Masters Cricketer Man of Match in US

 

South Aussie cricketing Stalwart wins in US

South Australian masters cricketer Roy Schulz proved a mean bowler in Australia’s national over 60s cricket team in its tour of the United States in May.

On the last day of the International Cricket Festival in Philadelphia at the Merion Cricket Club he was named Man of the Match. And no wonder!

Roy Schulz over 60 but not out… gave his sterling performance of 4 wickets in one match! THE TEAM PLAYED AGAINST FORMER TEST STARS AS Shaun Pollock (S Africa) and Chandapaul from India… They, too, may be grey but not down or out.

It was the first Australian national team to make the trip since 1932 and our seniors  played on some spiffy cricket pitches in Los Angeles,  New York and Philadelphia. Of note was the famous Merion Club and the Philadelphia cricket clubs. These private clubs are steeped in British traditions and standards of dress  and the fields surrounding the clubs showed touches of olde England. As an example of upholding the best of British cricketing tradition, that genteel of drinks, gin and tonic, was served to the ladies accompanying their husbands on the tour by the president of the cricket club himself.  The touring side played against such greats as Chandapaul (India) and Pollock (South Africa).

Roy was his usual modest self when quizzed about his performance, but his No. 1 fan, loyal wife Pamela praised him like any good Aussie cricket commentator. “Roy was indeed Man of the Match on two occasions because he bowled so accurately for a senior,’’ she reports.

“Despite our team often being twice the age of some of the teams they did remarkably well to keep the scores buzzing along.’’

 

Pentagon visit a coup for Pamela

 

Dr Pamela Schulz in the Pentagon

High level military connections continue to serve up surprising treats for Dr Pamela Schulz, chair of the Defence Reserves Support Council of SA.

What could be more exciting than an informal visit to the Pentagon during her recent visit to the United States last month. And the invitation was from the chief of the National Guard Board (similar to our Reserves in Australia) Brigadier General William Stoppel himself.

They exchanged ideas and engagement activities for supporting Reservists with her host and colleague of General Stoppel,  Colonel Christine Stark, Dean of the National Defense University in Washington.

Naturally, this highlight required a reciprocal personal invitation to General Stoppel to attend a Defence Reserves Association Conference to held in Perth, Australia in August this year. Dr Schulz delivered the invitation on behalf of Major General Jim Barry, president to the Defence Reserves Association (DRA)  in Australia.

 

 

 

Oooh La La To Lovely Adelaide

Our French visitors at Dame Roma Mitchell’s statue

For me, this has been an exhilarating week  of  girlie stuff: a strange French woman staying in my house, a glorious garden party with heaps of girlfriends, a girls’ night in delightful accommodation, a Friday lunch to celebrate a much younger female friend’s fiftieth and afternoon tea with my beloved sister.  There was the lunch-hour talk by former colleague Samela Harris on “Books in my Life”  where I snapped photographs and an evening pub meal with my dearest friend.

This smorgasbord of “sugar and spice and all things nice’’ began a week ago when I met the French woman I had agreed to billet, who was a stranger to me.

It did cross my mind as I stood at the balllustrade at the Adelaide airport awaiting the arrival of my house guest that my decision to billet a stranger could be disastrous – a weekend of an impenetrable wall of silence if her English was as bad as my French.  But within a noni-second of meeting Daniele, one of eight French women from the Lyceum clubs in France, I knew our three-day sojourn would be an enriching experience.

Instead I engaged with a delightful female of a certain age – like me – whose limited English bridged all the gaps in my schoolgirl French. She, who swooned when she discovered a koala in a street tree, hails from Brittany, an area where my late husband Olivier had also lived.

Danielle and her seven French colleagues are on their way to Perth for the tri-annual International Lyceum Clubs Congress – and I will join them next week in Perth.

On the Saturday,  Veronique, Jacqueline, Marie-France, Sabine, Danielle, Christiane and Muriel visited the Art Gallery of SA to see the Turner exhibition before my French teacher, Elsa and myself – and two other members of the Adelaide Lyceum Club – took our guests on a walking tour of our lovely city. Patrice, Sabine’s husband was the token male.

Our French friends at Palm House

Our tour had taken hours of planning and began walking along our cultural precinct, North Terrace, then onto the Adelaide Festival Centre, past the River Torrens to lunch at Regattas. Back onto North Terrace we all caught the free tram to the Adelaide Central Market for a 20 minute shop.  After gathering them all up like mother hen with her chicks, we caught the free bus to the East End, walking down Liberman Close to Rundle Street East to Fellinis for superb coffee. There we sat under umbrellas on the pavement against the quaint colonial Northern streetscape of Rundle Street.  We could have lingered, but walked briskly on to the Botanic Gardens.

We nipped into the Lily Pond pavilion in the nick of time before casually walking across the gardens to Palm House, the delicate Victorian glasshouse designed by Gustav Runge. Danielle is in the front row on the right.

Later that night, as Danielle and I dined at Windy Point Restaurant, with our gracious city twinkling mischievously below us, it occurred to me that we are blessed to live in such an accessible, visually beautiful place – Adelaide.  In one delightful  day, I can report that Danielle has fallen in love with the ambiance of our city and tomorrow we will visit Fleurieu Peninsula and our beaches to make her visit a memorable one.