I’ve written a number of profiles of MBC members and this week it’s Geoff Mathers who’s in the spotlight. Geoff and Wendy Mathers joined MBC 2 seasons ago and they are great social supporters of our club, particularly Friday night drinks. During these happy occasions I became aware Geoff, like a number of our members, Denis for example, had a keen and knowledgeable interest in many sports, especially lawn bowls.
Unusually for a young Aussie man of the time Geoff was a baseball player. From 1958 to 1978 he played for MCC baseball club. His talent resulted in Geoff playing in 40 interstate Claxton Shield matches. The highlight of his baseball days being his selection to represent Australia in 1967.
He also was a keen cricket player, spending 3 years at Richmond Cricket Club followed by 15 years at MCC. He is a life member of MCC XX1X club.
He also managed to spend 2 years at Gunnamatta SLSC and 19 years playing royal tennis at Royal Melbourne Tennis Club.
And now to bowls. From 1986 to 2016 Geoff was a member at Kew Heights Lawn Bowling Club. (Initially Auburn Heights). In his first season he progressed to play in their Div. 1 side. Of course what followed was great success on the Green, most notably in pairs competition including winning Bowls Victoria Section ‘Eleven’ title. Interestingly one of Geoff’s victories was a president’s pairs title with one of our newest bowlers, Ron Sherri. (Ron is another great new addition to our club)
Geoff also served on their committee for 7 years over 3 periods. I can’t imagine that was always easy.
Moving to Malvern Geoff decided to join MBC in 2016. And what an asset he and Wendy are. Geoff is a talented skip and just as importantly a pleasure to play with. Always calm, thoughtful and encouraging.
And no wonder, Geoff is so knowledgeable. He was a writer for the Sunday Age, their Lawn Bowls tabloid page which was weekly in the Sport Sunday liftout. He also wrote the Premier Div. reports plus My Green Clippings’ Gossip column. This was from 1998 to 2008. ( don’t you love the title of his column, so very much better than Dee’s digest?)
Geoff like many others has strong opinions on the fiasco of the Kew Heights take over, it’s a cautionary tale well worth hearing.
Saturday was a great day for MBC with both divisions victorious. And the 6 aside very much enjoyed their game at Swinburne Ave. I hear Janet is a fine skip. So congratulations to all our players, particularly David Knott, a fantastic debut game. Thank you Gerald for this very special photo (below). What a result, Stuart, John Murdoch, Andy Smith and David Knott won 34 to 0. Unbelievable.
Also a thank you to Garry Devlin who has been in touch to wish MBC luck for the season.
I hope to see you Wednesday night, Thursday at training and at Friday night drinks.
Dee
