A Fitting Farewell for a Selfless Man

A Fitting Farewell for a Selfless Man

Richly-deserved tributes and his own renowned sense of humour were entwined at the funeral of much loved Sorrento legend Brian Self. A large contingent of Sorrento bowlers in Club uniform, forming a guard of honour, set the scene for a warm farewell to a man who had little trouble making friends wherever he went.

Our own Bruce Eagles who conducted the funeral service with incredible passion painted an enlightening picture of both the suffering and resilience involved in Selfie’s long battle with cancer. Bruce was followed by Brian Lucas and Ron Rogers who delivered heartfelt eulogies, the contents touching, but not surprising, to those in attendance. Brian’s son Jason then spoke of the love for his dad and three of his four grandchildren joined in to pay tribute to the man they clearly adored.

Bruce Eagles, who for a long time was the Chaplain at Hollywood Hospital where Selfie underwent a lot of his treatment, provided an anecdote which revealed Brian’s sense of humour no matter how serious the situation. “Quite often I would drop in to see Brian just as a nurse was preparing to administer his chemotherapy treatment”, Bruce said. “Just about every time he would turn to the nurse and say ‘why have you called the Chaplain, is there something you are not telling me?"

Brian Lucas told of his impressions of Selfie when he first met him at

our Club in 2009. “I quickly learned that Brian was a straight shooter – right to the point,” he said. “Uncompromising but at the same time willing to listen to the opinions of others. You were never left wondering where Brian stood on an issue.” As an example, Brian pointed to Selfie’s decision to become a Selector, a position he held for more than six years. “Arguably the hardest Club job is to pick 36 compatible and competitive teams twice a week from 150 players, with some having inflated opinions of their own ability and others reluctant to play with certain players,” Brian said.

Brian then recalled how Selfie took selling raffle tickets to another level after only about 80 tickets were being sold on each occasion. “Selfie decided this wasn’t nearly good enough,” Brian told the mourners. “He took on this responsibility and increased sales to more than 300.” Nobody escaped Selfie’s eagle eye and he was quick to berate anyone he caught walking around the side of the building and coming in through the back door to avoid putting their hand in their pocket.

“True to his nature, when Brian’s cancer started to get worse, he never complained, remaining stoic and determined to do his best to fight it,” Brian Lucas said. “I asked him on many occasions how he was travelling and received the same response, ‘I’m going alright mate, what’s happening with that Red side’, or something else to change the subject."

Ron Rogers told of how he and his family’s association with Brian and his wife, Joan, developed slowly and how they forgave his shortcomings of things like coming over from South Australia and being a Port Adelaide supporter. Their friendship developed, firstly through bowls with tournaments played on the Gold Coast, Dalkeith Nedlands, Swan and even out to Beverley. Later Ron and his wife, Barb, caught up with the Selfs in Scotland while Brian was visiting his native Wales. On

one occasion during that trip, one of Brian’s American friends, while talking Italian, (with his hands) knocked a full glass of red wine all over Brian’s favourite grey hoodie. “Joan thought, great,” Ron recalled. ‘He will finally throw it away’. “But bad luck Joan, because an instant application of soda water and a trip straight to the hotel dry cleaner saw it come back as good as new.”

Later caravanning came to the fore with the Rogers and Grays helping Brian and Joan set up their rig as trips to Coral Bay and Exmouth (which had already been booked again for this year) followed. Typical of Selfie, where thereis a will, there is a way and at Coral Bay bowls were played on a marked out rink using the base of a nearby saltlake as the green. “It ran pretty well,” Ron recalled. “The only trouble was that if it rained, it was no good.”

Selfie and Joan were half way around Australia, in their van but had to abandon their trip in Queensland and fly home when Brian got his dreaded diagnosis. As has already been described by his greatest mates, Brian fought the good fight right up until 17 days before his 74th birthday. And after the final farewells at Pinnaroo on 3 May were delivered and after Brian’s coffin had disappeared from view, his spirit lived on as the Chapel reverberated to Freddie Mercury belting out “Another One Bites The Dust.”

– Jim Woodward