Page 4240 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 26 November 2013
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accessible at a hospital. The renal medicine services include satellite dialysis and outpatient clinics, and will operate up to 24 hours a day, six days a week.
Around 90 staff will work at the centre. When it is fully operational the centre is expected to host about 57,000 appointments in the first year, rising to more than 100,000 by 2020. The new health centre is a wonderful addition to the Belconnen community as we near our 50th anniversary and Canberra enters its second century.
Canberra Cavalry baseball team
MR DOSZPOT (Molonglo) (5.21): Tonight I rise to congratulate Canberra’s own team, the Canberra Cavalry, on what has been a truly memorable year for them and for Australian baseball. Earlier this year, against all odds and expectations, they took out the Australian Baseball League’s premiership, the Claxton Shield. This was the first time a team from Canberra had done so, and they achieved this on the back of three previous attempts when they were the wooden spooners. That was excitement enough for the Canberra baseball fans who have been going in ever-increasing numbers to Narrabundah ball park. But the Cavalry have gone even beyond the club’s and the fans’ wildest dreams by winning the Asia series.
The Asia series is an international club-level baseball tournament in east Asia that was first held in 2005. It features the annual champions of Nippon Professional Baseball, the Chinese Professional Baseball League, the Korean Baseball Organisation, the China Baseball League and the Australian Baseball League. Beginning with the 2013 Asia series, the tournament expanded to include the European cup champion in place of a representative team from the CBL.
Canberra Cavalry is the first team outside Japan and Korea to win the series, and again it really was a case of the minnows against world giants. Far more important than the $500,000 prize money is the prestige that goes with it.
The success of the Cavalry lies in great teamwork on and off the field, and I would like to acknowledge their enthusiasm, their dedication and their belief that Canberra could deliver world-class baseball for Australia and to Australia. Chair of the Cavalry is Glenn Bain. Board members are Terry Daily, Tony Fraser, Peter McGrath, Theo Vassalakis, Kate Goatley, Andrew Blythe and Peter Wermuth. General manager is Thom Carter and, for any listener to Canberra radio, he is well known. He is always on air promoting the game and promoting the team. Like his assistant GM, Anthony Cangelosi, both came out from the United States to work on establishing the team and the game here in the nation’s capital. Michael Collins is the team manager. Well done to all of them, to all of you: the management, the players and the entire support staff.
The players, a mixture of Australian and overseas talent, clearly do not do it for the money because the Cavalry cannot afford to pay ball players very much at all. In fact, their overseas players are billeted with Australian families and the home-grown stars have day jobs to keep the wolf from the door.
They also have some great sponsors, and in Rolfe Renault they have a great one. Richard Rolfe, as we know, is a strong supporter of sporting teams in Canberra,
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