Attendance:  Sam recorded 21 members and 1 guest in attendance.  Our guest was Glenn Marler from the Paris end of Kelp Street.  Father Scott Lowrey was an apology as he was still handing out 50-meter penalties in Allansford (see below).

Meal:  Bob ‘the art of the deal’ McMillan has shrewdly negotiated with the bowls club so that we now get a smaller meal for a higher price.   $22 bought you a spicy sausage with mash, gravy and the traditional green.    Francis spent $24 on fillet stakes with all the trimmings and it may have been the best $2 he ever spent.  Lew gave us an update on last week’s report.  He had chased up the money owing from the solicitor and the vicar.  It turns out that the vicar had paid the venue and he issued Lew a 50-meter penalty.  Lew has been able to extract two payments from the lawyer, possibly by suggesting the vicar hadn't paid.  Good work Lew.

Dillo opened the meeting with a tasteful joke about three blond women at an optometrist and then introduced President Rob.  Our President noted that we had a board meeting at Robbo’s on Tuesday the 8^th and the RSL function was on this Thursday.    In other reports;

·       Robbo gave us a practical demonstration on how to use the Stack App.

·       Les and Hayesey gave us a report on the Loved and Shared project.  They are organising the drop boxes being placed around town.

·       James thanked all those people who attended the changeover and asked the club to organise a social event to allow some awards to be presented to some members who missed the changeover.

·       Dillo recminded us that we owe 40 hours of labour to Wilde Racing.  Details will follow.

·       Matt, who is still claiming he tipped nine winners the week before, gave us a footy report.  Adam achieved the rare feat of tipping zero winners from the nine games on the weekend.  Even if you are tipping entirely randomly, your chance of doing this is 1 in 2⁹ or only 1 in 512.  So, tipping zero winners, that is tipping nine losers, is hard to do.  Technically, tipping the nine losers is actually exactly the same task as tipping the nine winners.  I would mount a strong argument that Adam should be paid out for tipping nine.  Think of it as the tipping competition equivalent of a North Melbourne style priority draft pick.  I will appraise Nooka of the situation when he returns and I am confident of receiving a sympathetic hearing from Nooka.  In the tipping; Robbo on top, followed by Dillo and KY in third place. 

·       Dillo reported that his horse, Sunfish, is going very well.  It hasn’t tested positive to any performance enhancing drugs yet and they are hoping of selling the horse in Hong Kong while the going is good.  Your correspondent had a horse in Hong Kong once.  Number 23 with black bean sauce.  Sorry, that was in very poor taste.

The meeting concluded with fines from the floor.  Boré will be on fines next week, so that will be one not to miss.

 

Brendan kindly sends us this report;

A group of club members attended the Persona contemporary veteran arts exhibition on Thursday 3rd August at the Warrnambool RSL. 

Persona is a collaboration between the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (ANVAM) and photographer Michael Christofas and the veteran arts community. 

Our past president James gave a passionate presentation of his passion, photography and what it meant to him. James demonstrated the power of photography when combined with a story. 

The event demonstrated how art helps veterans dealing with life after service. 

Well done to Adam and James on another well run event. 

 

Brooke Jensen is looking for volunteers to assist with the Science and Engineering Challenge.  Please see the club's Facebook Messenger group or the Stack App for details.

Boré’s View.

The Compass reported this week that Father Scott had been officiating a junior football game at Allansford last weekend.  The Padre gave Allansford fourteen 50-meter penalties in a quarter after a junior player from that team said something to Scott that no one should say to a man of the cloth or, indeed, an umpire.  If Father Scott had handed out any more 50-meter penalties Allansford would have been holding their three-quarter time huddle in Panmure.  Good work Father Scott. 

As always, footy fanatic Boré was on hand to capture all the action.

We thank Boré for another great cartoon.

Porcupine Joke.

Don't worry Shane, not that porcupine joke.  We respect the men and woman of Victoria Police too much for that.  Lew Officer sent us this update on the practical problems facing porcupines.  All we are saying Shane is that a police car probably wouldn't have stuck to the branch.  Lew reports;

 

Power of Song ran in Ballarat again last Friday.  Coming off a third and then a second on the same track, PoS faced a weak and small field.  The punters hopped on board and she was the clear favourite coming into the race.  The commentator, who recommended backing PoS, observed that 'he never expected to find himself backing Power of Song at 2.30, but here we are'.  

 

Our conveyance jumped poorly and travelled at the back of the field for much of the race.  She made her move and was close to the lead as they entered the home straight.  Power of Songs natural sprinting talent then took over and the rest is history.  Fifth place, 6 lengths behind the winner and never in the hunt.  I would like to say that the punters might have learnt their lesson, but they never do.  

 

 

In other news, Sirileo Miss' half sister, Matrooshi is edging closer to her first race.  The stables are worried that she is a bit on the thin side.  If only there was something you could give to a horse to help it build muscle.  Only joking of course.  Actually, I thought there was a story in The Age this weekend that was very relevant to Sirileo Miss and her current situation;

 

More exciting updates as they come to hand.