Our 6th Annual Golf Day, held at the Australian Golf Club at Rosebery on 25 September, was certainly our most successful golf day to date. We greatly appreciate the participation of the 68 golfers who played in this event and we hope to net around $20,000 to benefit the students we support.

Honoured Guests

We were honoured by the presence of Ellyse Perry, Malcolm Speed and Colin Love shown here enjoying a drink with friends at the conclusion of the day's play.

Ellyse Perry is a dual international who represents Australia in both Cricket and Football. She is an Ambassador for LBW Trust.

Malcolm Speed is a Patron of the LBW Trust. He was formerly CEO of the International Cricket Council and CEO of the Australian Cricket Board and is currently Executive Director/Convenor of the Coalition of Major Professional Sports. He flew up from Melbourne especially to be with is at our Golf Day.

Colin Love is currently the chairman of the Rugby League International Federation, New South Wales Rugby League and has been the chairman of the Australian Rugby League (ARL) since 1999. He is a member of the Australian Golf Club.

Some thoughts from Geoff Lawson

Fast bowler Geoff Lawson was a guest speaker at dinner. Lawson took 180 wickets for Australiain 46 Tests. He was a member of the 1982-83 and 1989 winning Ashes teams, and astutely captained New South Wales. He went on to coach Pakistan in 2007-08. He maintains a strong connection with cricket as a broadcaster and writer.

He shared the following thoughts with us. "Needless to say that as someone who was encouraged, directed, even forced by my parents to undertake tertiary education, my progress in life was ALL ABOUT education. My elder sister has several degrees and is currently in policy development and advisement to the NSW Education Minister.

My dad ran a service station for 40 years and was a motor mechanic after working as an aviation engineer during the Second World War. He came from a very poor background (as did mum who was one of 13 children) from up in the Snowy mountains region. He had a great intellect but was a product of his time and background. He could have been anything at university. He was the brightest of all the Lawsons. My brother went to Tech College (TAFE these days) and runs a very successful electrical business where he does a deal of work wiring timber mills all over the world — which is quite a feat since his business is in Wagga Wagga!

I studied at UNSW to become an optometrist and went back to Wagga to take up a partnership with my 3rd-grade cricket captain who was one of only 2 optometrists in Wagga at the time. Cricket just got in the way and has since provided me with some unmatchable life experiences, all of which are an education in themselves.

The modern teenager, promising cricketer (and maybe most sportspeople) do not see education as the way forward. The lure of immediate money and, shortly thereafter, publicity and fame seem to be the line of least resistance compared to the hard slog that study often is, especially when the fruits of study are only realised several years down the track. Immediate gratification, immediate access to material goods is a heady lure in most developed societies. Most third world countries don’t have the luxury of offering teenagers significant sports dollars which makes the work of the LBW Trust even more important in those environments.

I still continue my study to keep up to date as a registered Optometrist even though I don’t see any patients.

I’m not sure of the origin of the saying 'knowledge is power' but it is hard to argue with any possible interpretation of those three words.

More power to those who choose to use their brains as well as their bodies!"