winter season, so we ran this event. Norm Jacobsen is one of our Life Members, we have a lot of life members including seven living life members which includes Norm who is not in great health, and I thought it would be nice to come up in this jacket tonight if we did win and say thanks to Norm and to the other Life Members of the club.” A wonderful tribute which rightfully received more applause.

As recognized by Master of Ceremonies Clive Adams Mt Lawley is certainly a club on the rise with the back to back awards coinciding with back to back rises in Men’s Pennant competition which will see the club return to Premier League after a 60 year absence. Even bigger than that the club achieved seven promotions split amongst both Men and Women’s competitions. As Clive explained he attended the Mt Lawley Bowling Club presentation night and they asked everyone who had achieved a promotion to go up the front of the room which just left about 10 people in the rest of the room such was the shared success across the club.

Special mention was also made of well known media personality and popular club member Russell Woolf who passed away suddenly during the season. “Russell always wanted to get his name on the honor board and his team won the first round of the club fours and he never got to play the second round. So we added him to the board for that and we now have a new award called the Woolfy’s. In pennants if you get an 8 you get an 8 badge and that’s terrific but if you’re the person who caused the team not to get an 8 (i.e. just a 7) you now get a Woolfy. That’s Russell to a tee.” Said Terry reflecting on the amazing personality of Russell Woolf. “We miss him, and we also miss Laurence Goodman our Vice President for a few years who passed away at a similar time. We named the Men’s Singles after Laurence and it was won by one of Russell’s best mates in Anthony Einfeld.”

Outside of on green performance the club which replaced two greens in 2019/20 then completed state of the art lighting on both of those in 2020/21. The clubs hopes to make good use of these lights having already hosted the Men’s Masters Singles under lights.

Competition, Community and Commitment is the club motto at Mt Lawley. “Community is very important to us, so is the competition all the players on and off the green and then the commitment everybody has to the success of the club.” All of which make Mt Lawley a great place to be added Terry reflecting on the hard work and success of the committee and members of the club.

It has been a fantastic year for Mt Lawley culminating in the win at the Australian Championships by the state fours champions from Mt Lawley in one of the true underdog stories in bowls. Congratulations once again to Mt Lawley our Small Metropolitan Club of the Year.