Hall of Fame and Awards Night
Bowls Australia’s Hall of Fame and Awards Night will be staged tomorrow, October 29 at Mantra Legends in Surfers Paradise where past and present bowlers and administrators of our great sport will come to together to celebrate what has been another fantastic year for Lawn Bowls across the country.
10 of this year’s leading contributors to the sport of bowls will be crowned in the categories of international bowler, male bowler, female bowler, under-18 male bowler, under-18 female bowler, coach, official, story, volunteer and Regional Bowls Manager of the year.
Bowls Australia announced 19 finalists for the sport’s night of nights and will also induct four worthy recipients into the prestigious Hall of Fame.
The Australian Sports Commission International Bowler of the Year award has three finalist for the first time in the history of the award; three-time International Bowler of the Year Aron Sherriff has once again been voted well by his peers for his outstanding performances on the international stage, recently retired Australian Jackaroo Matthew Flapper and fellow Commonwealth Games fours bronze medallist Wayne Ruediger have all represented Australia with distinction this year making this award category extremely hard to pick.
Ettalong Memorial’s Aron Sherriff has his eyes on a fourth straight International Bowler of the Year award and says to win the title again this year would be amazing.
“To play for Australia is a huge honour but to be voted as your countries best representative by your peers potentially four years in a row is a special feeling and one that you can’t describe with words,” said Australia’s singles representative.
Current World Champion Wayne Ruediger says being a finalist for International Bowler of the Year is an honour in itself.
“It is such a privilege to represent Australia and be part of such a fantastic team; whilst winning the award tomorrow night would be a huge honour it would just be a bonus to what has been a successful team effort by the Australian Jackaroos this year and a thoroughly enjoyable experience representing my country,” said the Adelaide Endurance star.
Matthew Flapper says after making the tough decision recently to retire from international duties it would be a great honour to go out with this prestigious award; however the Victorian ace has already predicted his winner.
“It’s not the reason I play bowls to win awards like this but to be recognized by your team mates as an international bowler would be extremely humbling; however I think on this occasion I could be an equal runner-up with Rudi (Wayne Ruediger) because it might be Aron who takes the title once again,” said the former Australian Jackaroo.
After each international series Australian team members cast votes for three other team mates who in their opinion performed the best in that series; in a 3, 2, 1 system players accumulate points over the year, therefore the International Bowler of the Year is solely decided on his/her peers votes.
With Sherriff, Flapper and Ruediger selected for all international events during the year and each finalist all winning bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the votes are likely to be very close.
Finalists for the 2015 Awards Night categories are:
• Australian Sports Commission International Bowler of the Year – Aron Sherriff (Ettalong Memorial, NSW), Matthew Flapper (Ocean Grove, VIC), Wayne Ruediger (Grange, SA)
• Aero Bowls Male Bowler of the Year – Ryan Bester (Broadbeach, QLD)
• Aero Bowls Female Bowler of the Year – Natasha Scott (Raymond Terrace, NSW)
• BCiB Under-18 Male Bowler of the Year – Jono Davis (Dubbo, NSW), Jacob Nelson (Wynnum Manly, QLD)
• Tourism and Events Queensland Under-18 Female Bowler of the Year – Jamie-Lee Worsnop (St Johns Park, NSW), Ellen Ryan (Cabramatta, NSW)
• City Club Volunteer of the Year – John Smith (NSW), Patricia …
