Disabilities Sports Committee                                      8

University Scholarships Committee                            9

Social Committee                                                           10

Internship Committee                                                   10

Corporate Sponsorship Committee                             11

Events Committee                                                          12

Chairman’s Report                                                         12

Top Sports Camp Committee

Congratulations to members of the organizing committee of our recent camp during the April school break.  The live-in camp was held at Woodlawn College for nominated students, 13 years to 16 years, who are disadvantaged by isolation, distance, cultural background, poverty or non-opportunity.  The camp has succeeded, in proposed outcomes, well beyond expectations.
There was a broad range of sporting activities including 10-pin bowling, yoga, surfing skills, circus acts, tennis, table tennis, swimming, futsal, table-top cricket, barefoot bowls and cricket. These were all popular with the group and conducted over the four days. Other highlights included a talk by a senior policeman and instruction by a beautician.  All instructors were well qualified and energetic.
Woodlawn provided an outstanding venue for both accommodation and meals.  Four university students, including two Taverners scholarship holders, as night time supervisors proved most successful.  These individuals formed very productive relationships with campers and they also joined in the daily activities.  The camp residence and daily venues were overseen by senior Taverners members.  The camp was conducted within the planned budget.  At the concluding assembly there were many generous words of thanks, and smiles from kids and their parents.
Considering the multiple successes at the camp, it is recommended that we continue holding these camps, subject to availability of funding and suitably qualified instructors.  It is also recommended that publicity to targeted schools be continued and media publicity be increased so that we can provide more opportunity ‘to give disadvantaged kids a sporting chance.
Don Whitelaw.

Regional Development Committee

Regional action has revolved around the energy and enthusiasm of Les Eastaway and Libby Steptoe (our Captain) in Inverell and Kath Hamilton (our Captain) in Narrabri. As a result of huge efforts by these members we now have strong groups in their towns, and we have been able to assist several youngsters “out there” with grants.
In addition, we now have our university student in Armidale, as reported by Denis Byrne in the University Scholarships report. This scholarship program depends on corporate sponsorship and we are proud to have added Bindaree Beef and Printfresh, both in Inverell, to our sponsorship team.
Also as a result of the said energy and commitment we will be re-introducing the Narrabri Sports Awards in July this year – another example of how our network of regional members and captains is working.
Stan Gilchrist.

3.

Grants Committee

The Grants Committee for 2014-15 comprised of Stan Gilchrist (Chair to March 2015) Ruth Tinker, Barry Lampard, Neil Morton, John Butrum, and Grahame Gooding (Chair from March 2015).
The Committee met four times during the past year and considered many applications from a variety of sports and pastimes. A number did not fit the criteria for various reasons, including being deemed not to be a sport, or for seeking sponsorship. However an increasing number of applications are being received, seeking increased funding. During the 2014 calendar year, 21 applicants were granted a total of $15,210. In the first 6 months of 2015, 13 applicants have been granted a total of $10,850.
The consolidated figures for the reporting year of July 2014 to June 2015 is 23 applications being granted a total of $18,150. These grantees cover a wide variety of sports including netball, athletics, swimming, cycling, cricket, rugby league, soccer, boxing, wheelchair tennis, and wheelchair boccia.
It is always pleasing to receive feedback from these young people and to hear of their appreciation of the assistance we have been able to provide.
Grahame Gooding.

Here is a report from Dahlia Glennie from Narrabri, a young lady who would not have even reached the first step except for our grant!

Throughout the past 18 months I have been involved in lots of cricket. In January my Narrabri West school team was awarded the young citizens of the year. I captained this team and we came 2^nd in the Lord Taverners Cup.
I was chosen for the North West side for the CHS carnival. We played at Nowra in February. We didn’t win a game but the games were very close and fun. At this carnival I kept almost the whole time. I took 8 catches in the carnival, with 4 in one game against Sydney South West. At the presentation I achieved the most dismissals from a keeper and also most points for North West. This was really unexpected because it was my first year at CHS and I was one of the youngest in the team.
I played with the NSW academy throughout the off season. We trained at Tamworth or Scone. I was the keeper for Central North so I got lots of one on one trainings with Luke Knight. Having this opportunity was really good because I got personal tips and I understood better. We had a weekend at Sydney for training, it was almost the same as last year but I always learn something from it.
Country champs were in Port Macquarie. This carnival was very tiring because I kept in all matches we played and opened most matches in batting. We didn’t make it to the finals because of the points and averages, and ended up coming fourth overall. After the carnival we watched girls such as Elyse Perry, Alex Blackwell, Erin Osborne and many others play in the country vs city match. I got a photo with Elyse Perry and also my bat signed by her. We got to meet the whole NSW beakers team as well.
After this I was chosen to play for country u15’s. There were two country teams Red and Green and the city team. We won against the Red team. So we played City in the final, and lost unfortunately. From this carnival they picked NSW metropolitan, ACT/NSW country, and NSW academy side. I was picked to play for ACT/NSW country.  Training went for three days, and we had to have ice baths which weren’t a very fun first experience. Apart from the ice baths trainings were awesome; we all had such a good time.

My younger sister Jackie who is turning 9 this year plays cricket now too on Saturdays and just recently got picked for her school team at Narrabri West. She also plays soccer too.

4.

 T20 Primary Committee

I met with LT’s University intern to draft up a work plan for competition butshe did not complete this task before the end of her internship. I have worked with Stan G & Nth Coast Dept. of  Education to identify suitable schools and formatted them into groups for future communication.

I also approached Barry Cooper, as a small school principal, in November 2014 asking if he could identify a time period to stage the event that would not interfere with other school curriculum activities. He did get back to me with the same dates as the high schools comp was originally staged but Barry did not confirm if these dates avoided any other curriculum clashes. Whilst I have asked him to confirm that these dates will not clash with other school activities I have had no reply.

This has meant trying to find someone else in the primary schools system that has a broad knowledge of the curriculum activities across the local district for term 3. This has not proved an easy thing to do. Notwithstanding I have continued to seek out a person or persons who may be able to provide this information. it is not possible for me as an individual to speak to a school principal or sports master as they are nearly always in class and when I am available (after business hours) they are not available. In addition it seems that emails from outside of the schools system often go straight to a spam file or are ignored. Recently I found a contact who has been somewhat helpful and to date with the limited information I have obtained I have been able to ascertain that September is the most suitable month. An email has gone to all small schools seeking their interest. There have been two positive responses to date.
Given I am about to head overseas for 6 weeks there is not enough time for the required planning to take place to enable a competition to proceed this year.
Neil Moreton

Our House Committee

The OUR HOUSE Dinner Program is continuing to provide more Dinners for increasing numbers of residents.
This last year we have increased the dinners from every Thursday night plus 2 Tuesday Nights a month to be getting very close to providing dinners on every Tuesday and Thursday.

Due to the great organisational skills of Margaret Byrne, June Gilchrist, Ruth Harrison and her Staff at OUR HOUSE and all the volunteers who take part in the program each week, this year has been very successful again.

We have seen the number of residents increase over the last few months and we now regularly provide dinners for  over 20 each night, which is wonderful.  The dedication of the above people plus the effort provided by each group  continues to amaze and delight the residents.  I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in anyway over this year for their effort in making this program so successful. Thank you all for a job well done.

You can be very sure the residents of OUR HOUSE are appreciating all that you do.

Warren Noble

5.

T20 Secondary Committee

The T20 sub committee met on Wednesday 4 February to discuss several matters…the following was resolved
DATES FOR 2015 …GILCHRIST,PHELPS,LARSEN  shields

Round 1…..Wednesday Oct 14 (week two of term 4)

Round 2/finals….Wednesday  Nov 4 (week 5 of term 4)

NOTE winning teams will play in Coffs Zone finals in week 8 of term 4 (between Nov23-27)
FEES   $60 per team ..same as 20154
RULE CHANGES

1…Girls/Larsen Shield games be 11 a side (not 8 as per previous years)…NOTE  all teams turned up with 11 or more this year

2…Rules to state that games to conclude if or once the winning score is reached ..i.e. no need to bowl out all 20 overs …and quotients will be determined at that point …NOTE if teams wish to bat on in order to give kids a go that’s fine …but scoring will cease once the game is won or lost by one team

CONGRATULATIONS

Woodlawn yr7-8 boys team won the zone finals held at Coffs Hbr in 2014 ..Congratulations to Coach Bernie Macdonald and his team

THE 2014 SHIELD RESULTS

In Oct/Nov 28 teams took part in the Gilchrist , Phelps and Larsen Shields which was overseen by a Committee consisting on myself , Don Whitelaw , Warren Phelps , John Buttrum and Denis Byrne ( with valuable assistance from Danny Rosolen – FNC Umpires and Scorers )

Winners were

Gilchrist Shield – KINGSCLIFF HIGH – on a count back due to a rain shortened match v Trinity

Phelps Shield – ST JOHN S WOODLAWN…who also won the regional event at Coffs Harbour and

Larsen Shield – TRINITY – player of the carnival –  Carly Fuller
2015 UPDATE
Entry forms for the 2015 competition have been distributed and to date 25  teams have nominated . Final reminders have been sent  with entries closing July 4.
John Bancroft

6.

Cricket Placements Committee and Adam Gilchrist Cricket Scholarship.

The Lord’s Taverners cricket placements scheme has enjoyed a very successful 12 months to date with the placing of 7 players to various clubs in the United Kingdom.  In 2014 we had 2 players from the Mid North Coast area in Darren Bourke who we placed at Harrow St Mary’s Cricket Club and Bryan Warren who played at Richmond CC as  the winner of the Adam Gilchrist scholarship for 2014. The Richmond CC was where Adam played cricket during his first secondment to the UK when he was a youngster. We also placed a female cricketer, Jordan Lumby from Gunnedah, at Penrith CC in the north of England. Unfortunately Jordan suffered ill health for a time while she was in England and did not play as much as she would have liked.
In 2015, our committee has taken on the administration of the Adam Gilchrist Cricket Scholarship, and to that end, we have successfully placed Nathanael Scott, who was until recently from the Ballina area, at Adam’s old club of Richmond and we have been extremely lucky to be able to place Meg Phillips  from Launceston as Adam’s first female scholarship winner. Meg plays for the Tasmanian Roar Women’s team and as a result of much work from our Taverner’s member, Tim Newhouse, in England, Tim has secured her a position playing for the Lancashire County women’s team and Tottington St John’s club side. This has opened up a new area and level of cricket for us to place players in the UK. Very exciting for us!!
Our Taverners NNSW branch has placed 2 more players in the UK this year, Eliza Bunner from Baradine and also Ryan O’Neill from Wee Waa, both of these players are from western NSW. Eliza is playing at Penrith in the northern region of Cumbria and Ryan is playing at St Alban’s north of London. Our branch has assisted all these players financially as well as funding their air fares and assisting them with visa applications and accommodation.
All our resident UK cricketers are playing well and having the time of their lives and the process of selecting and finalising their UK placements has been a very rewarding experience for out committee..
Graeme Hoskins.

7.

8.

Disabilities Sports Committee

  In the second half of last year our group organised and supported three sports days at Goonellabah Indoor sports centre. These days were attended by the senior classes   The days were helpful in identifying appropriate gear that suited the kids needs. We purchased and supplied two top quality basketballs , six Dodgeballs which are a light soft ball similar in size to a soccer ball and these were terrific to use as basketballs for kids not strong enough to handle a proper ball , good for soccer and throwing and catching without being hard enough to cause any damage to the kids and they could also be used inside the classrooms ! We also supplied a Bocce set that could be used in classrooms.  These have been very well used by the senior school and at the request of the school we have also arranged for another set of Dodgeballs which will be delivered in the first week of term three to be used by the junior school students.

In July John McCaffery attended a conference with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance of Australia in Sydney and took the opportunity to supply them with a set of Tabletop Cricket which they will now use in their sports clinics in conjunction with their own Table tennis programme.

We will be working with Biala School in Ballina starting in term three and hope it to be a similar set of activities that worked well with Wilson park with the hope we may have a combined sports day before the end of the year.

Wilson Park school also received some Dream cricket equipment through the generosity of Rotary last year and have asked for our help in coaching them in the use of the gear and we hope to do this soon and also follow up on Dream cricket with Biala if that is possible.

We attended a fantastic sports day at Goonellabah recently where more than 100 young people with disabilities from schools and community organisations and will be following up with the organiser to see if we might be of assistance with more days as they only have one of these per year so hopefully a busy year coming up us.

John McCaffery

8.

University Scholarships Committee

Stan and I met with the SCU Executive Director of Community and Corporate Relations, Helen Hughes,  on Monday 27 October 2014.  Helen presented a contract for discussion and signature.  The contract was the same as 2013 with the dates amended.  As SCU and Taverners are happy with the Scholarships we both signed as required.  With Alanna moving on to her third year and Lachie to his second, we were provided with a panel of five applicants to choose from for the 2015 Scholarship.  By interview day, two of these had either deferred or dropped out.  Following interviews Tineka Frampton from Terranora was selected.  Tineka has moved to accommodation on the Lismore Campus for the duration of her Arts and Education Degrees.  Tineka has expressed a goal of assisting others in education and learning which she has been doing through her Secondary education.
2015 saw our Branch set up another Scholarship at UNE Armidale for possible students West of the Divide.  We were to interview two applicants by Skype, however, one did not turn up and Jessica Laughton from Tabulam was awarded the Scholarship after the interview.  Jess has never attended any face to face learning and completed her final two years of Secondary school through Distance Education, demonstrating a motivation to complete her studies.  Jess has commenced her Historical Enquiry and Practice Degree and is thoroughly enjoying her time in Armidale.
We wish both 2015 students all the best in their studies as we do with Alanna and Lachie.
Denis Byrne

9.

Social Committee

My aim as Social Director has been to attempt to involve members and partners outside the core management group and especially those from a younger age group. This has been moderately successful. In the past year we have :-

· co – hosted a second Trivia Night with the Men of League at the East Lismore Bowling Club

· made a trip to Inverell (not in winter) which followed an earlier trip to Taree

· made up a table for the Melbourne Cup ‘Tour’ Dinner at the Lismore Race Club

· organised a car rally heading west of Lismore and up into Tweed Shire finishing at a mystery destination followed by a cricket match and golf chipping event with 30 odd starters

· cruised up the Tweed River with 26 starters followed by a visit to the Margaret Olley Art Gallery at Murwillumbah on the return trip

· held a Sunday morning Barefoot Bowls event followed by a looooong lunch

Other Events, not necessarily Social but more promotional, are still in the pipeline but have stalled for various reasons…they have included:-

Þ a trip to the Toowoomba Flower Festival

Þ a Pop Up Book Shop in Molesworth Street

Þ a T20 Big Bash at Oakes Oval  in October this year involving local cricket teams to be invited from the Hooker League

Þ a promotional display at the Lismore Shopping Square scheduled for early September

Þ hopefully, we may be given space at next years Blues and Roots to do some promotion. (eg., involving a cricket pitch ,a single stump and a cricket ball)

Thank you to those members (especially our Chairman) who have assisted from time to time with the organisation of social activities.
Chris Shevellar.

Internship Committee

Jenny Cook is chairing the committee with Neil Boyd and Stan Gilchrist assisting.  The new Intern, Robyn White, is in her third year of a Bachelor of Sport Tourism Management and commenced work on Tuesday the 10^th of June.  It has been agreed that the minimum of 450 hours that Robyn has to complete will be shared with the Westpac Helirescue Service, under the guidance of our John Bancroft.  She will be with us for a minimum of 14 weeks and at the commencement of her placement we will have the opportunity to engage another student starting in October.
Jenny Cook.

 10.

Corporate Sponsorship Committee

The Lord’s Taverners Northern NSW are very proud to partner with Southern Cross University Lismore and our seventeen corporate and five special sponsors:-

11.

Events Committee

Throughout the past year four events were held throughout the Northern NSW area.  In July we again conducted our Race Day in association with Trinity Catholic College.

In November we held a special function featuring Peter Fitzsimons, who had just released his book “Gallipoli” and entertained a large group with stories, incidents, attitudes and controversies that are a normal part of his “arsenal”!
In February we further cemented our connection with Trinity College by holding the second Trinity Legends Dinner. Guests included Liz Ellis who enjoyed being our compere for the night. We also had Michael O’Loughlin, Scott Gourley, David Mead  as well as Matthew Elliot.
Several other Trinity Legends were acknowledged on the evening.

In April we worked together with Lismore City Council at an early-morning function  to send David Alley off on his epic run around Australia (RAA2). With a large gathering of people Dave began his run as Jenny Dowell, Mayor of Lismore, fired the starter’s gun, and so began his quest to raise funds for The White Cloud Foundation, a mental health organisation supporting men and women who suffer from this scary infliction.

It has been a pleasure to work with all our special guests and with the Events “Team”.
Matthew Barlow.

Chairman’s Report.

When we started this branch six years ago I was told that if I accepted the position of Chairman I would have to “do all the work”. How wrong that advice has proven to be, thanks to a magnificent Executive Committee, an outstanding President and energetic and committed leaders of the fourteen Program Committees. Well done, and thanks on behalf of the “kids”. Thank you all for your outstanding application which is certainly giving the young and disadvantaged in our part of NSW a sporting chance.
Stan Gilchrist.

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