June Update

The season is in full swing and there is plenty happening all over the place.

Last Friday night saw a good turn-out for the bowling night – 25 of us braced the once in a decade storm that hit Perth and had a great time at the Innaloo Sports Complex. It was an amazing facility with a fully enclosed roof keeping everyone dry.

Thanks to the social committee for organizing such a fun event.  Its fair to say the current crop of foreigners at the club need to work on their form – check out that scoreline!

For a full rundown on the current social calendar please check the website for more details http://bayswaterlacrosse.com/news/events/

Media

I am sure a majority of you have seen the recent media report in The West Australian newspaper regarding the club and a proposed social function we had planned. Can I take this opportunity to reiterate our apology to all club members, and also clarify issues that were raised within the article.

With regard to the report of us condoning and promoting binge drinking, regardless of the name of the function we are still bound by Liquor Licence and would have at all times served alcohol in a responsible manner.

At no point were we told the function could not go ahead. As soon as I was made aware of any concerns I contacted Healthway directly and cancelled the aspects of the function that were deemed inappropriate.

Our function was not what had garnered the attention of the media, it was a similar function that had been planned by another group and had advertised that underage people were welcome to attend – this was not the case with our function.

Following the report in the paper I believe a lot of members were contacted by concerned friends and family, on behalf of the committee can I apologise for any embarrassment it caused you individually please feel free to pass this apology on to them also.

I have subsequently been informed a number of members had misgivings on the function from the start. I want all members to be aware that if you have an issue with anything we do or have planned to please let your feelings be known to the committee.

Finally if any member wants to discuss the issue further please feel free to contact me at any time.

Facilities

By now most of you should have noticed the fences start to come down around the Coode Street end of the Clubrooms, this is in preparation for the handover of keys at completion of Stage 1 of the redevelopment which should happen later this week. I think we all can agree that the building looks great and we are looking forward to getting some honour boards up in the magnificent new formal entry.

While the keys will be handed over we are not sure if the elevator will be installed yet – but if not it shouldn’t be far away.  From next week we should have renewed access to our second changeroom, along with a nice new disabled toilet in the function hall. The next step will be to address the reduced size of the upstairs kitchen and address some storage needs we have.

In the interim we have been able to secure funding for the second phase of the redevelopment which includes the balcony, as a club we need to thank both Ian Misich and John Keesing for the work they have done, especially in developing a great relationship with our councilors that have been great in supporting us throughout the City of Bayswater budget process.

In other facilities news it has been fantastic to see how well the fields at Halliday Park have held up to the rain, both last weekend with Fridays torrential rain when many of us expected to see large parts of the ground underwater, and Tuesday night this week. On both occasions the fields were dry and in great condition. This was as a result of some remedial drainage works done to the oval by the City of Bayswater Parks and Gardens team.

Information, Pictures and Results.

Through the club facebook page we have been trying to get results up and online as quickly as we can and thanks to all the volunteers for assisting. If you don’t already like us, please click on the link http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bayswater-Lacrosse-Club/103464323063652 to be up to date with all that is happening.

The page has also been getting great service from Aimee Sopp – who has been putting photos up from the games each week. There have been some great pics already.

All members are able to upload photos they have taken either at the games or around the clubhouse during the week. We have also had some other great pictures updated of club members out and about in other aspects, especially featuring Under 15’s own Nick Graham on the Drums performing at the Astor Theater.

Along with the facebook page and website updates, we will be endeavouring to send out a monthly update through email, and the upcoming events notices in the Clubrooms.

If you would prefer to receive a hard copy in the mail please let us know and we will set-up a mail distribution list to ensure that all members are kept in the loop.

Team News

So far this year we have seen some great results from all teams, a copy of the current ladder for each team can be seen below.

Some of the highlights so far have been the strong performances of the junior men’s teams, with the Under 13’s, Under 15’s and Combined Under 17’s all having great starts to the season. The respective coaches in Julian, Murray and Pete have done a great job.