Bowls SA New Life Member Awarded – Sandy Wallace
Tonight we awarded an incredibly special person with Bowls SA Life Membership – Sandy Wallace. Sandy was introduced to bowls 40 years ago when she watched her husband play at Adelaide Bowling Club. Sandy said “I thought I’d be bored to tears to be honest. All these people dressed in white, all using black bowls, now we’re all in colours with coloured bowls. It was the most exciting game I had the pleasure of watching…., I was blown away, and so from then, I became addicted very early to the sport”.
Sandy made her bowls debut in 1987 with her first pennant game in 1990 at Murray Bridge Bowling Club, becoming an umpire in that same year.
Sandy held several positions on committees at Murray Bridge Bowling Club, which started her 30 years of volunteering within the bowling world in SA.
In 1996 Sandy was invited into the State Development Squad and then into the State Squad, where she played over 100 games for South Australia and became a very successful Skip.
Highlights of Sandy’s career include:
• 2001/02 : State triples champion
• 2006/7 : Country Carnival Fours champion
• 2012/13 : State Pairs champion
• 2017/18: Champ of Champ singles champion
• 2022/23 : State Fours champion
Sandy has been a member of the Bowls SA Officiating Committee since 2014 and with all of her passionate work was awarded Official of the Year in 2019/20. She continues to Officiate at Bowls SA State Events and is a dedicated Presenter and Assessor to ensure SA has good quality and numbers of umpires. Sandy became a National Umpire early in her bowling career.
Sandy said “My next biggest thrill other than the fact that I got to mark Australian Open finals at Tweed Heads, World Bowls finals, Asia Pacific finals. I got to mark all the women’s finals, such a thrill then at the 2018 Commonwealth Games I was actually appointed as Chief Technical Official of the whole games, and all the officials of course, so I had 42 officials under me, I had to do all the rostering. Being the CTO of the Commonwealth Games was absolutely massive for me. I’ve always said I’ve been so lucky because I’ve worked with the best people and I’ve been lucky enough, especially going to all the BPL’s, watching the best bowlers in Australia and some from around the world. I consider myself so lucky.”
Sandy spent 7 years as a Co Presenter on a 1 hour Radio show on Sunday mornings during the bowls season with Coast FM.
Sandy has been very involved with the education of new umpires. This has taken her to Papua New Guinea twice, New Zealand four times and different states of Australia. Her time in Papua New Guinea had some humorous moments. While there she soon found out that there was a shortage of tape measures and was amazed when palm leaves were being used to measure for shot. On her return to Adelaide, Sandy quickly gathered up tapes and umpire equipment and sent them up there ready for the players use during the Pacific Games.
Sandy has been on the National Officiating Advisory Committee for 6 years. Sandy’s passion has been the Umpire Trainer/Mentor at the 18 BPL competitions. She has only just retired from her BA volunteering roles. Having clocked up over 100 flights during this time.
Sandy’s response to the question of where to now is “I’m at a stage in my life where I’m just happy to play wherever I’m selected to play and continue with Adelaide on Saturdays and Holdfast on Thursdays, so I’m very lucky to play for two great clubs. Also I want to continue getting as many umpires and accredited officials out there in our state. Our state is my 100 percent focus until I’m too old to do it”.
Congratulations Sandy on being awarded your life membership to Bowls SA.
