A Condensed History of the Bateau Bay Bowling Club

As presented by Michael Peck at the Golden Jubilee Luncheon held on 16th August 2014.

The Bateau Bay Bowling Club’s origins were born from a club called the ‘Bateau Bay Bowling & Recreational Club’ which had been established in January 1961. This club however had no bowling facilities of its own, and shared green space when available at other bowling clubs in the area.

The President of the “Bateau Bay Bowling & Recreational Club”, Stan Robson, together with likeminded bowlers of the day, decided to develop their own Bowling Club on reclaimed swamp land in Bateau Bay. The Bateau Bay Bowling Club was established in 1964 and set about building the first green which was opened in 1965. The early Presidents of the Bateau Bay Bowling Club were Harry Byatt followed by Ken Sneddon and under the leadership of Don Wild, the club was incorporated on the 21st of November 1972.

The first clubhouse was built at the northern end of what is now Green 3, and was a relatively small fibro building. Either by myth or legend, we are informed that on completion of the second clubhouse, at the southern end of Green 3 , the first clubhouse was moved “lock stock and barrel “ to the lakeside at Long Jetty, where it was positioned over the water and used to house rental canoes and boards in summer. It has since been renovated in weatherboard and more recently been used to house catamaran rentals.

Once Bateau Bay Bowling Club had moved into its second clubhouse in 1970 the membership grew quickly and the green space was expanded to four greens. It was in the 80’s and 90’s that the popularity of bowls soared at Bateau Bay Bowling Club , and was such that members had to nominate their teams a fortnight in advance to be guaranteed a game. In the years 2001 to 2004 Bateau Bay Bowling Club held the largest Bowling Club membership of any Bowling Club in Australia, and filling all greens on weekends with social bowlers was the norm.

Towards the end of 1998 it was clear to the Board of Directors that the clubhouse facilities needed to be either refurbished or rebuilt. The clubhouse was too small for the large growing membership. Over a period of 3 years many different solutions to the clubhouse problems were debated, and in the end 99% of more than 350 members gathered on Saturday the 20th of November 1999 and voted in favour of the new clubhouse, which was built over Green 2 on the Western fringe of the clubs property.

Trading commenced in the current clubhouse on the 16th of October 2001 and the clubhouse was officially opened by the then President of the Royal Terry Murphy on the 16th of November 2001. The erection of the new clubhouse meant that the number of greens was reduced to three, and it was hoped that a new green would be born out of the rubble of the old clubhouse, but alas, the fall in the number of bowlers had made the chances of re-instating the fourth green highly unlikely.

An example of the fall in popularity of lawn bowls which has affected all clubs is reflected in the Bateau Bay Bowling Club’s memberships, which rose to its pinnacle of 821 members in 1992 and declined each year to 749 in 1995, to 563 in 2001, to 418 in 2007 and down to 294 in 2013. There is no doubt that the thinning of the ranks of large numbers of retirees in the late 70’s and 80’s has taken its toll on the bowling ranks today.

In October 2004, it was clear that the Bateau Bay Bowling Club Limited, was having difficulty in servicing its loans secured on the new clubhouse and the Board of Directors felt it prudent to amalgamate with another club.

On the 29th of January 2005 a General Meeting was held to propose an Amalgamation with Canterbury. A new record attendance of 409 members saw the proposal agreed to by 404 out of the 409 of those in attendance. On the 23rd of February 2005 Canterbury held a General Meeting which also agreed to the Amalgamation.

The amalgamation of Bateau Bay Bowling Club with Canterbury was in its 9th year when Canterbury served notice to the Bowling Club in September 2013 of its desire to de-amalgamate with our club and to arrange a re-amalgamation of the Bowling Club with Wyong Leagues Club.

The Bateau Bay Bowling Club had been through the rigours of amalgamation nine years before and is now weathering the storm of a de-amalgamation and re-amalgamation at the same time. The Bowling Club wishes both parties every success in their negotiations and look forward to working with Wyong Leagues Club in the future.

Our club has had its ups and downs, but we owe it to all those who have put their blood, sweat and tears over the past 50 years into making this, the GREAT club it is today. So lets all work together in moving forward into the next 50.

Here are the Zone Flags we have won in our Pennant History

Grade 1: in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005 with being State runner ups in 2003 and 2005

Grade 2: 1999 and 2007

Grade 3: 1988

Grade 4: 2006

Grade 5: 1995, 1996, 1999, 2001 and 2005 with being State runner-ups in 1999

Grade 6: 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2014

Grade 7: 2008

We are one of only 3 clubs to win a zone flags in all Grades

Significantachievements at Zone level have been: -

Major Singles in 1999 by Jason Douglas, Bruce Jewell in 2002 and 2007

Michael Stead in 2006 with Bruce Jewell being State runner-up in 2002.

Major Triples with Bill Steed, Neil McArdle and Bruce Jewell in 2003 and Bill Steed, John Shelvey and Bruce Jewell in 2006 and

Major Fours with Shane White, Alan Breakwell, John Shelvey and Bruce Jewell in 2006

This year has been a big year for us with winning the RSL state fours with John Schmidt, Barry Lucas, Bill Roberts and Ron Young.

Paul Hannagan winning the President Reserve Singles, our Ladies winning a zone fours flag and the men taking out the zone 6’s flag.

I hope you all enjoyed looking back in time with fond memories from some of these slides and I’d like to thank Sam Neogy and Gary Cassar for their help putting together this slide show and Richard Martin for sourcing these historical facts.

I’d like you all upstanding to toast all our office bearers, volunteers and green staff for all their contributions over the 50 years of our wonderful club...... Michael Peck

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