From the President

Dear Members and Friends,

I hope you have all survived from the Christmas and New Year rush and are back to normal days again.

We had quite a busy time during December with all the Christmas functions which included the Krampus & St. Nikolaus dance, Advent Singen and the Children’s Christmas Party. New Years Eve was a good night for all who came along, the band was excellent but numbers were a bit disappointing. On this note I would like to thank our members and their friends who always attended our dances last year and I hope to see everyone again this year at our functions.

Our movie afternoon on Sunday, February 21 was quite good and patrons there said we should keep it going. Our next movie afternoon is on Sunday, March 21 and the title is ‘Sissi’ with Romy Schneider and Karl Heinz Böhm and has English subtitles for members who don’t speak German.

Our Weinfest will be on Saturday March 27 and on the same weekend our Stock Sport group will host the Canberra Cup tournament. We wish our team all the best. Contestants from the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney will join us on Saturday evening for the Weinfest.

Easter is not too far away, please note that our club will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Looking at the club’s business achievements over the year I’m pleased to report to you that we have done well, and therefore the committee has decided to donate $3,000 to various charities.

See you on Sunday March 21 for our Movie Afternoon.

Richard Reiter                                                                                             Updated on 09/03/2010

From the Austrian Choir

A new and busy year of singing and fundraising is again ahead of us. But before we go any further the Committee and members would like to congratulate our president, Sue Faulkner who received the Australia Day Medallion from the Department of Defence.

The Committee would like to thank the patrons and guests for their cooperation and readiness to book at last year’s Advent Singen. We had a full house under the Club’s licensing law requirements, and were very happy to report that no one had to be turned away. While it is regretful that an admission fee had to be charged, the feedback was positive in that everyone had an allocated seat. The whole system worked very well and will be used again at this year’s events.

In September this year the Austrian Australian Choir, which includes a number of Austrian Choir members, is embarking on another concert tour to Europe. The tour will commence in Germany and for its first performance the choir will sing the in the beautiful Cologne Cathedral. The same evening it will perform at a concert with the host choir in Spich, which is near Cologne. There will be a lot of sight seeing as well as the tour makes its way south to Esslingen and Munich and then to Austria where we will be revisiting Salzburg, Klagenfurt (Maria Saal) and our friends, the Chor Neubau in Vienna.

Have you noticed that the choir has been wearing Dirndls at some performances? This is because one of our members, Jean Roberts, was the successful bidder for approximately 30 Dirndls and an assortment of blouses on Ebay. She is now looking for the Trachten Kniestrümpfe (knee high sox) to complete the outfit. While the official blue uniform is still our main dress, it is nice to have an alternative, especially something that is traditionally Austrian and so very colorful.

Mit freundlichem Sängergruß
Hanni Glanznig                                                                                                                   Updated on 09/03/2010

Stock Sport Report

Stock Sport, Ice Stocks or “Eisstockschiessen”, is a sport which originated in the Bavarian region of Southern Germany and Austria. Basically, players slide stocks over a surface, aiming for a target. Although the sport only became officially organised in 1934, it is believed that the sport is much older. First proof of the sport was demonstrated by a famous Dutch painter, Peter Bruegel the Elder, in a painting Winter Landscape With A Bird Trap that depicts a typical Winter’s day in Holland in the mid 16th century. In the bottom left corner of the painting there appears to be two groups of men on the ice, playing something which very much looks like stock sport!

These days, stock sport is played all year-round on competition “Bahns” that have an ice, bitumen or concrete surface. The game is similar to lawn bowls in that the object is to get as many stocks as possible as close to the “jack” or “Daube”. Teams are made up of three to four players. The stock itself is made out of metal, weighs around 5 kgs, and can be thrown at up to speeds of 50 km/hr. In fact, Ice Stocks has been played as a demonstration sport at the Winter Olympics on two occasions.

	Left: The Stock
		Right: The Bahn - Stocks and the ‘Daube’ on a bitumen playfield

Back in 1990, Werner Binder introduced stock sport to the Austrian Club. By 1992, the stock sport sub-group was formed and has continued ever since to what is now Stock Sport Canberra.

Today, Stock Sport Canberra has around 15 members and we compete annually at national competitions in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast. We play every Thursday night at 6:30 pm on the concrete Bahns outside at the back of the Austrian Club. Why not come down and see what it’s all about? It’s free to have a try and all equipment is provided.

On Sunday the 7th of March, Stock Sport Canberra will be holding a day competition against teams from N.S.W. (i.e. Cabramatta and Hubertus). This is a new competition, the A.C.T./N.S.W. Cross-border Competition, which we started last year. Thanks goes to Chrysanthe and her fundraising, as we now have the Hans Menzel Memorial Trophy to compete for in this competition.

On the weekend of the 27th and 28th of March, we will be hosting the Canberra Cup competition. The Canberra Cup is an annual, national tournament, showcasing some of Australia’s best stock players. Canberra looks like having 3 teams competing. It will be a great weekend of stock sport action and spectators and supporters are always welcome

Stock Heil!
Peter Menzel
President, A.C.T. Stock Sports Club                                                                Updated on 09/03/2010

Schnapsen

And another year has slipped by! Kinder wie die Zeit vergeht! The 58^th Round is coming to an end. After 8 Rounds Fritz Baier is leading with 29 points, second is Leo Hammerschmid with 27 points and equal third are Jetty Baier, Werner Froewis and Friedl Peter, all with 26 points. Every second week we play for the ‘Wurst’ (sausage).

We have a new Champ! Helmut Dobringer won the ‘Wurst’ three times! Leo Hammerschmid, Frieda Koeck, Luise Mack, Helmut Paier and Gretel Schweiger all won one.

We will have our Christmas Party on the 7^th. December. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Werner Froewis                                                                                           Updated on 30/11/2009