Getting to Know Our Members

After lunch we went back onto the greens under cool and cloudy skies to do battle in the annual Des Bennett Trophy match between mixed teams of “men” and “women”. The men emerged triumphant by 178 shots to 164, and now lead five wins to four since the trophy was inaugurated.

Thanks to the Croquet ladies Thora Lay. Kerry Bomford, Trish Klemp, Diana McGivern, Judith Skeet, Jan Craddock and Sandy Boon who provided the excellent morning tea, and to Cheryl Greig, Shelley Jeffs, Anne Orton, Pauline Marsden and Trevor Orton for their help in organising the day. Cheryl's flowers were beautiful and were zapped by members who wanted to take them home!

Getting to Know Our Members

Brian Staples has sometimes been restricted by a crook back, but when it comes to putting his shoulder to the wheel it’s a totally different story.

Becoming a recent and highly-valuable member of our Club’s Match committee is just another addition to the list of achievements Brian has managed since his early days in the tiny town of Witchcliffe in WA’s South West.

In those carefree days his sporting prowess was already on display as he and his siblings,

Graham, Rhonda and Trevor belted a tennis ball around on the grass court their father Ron had fashioned alongside the family home.

Other sports abounded down there as well and Brian later became a very good golfer – but, given his family’s sporting genes, that came as no surprise either. The name Staples is deeply entrenched in modern day West Australian sport with Perth based husband and wife jockeys Craig and Lisa Staples being closely related. Craig’s father Rod, who was also a successful hoop, is the Staples siblings’ cousin. And Brian’s sister Rhonda Prosser has also made her mark in the sporting world and, after starting at Sorrento, is now a Premier division player at North Beach and a Skip in WA’s Over-60’s squad.

During those formative times at Margaret River primary school, the word is that Brian was a quiet achiever and simply just got things done, rarely getting into trouble in the process.

Over time the Staples family, father Ron and his wife Ada as well as Graham, Brian, Rhonda, and Trevor all drifted up to Perth to begin a variety of ventures Brian started in an office job with the TNG Group before moving to Brisbane in the tube making industry. He and his wife, Thea, have four children and are now proud grandparents seven times over.

For not the first time Brian’s back, about which he never complains, gave him grief and he had to reluctantly give golf away. But with an attitude which still prevails to this very day when he sets his mind to it, nothing stood in Brian’s way. Deciding he needed a change of scenery he chose to become a postman. The major barrier was that he couldn’t ride a motorbike. But for someone as determined as Brian,

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that problem was quickly resolved. He must have been extremely popular on his delivery rounds because, come December, he was also often on the receiving end of Christmas presents.

After giving golf away Brian was persuaded by his brother-in-law, Rhonda’s husband Ron, to take up bowls. (Rhonda and Ron pictured alongside). Although it’s not obvious, below the surface Brian has an extremely competitive nature, as evidenced by his high success rate with his partner Stu Wright in Sorrento’s weekly 2x4x2 competition.

Now aged 68, Brian likes to think he has pretty much retired but his love of photography and his long involvement in maintaining a family tree keeps him busy. Then there is the task of being a time consuming extreme fan of the East Perth Football Club. Brian has never given up hope that the Royals will return to their halcyon days of three premierships in a row twenty years ago. He also is very obliging when associates in the industrial pumps industry ring and ask if he could give them a bit of a hand. Brian is always willing to help out. But then again, that’s just the sort of bloke he is.

–Jim Woodward

Our Ladies Captain - Cheryl Greig

With such a diverse list of jobs on her CV, Cheryl Greig shouldn’t have any trouble slotting into her latest challenge as Sorrento’s new Ladies Captain.