📍 Welcome to today's episode. We're thrilled to have Joanna, a committee member from the Singapore Cricket Club joining us. We'll be exploring how to find your tribe in Singapore and build connections within the vibrant community, whether you're new to the city or a long time resident, this episode is packed with insights on enjoying all that Singapore Cricket Club has to offer. 

Welcome Joanna. Thank you so much for coming in today.  

Hey Paula and Rachel. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. 

Uh, yeah, it's good to have you on.  Maybe you can tell us a little bit about you and how your journey here, how you got here.  

Sure. So I'm from Colorado in the U S and I was out East for a really long time.

I'm a journalist and, uh, met my husband out there as well. He got an offer to come out to the US. And work in Singapore. So, we moved our family with two young kids, a daughter who's now eight, a son who's now six. And we've been in Singapore for a little over five years. And we're really enjoying it. The kids are enjoying school and I'm having a good time.

Uh, really got into the, The community and, um, you know, even though the pandemic made it a little bit harder for a while, it's been really good.  

Did you find it hard when you first moved here or moved to Singapore to find friends and to build your community?  

At first, yes, it is kind of trying to figure out what really works for you.

My husband immediately knew that he wanted to join the cricket club and play cricket. So that helped us on our path because we basically immediately applied to join the Singapore cricket club. But apart from that, it was kind of finding the parents of kids in school and just working through how to,  who you might really get along with in Singapore, I guess, and it is a little bit different.

It's, I think there are similarities with  America and, you know, it, People generally speak English and stuff. So it wasn't super, super hard, but there's also a community can be so tight that I think, um, if you're a newbie, it can be a little bit hard at first until people get to know you. Um, I would say it maybe took a little over a year and then people really started to say, okay, wait, I know you, this other person knows you and it did get better. 

And when you said, is it a hard process to, I mean, you've chosen the Singapore Cooker Club, was it a hard process to go through to become a member?  

It's not too hard. Basically, you just pay the fee. So you talk to the membership people, they find somebody who's looking to sell their membership. Right now, the memberships are in the mid twenties, thousands.

And.  You, as long as you pay the fee, you get approved. I mean, there is a process and you need to be somebody who has, is in good standing in Singapore and this sort of thing. But overall, basically, if you want to do it, you're pretty likely to get it.  

How do you prove you're of good standing?  

Oh, it's just that you have a valid employment pass.

I mean, it's,  you know, the. If you've had a bankruptcy recently, that might be an issue or something like that. But overall, it's, um, it's not like some huge moral test or something like that. It's just No to send in a 

police report.  Yeah.  Oh, that's good. Could you give us an overview of Singapore Cricket Club?

How long it's been around. Where is it? 

Okay. Sure. So it was founded in 1852. Been around quite a long time and it's located in the padang, which is the center of Singapore. It's the historic area where tons of stuff has gone on over the years and the building itself is a historic building. So you go in and this is the same building they've had for over a century.

You have Lots of pictures on the wall. You have a World War One memorial. You have all this really cool stuff. Um, and basically, yes, it's called the cricket club and it was started mostly for the officers at the time to play cricket, but they also have done other sports and they gradually got, you know, tennis, rugby.

We have currently 17 sections. So. We have, in addition to, you know, cricket, rugby, you have football, hockey, you have a number of field sports, you have  netball, um, tennis, you have, uh, darts, volley, lawn bowls, so there are all types of sections for people who are at various skill levels, athletic levels, you know, you mahjong or bridge.

And we actually just started up the pickleball section as well. So, yeah, so we're, it's a big trend and a lot of people were interested in it. So we decided to get that going as well.  

Didn't you play pickleball there once? 

I did. I did. Um, I was, a friend was kind enough to bring me along and I tried it for the first time and now I am obsessed.

So I'm actually even considering joining the Crooked Club. Just so I can play pickleball in such a beautiful area. I mean, if I was to go ahead with that, is there a certain amount of people that you need? I mean, is there a certain amount of members that someone has to leave before another person comes on  or it doesn't matter? 

So it's not quite that rigid, but generally we do have a replacement where you find somebody who's leaving, but it's been pretty well matched for a while. So, but you really don't have to worry about that as long as you contact the membership people, they will figure out how you can get in and make it work. 

And are there other requirements? Like, do I need to have, do I have to volunteer? Do I have to be part of a club? Do I have to spend a certain amount of money?  You do 

have a minimum spend per quarter. It's about 150, so it's not too much. And when you start, you're asked to join at least one section. So some people join the wine section, for instance, that was actually my first section, I looked through the list and I thought, well, I don't know.

I'll just start with wine. And then gradually I've expanded since then to others. But yeah, so you can, you can just join in and there's that spending requirement, but, 

you know, 

members are generally able to fulfill it either just by showing up and having a few drinks occasionally or by being in the section, you know, all sorts of activities. 

So there are a lot of different ways you can do it. 

And when you say wine, I'm curious now, you've got, you've got me, what is a wine section? So what, what would I be committed to?  You don't, 

a 

padded stall with lots of wine.  

Well, you pay their fee, which is 10 a month plus GST to, uh, To just be in the section and then they'll have activities like they recently had a white wine event where it was focused on whites and they'll have somebody talk about it or they'll have um, they had an upscale event where people who wanted to spend a little bit more could do that and taste some really nice ones but a lot of them are actually really good value and you get a nice dinner at the Padong restaurant plus you have You know, seven or eight wines that you get to taste, it'll be from a country like Spain or Portugal, or it'll be a theme from a certain type of grape.

So yeah, it's definitely a fun one. Um, and that section has been getting a lot of members just cause it's so popular and people say, okay, so for 10 a month, I can get all these, I can do all this stuff. So that's, yeah, that's very good one. 

Hours of fun. 

That's right. I was just going to say, do you have like restaurants and stuff there as well? And bars?  

Yes, so the Padawang restaurant that I mentioned is the fancy restaurant and our chef Richard does try to do lots of cool things. We rotate the menu pretty frequently, although we almost always have malagatani soup.

Um, I really enjoy the prime rib there and then they have Sunday brunch, stuff like that.  Then they have a couple other restaurants. You have the oval which is under renovation right now  and I'm excited to see how it looks in a couple of months. And then the veranda which in courtyard they're kind of for people who have been working out so you can go there in your sweaty sports gear whereas some of the others you can't necessarily.

The main lounge is a bar and a dining area that has a really nice traditional bar.  We have the Stumps Bar upstairs that's more sports bar themed and it has a big screen so you can see sporting events there and then a lot of other little screens plus a really nice terrace and then you have 1852, the bar that's at the bottom named after the year that club was founded.

And that's where our billiards and snooker section, uh, does their thing. And there's a nice bar there as well. So we have a big library there. So there are a number of places and they all have their different character, which is kind of nice. On any given day, you can  see how you feel. I mean, sometimes I'll just want a little bit of a quieter drink.

That's. Main Lounge or 1852, if you want, you know, the craziness at 1am for a football match, you go up to Stumps, because it was packed this past Saturday night with both, um, the Euro Cup and the rugby match. 

So, 

yeah, you can get different moods at the different places, which is fun.  

I know I've been to a Diwali event with the lights, um, down in the bar, downstairs, which was a lot of fun. 

Um, last year,  so you, you celebrate festivals and stuff then too, I guess.  

Exactly. So we like to cater to what the members want, what's important to them. So there's Diwali, we're doing a big buffet for national day with some games and other stuff, so kids can do that too. We'll do something for Hari Raya.

And then we also have big celebrations for Christmas and for Lunar New Year.  

Sounds like a lot of fun.  Yeah, that's great. 

We have a good group and, um, both the staff and the volunteers. Do a lot to make it work and we're always taking feedback from members and seeing what they want what they don't want.

So trying to Make it work for everybody as much as possible  

So, how did you become a committee member? 

I just ran for it to be honest. Um, There are a lot of americans who've done it. So basically you If you're an ordinary member, so that's the members with the voting rights, you can run for any of the positions on the general committee.

There are four top ones, so president, deputy president, games control board, finance, and then there are eight people on the committee. So I'm one of those who's on the committee. It's my second year on there and people have been really welcoming. And basically I was going a lot. I was on a couple of the subcommittees and I was on the wine and golf section committees. 

And they said, you know, you're involved enough. Why don't you see about doing this?  So I decided to go for it, got on. And now this is my second year doing marketing communications. So I'm tearing that. And that's basically obviously member communications, outside communications, and working on our club merchandise. 

So it's been fun. I have a good group of people working with me.  And, um, Yeah, so you just go for it and see if you get in there, I guess, basically. 

And so what kind of memberships can you, um, apply for? 

You can be, the ordinary member is the one where you basically do the payment right away, um, the mid twenties, thousands.

Um, you can also apply to be a term member.  So, well, ordinary, basically, you have it until you give up the membership, um, the term member is year by year and that's a lower rate. I believe it's about 5000 a year. And so, if you are going to be in Singapore for a couple of years, or you don't know how long, you know, you might want to do that. 

But that's wrapped every year. And then after four or five years, you can also convert to ordinary. If you pay a little bit of a fee, you do have sports memberships as well. So that's people who are pretty good at their sport and junior sports members that are 26 or under. So we do have that pathway for somebody who's, um.

Good at sports, but obviously a 21 year old is probably going to struggle to pay a lot of money. So we get in the younger people that way. And then we also have corporate memberships for companies that want to kind of have a membership for those purposes.  So there are a number of different ways that you can get in. 

I've heard that you've got reciprocal rights for places as well. Once you become a member.  

You do? And that's really nice. I actually haven't taken much advantage of it yet. Most of the clubs are say in India, Australia, the UK, but people who do go just rave about some of these places. It's a lot of fun. I mean, we even have reciprocal rights at Lord's cricket ground, for instance.

So, yeah. So, I mean, There are some limits and so you can't necessarily do everything that a full member at the different clubs can do, but you can get a lot from it. So, if you're somebody who travels or, you know, you visit family at a number of places around the world, then the reciprocal rights are really valuable.

I wanted to ask about networking opportunities. So if you want a corporate membership, what sort of opportunities are there for somebody who would join and  how, how does that work?  

Okay. So in terms of networking.  We don't have a lot of outright networking things like here meet people from this business or something, but there is a lot just of  there are so many great people who are locals or expats who  do certain things.

And oftentimes you'll say, I need somebody who does this and. Uh, a member will say, Oh, yeah, I know someone who does that. Uh, you know, we have a lot of lawyers, so that's good. You know, if you, if you need a lawyer, hopefully you don't, but if you do, there are a lot there. Um, it just, yeah, so the networking is more just that you meet people over time and then they might have a certain business or they might be doing something.

It's mostly about just the camaraderie and the sports for corporate memberships. A lot of that is about having events there because you can have an event at the club if you're not a member, but it costs more. And so it. So people either tend to get a corporate membership or they have the individual membership and they work through that to get the event. 

But either way you can ask, we do have an events team that takes care of that. Yeah, 

because I wondered about that because I've been to quite a few events that had nothing to do with the Singapore Cricket Club. It was  a school event and then it was like a ANZR event. So I wondered how that happened, like how that worked out. 

Yeah, so probably they just had somebody in Anza. I think there's a lot of crossover with the Cricket Club and Anza, as one might expect. I guess 

so. 

So I'm sure they just, one of the members just said, can I do this event? Um, and then I just arranged it with the club 

because I'm, do you do anything else?  I know, I know it's a silly question, but do I have to play cricket to be part of the cricket club? 

Yeah. Well, you know, it's something that people could wonder, so you don't, um, I happen to enjoy it along with my husband playing it, but yeah, You can be, there are even people who really just join for food and beverage. You have a lot of people who join for, say, to play on the tennis courts. And right now there's a stadium on there for the National Day Parade, but the tennis courts are really lovely.

Playing any of the field sports on the padang is great. And you know, you, yeah, so you can do all sorts of stuff. We even have interest groups. So we have groups like that do bicycling, that do, Walking once a month. Well,  goes out on a walk. Um, we have a quiz night. I do that a lot. That's  one of my sports is  quizzing.

That tells you that tells you how coordinated I am, but  it's  yeah, so there are a lot of different things as well. That just are aren't so formal, but. People have gotten together over time, and there's a decent mass of people who want to do it. So, that's, there's just a huge range of things you can do, you know.

You can just, yeah, just sit at the main lounge and have drinks occasionally. Or, you can be a  top squash player, because we have some of the top squash players. We have, um, a world champion at, uh, billiards. So, Peter Gilchrist.  Yeah. So, um, that's very exciting and you know, so we just have all sorts of people with varied skills and interests. 

So I guess, I mean, it depends on the individual how involved they want to be in the club, right? Whether they want to be in volunteer or on a committee or whether they just want to drink in the bar.  

Yeah, exactly. So, um, the, the committees and subcommittees. Do we rely on volunteers, obviously, and then the section committees also do quite a lot.

So, you know, you have the cricket section or the golf section or rugby, you know, they have hundreds of members. And so it's just making sure that everything's organized, that they can do their,  uh, their season and have all sorts of games. And obviously there's staff as well, but we do have a lot of members that put in time to make things happen. 

So that's kind of nice, but you can also just be somebody who wants to take part in it or do something occasionally and you don't have to volunteer if you don't want to so There are a lot of people who just say I just want to show up occasionally and have a good time That's it. And that's fine too. 

And is there a rugby tournament soon? I feel like I've heard a rumor. 

Yeah. So in November, I think we have the rugby sevens and it's going to be at 75th year, actually. So it's a big one. And I believe it's the second oldest rugby tournament in the world. So it's pretty cool. Yeah. Um, it's, yeah, so it's fun.

We have, in addition to that, we have hockey sixes. It's usually. Early in the year and, um, We have, uh, let's see,  

I just wanted to ask what happens with the rugby sevens. What happens in the tournament? Who plays? 

So it's a whole group of teams. A lot of teams come in from Australia or there's one that comes in from Fiji and they just all get together here and you have, it's, it's the sevens, so it's a, it's a smaller and quicker group. 

And, um, or quicker games, so you just get all of them playing, and then they get sorted out into the different levels for the next day for the championships, and then basically, it's just, um,  you know, they just play for a couple of days. It's really cool. It's a lot of fun to just see, and since the games are shorter, you can watch a few and then get up.

There's always some nice refreshment and merchandise and stuff like that as well, but it's a lot of fun. And actually it, I remember, so it's hockey sixes and soccer sevens.  As well, and then we sometimes have a cricket t20 tournament 

So it's quite different to the actual singapore sevens, which is held at stadium. 

Yeah, right. Yes Sorry, I should clarify that that's a separate thing and it is bigger. You have that whole crowd We don't have as many it's not as crowded and that's the Official national teams. This is more of club teams So, you know, a team from Malaysia or something, and most of these people, the competitors are, you know, they have day jobs as well as this.

So it's more amateurs, but that also makes it a lot of fun.  

All right. And, and what ages does it range from?  

You have, well, for rugby, actually their academy starts kids at age three, just kind of running around. It's so cute. 

Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's super cute. 

Yeah, so we have a second set of fields at Dempsey, um, partially because we have the fields taken away at Padong for National Day Parade sometimes.

But, um,  yeah, they, they start at age three or so. And, but for something like the rugby sevens, they do have kids teams, um, for, for part of it. So the kids get a chance to play and get to interact with the players. So that's good. But. Most of the people competing in there are going to be in the sort of prime age range.

Um, you know, I guess most of the players are probably, what, 16 to 35 or so.  But they do try to involve the kids in most of the events that we have, the bigger events we have, whether it is soccer, hockey, you know, just, you know, Let them get out there a little bit and see what the sport's like. 

Excellent.

That's awesome Um, and I was just wondering if they had an old boys team or old girls team  Because sometimes that's fun as well 

Okay. Yeah. Well, so rugby for instance, they have girls in the um, I would say 18 and under age range I I don't believe they have a ladies team at this point But, um, they're definitely working to boost the number of women there.

Um, Cricket is also developing girls and has a women's team. Um, you know, it's usually a smaller number of, of women and girls than it is the men and boys. But we are making a real effort to develop the, the women's sports.  

That's very cool.  

Yeah. 

That's great.  

Yeah. And netball is mostly women, I guess. So there's also that should give them a shout out and, and hockey is really pretty equal.

There are a lot of people, a lot of both men and women.  So yeah, it's, it's been nice and especially in the past few years, they've most of the sections have really worked to develop women.  

Do you do other things like tours and stuff?  

Tours? Yes, we do. It's mostly with the sections themselves, but a lot of them go out and do something somewhere, you know, you'll get the, a lot of people go to places like Penang, you have a darts tour coming up that's going there. 

Golf is arranging a trip to China soon and possibly one to Japan. Um, The rugby section just did a two week tour to Spain. That was one of the biggest and most ambitious ones they've done in a long time. And it was pretty great too, because, uh, they held an event that did some fundraising. So some of the younger guys could go as well, who again, couldn't necessarily afford a two week trip to, to Spain.

Right. So, um, so people do kind of the older, more established people in many of the sections do try to look after the younger ones a little bit as well, but yeah, we do, the sections do a lot of tours and it's a nice bonding experience. Um, you know, I went on a tour to Malaysia with the golf section and they were so nice to me.

It was just a lot of fun. We also went up to Kuala Lumpur. I know tennis does them to Hong Kong and just recently did one to Perth. So there are all sorts of opportunities to travel and just do something that's a little bit different. Then being in Singapore all the time. So, and it's really good for bonding with your friends and teammates. 

That's nice. It's, it's also very nice to know that there are things other than just sport as well, right? So, I mean, and it, and it allows anyone from Singapore then to be involved because there's too, you've got so, I didn't realize you had so many different  kind of, uh, groups or different events and stuff that you do.

So that's very cool. You're convincing me.  

It's a lot of fun and it's great because you have in Balut, for instance, you have people in their 80s and 90s who are doing the tours for Balut and it's a dice game. Right? So 

that was my question. What is that? 

Yeah, so it's kind of like Yahtzee if you know that, but it's 5 dice, you get 3 tries to get a certain result.

So a Balut is all 5 dice are the same. Yeah. And a lot of it's luck, although the debate in Balut is always how much is luck and how much is skill, right?  But,  but they do tours and it's a lot of fun just playing with them. I didn't know it at all before I came to the club, but that's when I, a couple of people said, Oh, you should do this.

And so I did, and I really enjoy it. It's, you just get to hang out with friends. You have a little bit of mixing because the person who has the lowest score at the table moves on to the next table for the different rounds.  But it's really enjoyable, and it's one of those things that you can play basically at any age.

So, yeah, even people who have been active in the club in, say, rugby or cricket, will move on to stuff like lawn bowls, to darts, to balloon.  So, you can still stay active and, uh, even when your time in the intense sports is over. laughs 

That sounds cool.  Do you have any like, um, events on at Christmas time, like markets or anything like that? 

We do. 

We have, I believe it's happening again this year, uh, um, a Christmas market event. It was so successful last year, um, And actually, Sally Leonard, uh, put it on and it there were tons of vendors and people were just going through. It was pretty amazing. So we try to do things that will resonate with the members and that one has done really well.

We do a lot of other stuff for Christmas, too. Just the Christmas roasts and special menus for, Christmas Eve, Christmas. So there's a lot of stuff around it. The sections will also do their own events at Christmas time, usually, and then Lunar New Year and stuff. But yeah, the Christmas market was definitely one that was, was really popular because there were so many interesting little vendors that were in there and it's something you could go through and see stuff that you might not necessarily have thought of, but then you say, Oh, wow, that's really cool, like drawings or, you know, little gifts that you could give to people for the holidays. 

And you open all through the, all through the year?  

Yes.  So we're open even, you know, Christmas, New Year's, everything. So there's,  I don't believe there's any day that it's closed per se. I mean, I guess if there's something where they would have to close, but I don't think there's any set date that it's closed. 

What would you recommend to somebody who's just arrived in Singapore? Would they find the club helpful to join? Or  

you can find a niche with sports if you want, or you can just go and sit in the main lounge and have a drink and kind of chat with people over time because people do tend to say, Oh, how are you doing?

You know, I'll get you this round. Um, and so over time you start to come and. You start to recognize people and then you can find your group, whether it's a stumps or main lounge. But I think something like that is nice just because it gives you a ready place to go  and a ready kind of group of people that you can interact with from all these different sections, the interest groups.

And then you just say, it, you know, You just decide what you like and what you want to try and then you go from there. Is 

there any way that we can, like, if a new person wanted to  Um, join the club, where would they go? 

I would say just if you want to join the cricket club, you can email our membership people and they'll set you up right away.

I've had such a great time at the cricket club and of course I'm on the committee. So I like putting the time in and I love it, but  I do feel like it's a good place to find people that, that can enjoy the same thing as you. And they're definitely different groups. But you can just kind of find your group and it's a lot of fun So, you know, I would definitely recommend people check it out.

And I know there are several other nice clubs I think the American Club is one that I know is really nice British Club, you know, it just it  for whatever people tend to like and if you go check it out and see if it gives you a good vibe, right and The club culture does seem like it's bigger here than in some other places But especially for expats who might not be from a club culture.

I would say it's something that  That you might want to think about just because it is  a nice ready way to meet people. And if you're from a club culture, then you get it already.  

But I mean, that's very, very true in terms of when you first, especially if you've never lived in Asia before. Club cultures are in every country.

So when you arrive and especially if you don't have children, so there's no way that you can meet new people. A club, especially like ones like Singapore Cricket Club is an amazing place to find like minded people.  

For sure. So I know I've been lucky because I just got along with so many of the people pretty quickly, but it's been something that's made my experience here way better than it would have been otherwise. 

That's good to know.  For sure, you're nowhere without your tribe, aren't you?  

Exactly. And so I guess, um, we'll put everything in the show notes of all the contact details for the Singapore Cricket Club and how to get in touch with them and get involved.  

Yeah, yeah. So one thing that has been nice about the club is that there is stuff for the kids.

It's not something where they have a play area, for instance, but they do have a lot of activities the kids can do. So my children play cricket. They're eight and six. So eight year old daughter, six year old son, and the son does hockey. The daughter does tennis. They both come to the chess. We have something every other week.

So and they also love it. This is kind of funny. They love going to stumps. And so they come in and The they'll say, oh, mommy, I want to go to stumps and people kind of look at them. Funny. Right? Because it's a sports bar.  Like, what are they doing up there, but they love the popcorn because they have  And it's so good, it's just nice and a little salty  so They love going up there having the popcorn and having a shirley temple or a sprite And just kind of hanging out and it's also a good place where You sometimes I'll be somewhere else and I'll say to them, Oh, you can go up and get popcorn on your own.

And they love doing that, right? They feel so excited and independent. And I know it's, it's just at that age before you get more independent, but because at the club, it's a place, you know, they won't really get lost. It's safe. So they can try out a little bit of ordering stuff for themselves and doing that sort of thing.

Well, in a controlled environment and the sports, they also have like an Easter thing for the kids where an Easter bunny comes and gives them candy. You know, they have a lot of different things that are aimed at the kids. So it's been really enjoyable for them too.  

Well, that's good, because I, for some reason, I just thought it was an adults club, but that makes sense, that you can bring your children along and you can have a whole family membership. 

Exactly. So, after 7pm, usually, they want kids to be out of most of the areas, so it's not the entire time, and that's kids, I think, under 12. So you can have teenagers there, but, but my kids are usually gone by that point, but it's, uh, and as I said, you know, it's not, they don't have a play area. They don't have babysitters and that sort of thing.

But when they do have a lot of activities that the kids can do.  

Oh, that's good.  

Thank you, Johanna. It's been great. You've been a great source of, of information about the cricket club and, and why you should join a club. Um, it sounds super handy and there's just lots to do and you can find your tribe there as well, which we love.

We're all about that.  

For sure. And thank you ladies for having me on. I really appreciate it. It's been fun. 

Oh, it's  📍 been our pleasure. Thank you again. It's, um, again, we'll find, you can find everything in the show notes. Don't forget to follow us, um, subscribe, have a look at all our social media, um, and see what we've got coming up. 

Thanks again. Bye.  Thank you. Bye.