Roger's commitment to club recognised

Roger Traves' commitment to the Canowindra Bowling Club has been recognised on October 19 when he was awarded life membership. Roger has been a member of the Canowindra Bowling Club since 1980, and started on the club's chook parade which they used to do on Sunday mornings. He began bowling with the club a lot more seriously when the football club were unable to field a team in 1980. On the bowling green, Roger said some of the highlights were a couple of opportunities going away to play pennants with the team and taking part in a few state playoffs over the years. With more than four decades with the Canowindra Bowling Club, Roger said he has stayed for various reasons including the people who were there when he first joined, as well as a family history with the club. While he has spent many years playing on the greens, Roger has also helped out with the administration of the club over the years since 1985. Roger said he was encouraged to be involved by Fuzz Thompson and Bernard Rue, with Fuzz encouraging younger people to be more involved with the club. Since 1985, Roger has served as chairman of the club and served on the board for several years before taking a rest period. He came back to serve on the board several times from 2000, with him coming back to the board in 2020. Over the years, he has seen the club grow and change, with Roger saying to be where they are with the club, the encouragement and support of family has been important, as well as having a lot of good people around helping out and supporting the club. Roger said over the last few years they have been encouraging more people to play bowls, with the club hosting twilight bowls and lowering the fees to play a little to help support more people to play. While the club has seen some slow periods, Roger said several years ago a club member who was very involved with music who started a Sunday session of bowling several years ago which encouraged more people to become more interested socially in the club. Roger said they opened it up and even had music on the green which went down pretty well and opened up a social interest in the club. While things did slow down during the Covid period the Club were able to play a few ends to help bowlers keep in touch and still have a social gathering within the rules of that period.