MEMBERS ON SPORTING STAGE - Melbourne Cricket Club
MEMBERS ON SPORTING STAGE - Melbourne Cricket Club
MEMBERS ON SPORTING STAGE - Melbourne Cricket Club
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GRAND RECEPTI<strong>ON</strong><br />
FOR NEW MUSEUM<br />
An exit poll satisfaction rating<br />
of almost 100 per cent and a<br />
doubling of MCG visitation<br />
confi rm that the National Sports<br />
Museum is off to a fl ying start.<br />
Occupying a large space beneath<br />
the Olympic Stand, the NSM has<br />
added a signifi cant new dimension to<br />
MCG operations and has been an<br />
important new string to the bow of the<br />
Victorian tourism industry since<br />
opening in March.<br />
A recent comprehensive survey<br />
of visitors was full of positives.<br />
More than 80 per cent thought the<br />
experience was good value for money<br />
– a very high rating for any attraction –<br />
while museum staff received a 99 per<br />
cent tick for their attentiveness.<br />
In this case, “staff” would mostly<br />
refer to our band of NSM volunteers.<br />
Coupled with MCC guides and<br />
library volunteers, these willing<br />
helpers now number 400-plus and<br />
PEOPLE, MATERIAL<br />
WALK IN <strong>ON</strong> CUE<br />
There has been no shortage of<br />
special visitors to the National<br />
Sports Museum since it opened<br />
in March. After all, there’s much to see,<br />
many sports are featured and the<br />
support of athletes and organisations<br />
has been both generous and appreciated.<br />
The Beijing Olympians are strongly<br />
represented and one of the fi rst to oblige<br />
our collections team was Jared Tallent.<br />
You’d walk a long way to fi nd a<br />
nicer chap and a more modest champion<br />
than Jared.<br />
This young man from Ballarat has<br />
also been walking a long way – long<br />
enough to claim bronze and silver<br />
medals in the 20km and 50km walk<br />
respectively at Beijing, thus becoming<br />
the fi rst Australian male athlete to<br />
win two track and fi eld medals at the<br />
same Olympic Games for more than<br />
a century.<br />
An Australian Institute of Sport<br />
graduate, Jared, 24, has loaned the<br />
museum the gear he wore in gruelling<br />
heat at the Games, shortly after which he<br />
tied the knot with Claire at (where else<br />
but) Walkerville in suburban Adelaide.<br />
Senior members may recall Dolly<br />
Lindrum, whose billiards and snooker<br />
parlour in Flinders Lane was a<br />
<strong>Melbourne</strong> institution. Dolly, 86 and<br />
sharp as a tack, is a niece of the great<br />
Walter and was raised by him in the<br />
Albert Park family home after her<br />
mother died at childbirth.<br />
The Lindrum story is a fascinating<br />
tale of the family’s freakish ability to<br />
pass on their unique cue skills from<br />
generation to generation. As is legend,<br />
Walter was so good that they changed<br />
the rules to give his opponents a chance<br />
to beat him.<br />
His nephew Horace was also a<br />
champion, winning the world snooker<br />
championship in 1952 and dominating<br />
the sport for more than 30 years.<br />
Dolly says the visit to the museum<br />
Australian basketball legend Lindsay<br />
Gaze addresses schoolchildren during<br />
the National Sports Museum’s “Meet<br />
an Olympian” program in July.<br />
recruitment is ongoing.<br />
The Olympic Exhibition was<br />
most popular with visitors although,<br />
as museums general manager Gerry<br />
Kerlin noted, it’s an Olympic year and<br />
favourites will tend to be seasonal.<br />
“Coming into summer, we’re fi nding<br />
the Baggy Green exhibition and the<br />
Shane Warne Pepper’s Ghost feature<br />
are very popular, and our various<br />
football displays are sure to boom<br />
next season,” said Gerry.<br />
“We’re very pleased with the results<br />
of the survey but there’s still much<br />
to do. In April we’ll be opening a<br />
temporary exhibition space for Rugby<br />
League’s centenary celebrations and<br />
we plan to schedule three or four such<br />
exhibitions annually to encourage<br />
return visitation.”<br />
Meantime, we’ll ponder the views<br />
of those surveyed on what additional<br />
sports, if any, they’d like to see<br />
represented. The chequered fl ag went<br />
to motor racing.<br />
Top: Dolly Lindrum admires footage of<br />
Uncle Walter in the NSM. Above: Museums<br />
general manager Gerry Kerlin accepts<br />
material from dual Olympics medallist<br />
Jared Tallent.<br />
was a real eye-opener for her.<br />
“I couldn’t begin to imagine what I’ve<br />
seen here today.<br />
“It’s just marvellous and I won’t stop<br />
talking about it.”<br />
DECEMBER 2008 MCC NEWS 9