The President’s Shield is the Holy Grail for Australian Juniors. “Its purpose is to foster, develop and advance good sportsmanship and fellowship amongst the representative teams taking part. It also is used to determine annually the best State/Territory/Zone representative teams of Junior Boys and Girls in Australia. It is limited to one team of Boys and one team of Girls representing the following areas of Australia: Australian Capital Territory, North Queensland, South Queensland, Northern New South Wales, Southern New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory” (from the Southern NSW Website).
It is a shame that the cumulating presentation for this event is a 2 & ½ hour ‘beach party’.
What a Kodak moment for the victors – “Yeh, that’s me in the board shorts on the left – we were the best Junior team in Australia”.
As a parent of 2 bowlers, we have seen the commitment of the bowlers, Coaches and Managers, and the parents to get the Shield bowlers to this event. It is unsatisfactory to see that the dedication and commitment of THE TEAM is ‘recognised’ in such a manner.
The President’s Shield’s “purpose is to foster, develop and advance good sportsmanship and fellowship amongst the representative teams taking part. It also is used to determine annually the best State/Territory/Zone representative teams of Junior Boys and Girls in Australia.” (again plaigarised from Southern NSW website).
These bowlers deserve to be PRESENTED, ACKNOWLEDGED and RECOGNISED for their victory or participation. They (those who have posted comments) WANT to dress nicely, walk in and be presented, have dinner and have the awards; AND THEN FINALLY to be able to let their hair down and mingle, dance, meet the other teams and start friendships that hopefully will last many years.
It may be too late to change the arrangements for 2008, but for future hosts of this event – please remember the comments made and that it is a reasonable expectation that TIMELY notification of the event is made. ‘Timely notification’ is not 2 weeks prior to Nationals after significant money is outlaid for outfits that would be appropriate for past years BUT not for this year.