June '23 Bites

Wyong Leagues Gets the Waves Rolling Again

In great news for the hundreds of basketballers on the Central Coast, the Wyong Leagues Group has entered into an agreement to buy the Central Coast Waves Basketball Association which collapsed this year following a period of financial instability, leaving players and parents high and dry. The takeover will ensure a stable future for the Association, with the backing of a major organisation. 

Wyong Leagues Group will become an associate member of Basketball NSW and Central Coast Waves Basketball will return as a sub-club of the Group. With a successful history in sports admin across rugby league, soccer, golf and bowls, the Group will now employ staff with a strong basketball background to support Waves’ Operation Manager Matt Smith (pictured above). 

“We’re very excited to have the opportunity to extend our capabilities of providing community sport to the residents on the Central Coast as we know basketball is a very popular sport,” said Group CEO Ben Coghlan.

On the Lookout for the Best Bowlo Carpets

Cheeky Aussie humour is alive and well on Instagram. You only have to have a quick scroll through the ‘Bowlo Carpet Appreciation’ account of James Stewart-Hunter (some examples pictured left) to find a few funnies at the expense of club interiors.

In what can only be described as a fan page, Hunter-Stewart documents the vast and colourful variety of some of the carpeted areas of various clubs all over NSW.

While the Instagram account’s first post was designed to mock a club’s carpet, submissions from right across Australia have since turned the Instagram account into a celebratory space. 

Over the past two years, the account has featured around 200 different carpets, ranging from the magenta-on-brown stylings at Kingscliff Bowlo in the Tweed region, to the timeless regal pattern at Mount Lawley’s bowlo in Perth.

Move Over Meat Trays, Here Come the Mushrooms

Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL has put a tasty twist on the classic club meat raffle, with members and guests now able to win a ‘Mushie Meat Tray’.

The Mushie Meat Tray offered by Australian Mushrooms includes “butcher-quality” cuts of portobello, button, flat and cup mushrooms, alongside sausages and rissoles. Australian Mushrooms describes the prize as “a flexitarian fusion of all things meat and mushrooms that will help you expand your customer base and appeal to those who are looking for something with a little more variety”. They have even developed a special toolkit to help clubs create their own Mushie Meat Trays.

Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL made the move to change up their raffle offering due to the increasing number of patrons ordering vegetarian meals and to help members and guests boost their veggie intake.

Gosford RSL Goes for Gold

In late May, Gosford RSL’s brewery Oak Haven (pictured below) was awarded two gold medals and two bronze medals in the 2023 Australian International Beer Awards — the largest annual
beer competition in the world.

Oak Haven took home the gold for Sly Grog (pale ale) and Rusty Sail (mid), as well as the bronze for Dr Paul's Pils (pale ale) and Bolthole (porter style dark ale). 

In naming the brewery and beers, significant consideration has been given to the history of Gosford RSL. The brewery’s first pale ale was named Sly Grog in memory of the initial Club members who were a little ‘sly’ in exchanging coupons for alcohol in the basement to ensure no alcohol was technically being sold, while Rusty Sail was named in honour of the region’s shipwrights from the 1820s through to the 1950s — some locals say they still hear the rusty old rigging of the ghost ships on a windy night!

Wests Group Rewards Local Heroes

As a long-time supporter and sponsor of sport in the region, last month Wests Group Macarthur hosted a special dinner to acknowledge and celebrate the enormous contribution of time and effort that local sporting volunteers give their various codes.

The event, held at Wests League Club during National Volunteer Week, was put on exclusively for the 330 local volunteers who represent the 30-plus sporting clubs and associations in the Macarthur area. The evening was attended by the Mayor of Campbelltown and several state and local MPs, with guest speaker Greg Inglis (former Rabbitohs star and founder of the Goanna Academy) delivering an inspiring speech.