From left : Jim Findlay, Garry Dixon, Bruce McNish

Five years ago, the Karoro Bowling Club in Greymouth was all but down and out.

It was a victim of the demographic gods … which had seen the population of Greymouth decline from 10,000 thirty years ago to something around 7,000 today.

It was also a victim of the extraordinary number of clubs in the small town vying for bowlers’ subs.  Five years ago there were as many as four clubs in Greymouth : Greymouth, Cobden, Blaketown and Karoro … and another two if you count Runanga and Dobson.

And like the gold, the coal, and the coke that had empowered the town, outdoor bowls also seemed to be losing its lustre in Greymouth.

“The club had a meeting to decide whether to stay open or not,” recalls Vice President and Greenkeeper Bruce McNish, “And a number of us committed to doing so … and to put in the hard work that was going to be needed to restore the club’s finances and membership.”

Five years later, with both the finances and the membership in a much better place, those committed individuals from a few years ago are able to manage a tiny smile about how the club nearly went down the gurgler not so long ago.

But they know there’s still work to be done.  Much more.

The big initiative last season was to amalgamate with the homeless Greymouth Bowling Club.

“Greymouth had been using the Cobden Bowling Club’s green for a number of years,” says Bruce.  “But last year, they approached us to amalgamate on our site.  We were chuffed at the prospect.”

The club formed a joint transition committee with three members from each club to oversee the bedding in of the amalgamated club.

“It all went very smoothly,” says club member Garry Dixon. “We matched each other’s bank accounts dollar-for-dollar … with Greymouth also adding in a special trust fund to support the development of young bowlers on the Coast.”

“We would’ve also changed the name of the club, but we were locked in with a peppercorn lease to the council using our current name.”

“We’ve sprinkled both clubs’ honours boards around the clubrooms, and it’s quickly become ‘home’ to members of both clubs.  So much so that the transition committee quickly became redundant, and a new committee was elected from the floor at the club’s AGM.”

“We’ve now got a membership of 36 or so, great clubrooms, a big 36 metre x 36 metre green which is the best on the Coast, and money in the bank.”

It would be easy for the club to now sit back on their laurels and think ‘it doesn’t get better than that’.  But they know it can better …  and are continuing to work to make it better!

“We’ve got a big maintenance programme,” says Bruce. “We’ve just zhuzhed up the women’s toilets, installed new carpet and renewed our signage.  We’ve installed new flush LED lighting in the clubrooms and done away with the awful hangy-downy things we had before,”

Yet there’s still a lot more to do, even though it hasn’t been easy to get to where the club is.

“We had to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in …selling raffle tickets, running housie nights, nagging potential sponsors, and getting the community involved in the club.”

“We’re getting there.”

They must be.

In February, the Karoro Bowling Club won the West Coast Open Fours, the legendary Fours tournament that sprawls across Greymouth’s greens and attracts contenders from as far afield as Australia, Auckland, Whanganui, Central Otago and Christchurch.  Their combined team (with Halswell) of Ian McNeil (skip), Jackie Lee, Kenny Lee and Stephen Daly won what could be the largest trophy in bowls in New Zealand.

On top of that, the club is also looking to restore its legendary tournament from the past : ‘The Karoro Gold Nuggets” which used to give away gold bars as prizes!

“The tournament morphed into the NBS Open Mixed Triples,” explains Committee Member Jim Findlay. “We no longer gave away gold bars, but had a prize pool of $5,000 instead.  We’re going to kick the tournament off again in February next year.”

“All we know at this stage is that it’ll be two days as before,” adds Garry. “But most importantly, the lunches will be as large as before …  we find that a lot of full stomachs makes it difficult for our opponents to push the jack up our 36 metre green!”

Garry should know. When it comes to thanking ‘the ladies in kitchen’ after the tournament, it turns out he’s chief cook and bottlewasher!

Keep up the great work Karoro!