WINGECARRIBEE engineer Bob Lewis survived 15 games of volleyball in eight days last week to return home from the World Masters Games with a bronze medal.
The evergreen sportsman lined up in both the over-30 and over-45 divisions and it was with the latter that he won the medal.
His bronze-winning team, The Brewers, were meant to be a team of Illawarra-based players, but in the end they scraped together members from across the region.
“We had to do a bit of recruitment,” Lewis said.
“We ended up with one bloke from Queensland, one from Dubbo, another from Canberra, one from Sydney.”
So after the recruitment, the eight-person team was half Illawarra players and half “imports”.
Exeter resident Lewis said he started playing volleyball while at Moss Vale High, some years ago.
His top honour in volleyball was representing Australia at the University Games, but he preferred to dabble in all sports rather than specialise in just the one.
“I guess I am a true sportsman at heart,” said the man who has played cricket, tennis, soccer, Australian rules football, hockey, rugby league, swimming and volleyball, among others.
He has even had some involvement in sporting projects in his role of design engineer at the Wingecarribee Shire Council, including the proposed leisure centre and the hockey fields at Welby.