(L to R) Jim McCreadie (Wamberal), Des Skinner President Bowls Australia & Geoff Graham (Bateau Bay)

Click photo to enlarge

The Royal NSW Bowling Association has held its inaugural Volunteer Awards, presenting six different awards to volunteers throughout NSW.   Central Coast Bowlers won 3 of the 6 individual awards.

Outstanding Individual Volunteer Innovation was won by Geoff Graham (Bateau Bay), Coach of the Year by John Roberts (Ettalong), and Volunteer Club Administrator of the year was jointly won by Jim McCreadie  (Wamberal).

Geoff Graham won his award for his work as Web Site Manager and Technology Advisor of Bowls Central Coast.   Amongst Geoff’s innovations are the scroll system for pennants, the new zone web site, the big screen result system used at major events, live updates for pennant finals every 20 minutes, and expansion of the scroll system for championships and social events.

John Roberts has an outstanding record as a coach and is the Bowls Central Coast Under 18 coach.  In 2012 players from his Club won almost every BCC championship.  In particular the current BCC Singles champion,19 year old Harley McDonald, has been coached by John since before Harley was a teenager.  John’s Club has been increasing in numbers of bowlers which can be attributed to a number of things.  However, a positive coaching program that John leads at Ettalong is certainly one of them.

Jim McCreadie is the “go to man” at his Wamberal Club.  He has served on most official positions at the Club, including President and still has his hand up to assist whenever he perceives that he can help.  

The presentation ceremony was attended by the NSW Minister of Sport, Graham Annesley as well as the newly appointed President of Bowls Australia, Des Skinner.  The President and Board of Bowls NSW and most Sate Councillors also attended the presentation as did Geoff’s wife Shirley and Jim’s wife Margaret. 

In NSW men’s bowls there are a lot of volunteers.  There are 16 Zone administrations, 53 District administrations and around 600 Clubs who would not survive without the work of many volunteers.   For Geoff, John and Jim to be declared the best of all these volunteers is quite an achievement.

By Doug Rose

For more information CLICK HERE to go to the Bowls NSW Website.