Our Ladies Captain - Cheryl Greig

From the moment she started working as a secretary/sign writer, Cheryl has been an achiever in a wide range of jobs and the signs now point to her continuing that success in her latest venture with our Club.

The second-youngest of eight siblings, Cheryl learnt from an early age that knuckling down to the task is absolutely necessary for success and her attitude in that regard has not changed to this very day. Cheryl was born in the far north Queensland town of Innisfail, reputed to have the second-highest rainfall in Australia after Tully, which lies 53kms further south.

Her early days were awash with fun as she and her three sisters and four brothers kicked around town and attended the East Innisfail State Primary School. Cheryl rounded off her education at Charters Towers before returning to Innisfail to take on her first job.

She later moved to Cairns where she married a local lad, John, in 1975 and the pair instantly took off in a newly acquired caravan to begin a three-year working holiday. They stuck to the capital cities where work was guaranteed, Cheryl gaining employment as a personal assistant for a boss at Lloyds of London in Melbourne and then as secretary to the manager of TAA in Sydney.

She and John then decided to move to Perth in 1984 and set up a fruit and veg business in Lynn Street, Trigg. Then followed a stint at their ice cream parlour, a venture Cheryl describes as “geographically crazy” as she had to drop her kids off to school where they lived in Karrinyup and then drive all the way to Midland to open up shop.

Cheryl remarried (to Jim) and for a while worked as a retail assistant at the prestigious John Walker chocolatier shop in the Karrinyup shopping centre. Then followed a stint as the manager of Rellim

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Booksellers in Hay Street and later in a newsagency back at Karrinyup.

That job fortuitously led to Cheryl’s introduction to bowls in 2016 when the staff decided to hold their Christmas bash at the Scarborough Sportsman’s Club. While there she bumped into Sorrento stalwart Ray Stapledon, who offered some free coaching and an introduction to our bowling club. The rest is history and Cheryl now has her name in gold type on the Sorrento honour board along with Jackie Maxwell and Kath Harris as winners of the Club Championship triples in 2020-2021.

Cheryl is extremely family orientated, an attitude which indeed extends to the Sorrento Bowling Club. “There are some really good people at Sorrento and I’d love to see the Club get going again in terms of absolute unity,” she says.

She is naturally immensely proud of her three children and seven grandchildren as well as her three step children and their two children. Her eldest, son Mark, lives in Switzerland and has two sons named Jann (eight years) and Finn, who is rising four. Her daughter, Sharnie, lives close by and has three daughters including six-year-old twins Evelyn and Charlie plus nine months old Madelaine. Son Clayton also lives in Perth and has two children named Johnny (8) and Imogen (5). And rounding off her extended family are step grandchildren Thomas (11) and Autumn (7).

This photograph illustrates Cheryl’s strong family bonds and was taken on Sharnie’s 40th birthday in August. Standing on Cheryl’s right is Sharnie’s father, John, while on her left is her husband, Jim, Sharnie and her husband, Tim Crommelin.

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