There was some big hitting at the NSW Premier cricket match at Raby 1 between the local side, the Ghosts, and Sydney.
The visitors won the toss and batted pretty well, hitting a stack of boundaries and no fewer than 10 sixes, two of which landed on the club building.
Club officials weren’t taking any chances so they quickly moved a brand new Hyundai Accent several metres back from the boundary fence, where it was on display.
The Paul Wakeling car was first prize in the club’s major season raffle, which was drawn at the tea break.
New club chiefs, former NSW premier Morris Iemma (president) and State Camden MP Chris Patterson (vice president) did the honours.
But they got umpire Troy Penman to draw the major prizes – “you couldn’t trust a politician to do that’’, joked Mr Patterson.
Not only that, yours truly, who was taking notes and generally minding his own business, was asked by the Camden MP to read out the numbers drawn.
Well, we did and the first ball out had a number 30 on it.
There may have been a groan or two from the crowd when Mr Patterson said the winner of the car was wealthy local businessman and developer David Hazlett.
xxxxx
♦ Still at Raby on the Saturday afternoon, debutante wicket keeper Ollie Pope, from the Surrey County Cricket Club in England, quickly displayed the skills he has brought with him Down Under.
Pope took a sharp stumping off skipper Jarrad Burke and a nice catch diving a long way low to his right to dismiss the Sydney skipper Dalton off the bowling of Sam Skelly.
But earlier, when Pope realised how sharp some of his fast bowlers were, he quipped: “the Aussie pitches are good for a keeper, I can stand a little further back”.
xxxxx
♦ Campbelltown Councillor Karen Hunt, who recently notched up 20 years of service to the NSW Parliament, initially as a Hansard reporter and most recently in the Campbelltown electorate office, was the recipient of a nice tribute from her boss, MP Greg Warren.
“I rise today to acknowledge the significant contribution of Karen Hunt to the Parliament of NSW and to the Campbelltown community,’’ Mr Warren told the parliament.
“Karen’s dedication is not limited to this important chamber. In September last year, Karen was elected to represent her community on Campbelltown City Council, where she has been a strong voice on a number of issues, most significantly the importance of protecting Campbelltown’s koala population through the significant urban growth ahead of us,’’ Mr Warren said.
“Karen is proud to be Labor, but even prouder to be Campbelltown, and I congratulate her on her significant and ongoing service to the Parliament of NSW and to the people of Campbelltown.’’
xxxxx
♦ Helen Byfield-Fleming, the centre coordinator at the popular Macarthur Centre for Sustainable Living, was ecstatic last week when Radka Dostal, one of her educators, won the Australian Association for Environmental Education 2017 Community Award for outstanding contribution to Environmental Education in NSW.
The NSW environmental educator of the year awards recognise individuals in NSW who “show outstanding abilities to raise the level of environmental awareness in the community and who provide leadership, innovation and inspiration to others thus contributing to quality environmental education’’.
And which pretty much describes the philosophy at Macarthur Centre for Sustainable Living.
xxxxx
♦ A few weeks ago we featured the story of Bee Ryan, who decided to have a golf fundraiser instead of going on the drink with the boys to celebrate his 40th birthday.
We’re happy to report that Bee and his mates had a great day of golf at Macquarie Links and raised $1,400 for charity into the bargain.
Well done, Bee.
xxxxx
♦ An attempt by Cr Ben Moroney to get Campbelltown Council to take a more proactive role in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey failed to get up when put to the vote last week.
The young Greens councillor was the only one who voted in favour of his own motion, with the other 10 councillors present voting no.
xxxxx
♦ At the same meeting last week, council approved an interim heritage order being placed on the controversial St James Anglican church at Minto.
Council, which has rejected a church application to demolish the church, is set to defend its decision when the Land and Environment Court holds a hearing on the site of the church on October 25.
Council plans to commission further detailed investigations into the site’s potential heritage significance and the condition of the building, which “can be utilised to determine a final position on listing the site as an item of local heritage significance’’.
xxxxx
♦ We started the column with cricket, so let’s finish with another yarn about the noble game: A very good local Indian restaurant, Spice of Life, in Park Central, has a framed Sachin Tendulkar tribute on the wall.
The title at the top of the tribute says: The Greatest.
The little master was a great cricket batsman, but did the makers of this sport memorabilia forget about some fellow called Don Bradman – batting average 99.94?
Sure, Tendulkar played 200 Test matches, 150 more than Bradman, but his batting average is almost half at 53.78.
We rest our case, Your Honour.
Jason Ellsmore