Nor'West News: March 05, 2019

10
Tuesday March 5 2019
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
NOR’WEST NEWS
Bowling club to mark 100 years
Three-day
celebration
planned
over Easter
• By Gordon Findlater
THE BELFAST Bowling Club
will celebrate its 100th birthday
with three days of festivities over
Easter weekend.
The club will host a get
together on Friday night, a bowls
tournament and dinner on
Saturday, and then a celebrity
bowls event and barbecue on
Sunday. With Easter weekend
approaching, the centenary
organising committee is urging
those interested in being part of
the celebration to register for the
events.
The Belfast Bowling Club was
founded in 1919. The present
site was originally leased
from the Waimairi County
Council, which has now been
amalgamated into the city
council.
Since then, a number of fine
bowlers have graced the green at
Belfast. The club has had three
members represent New Zealand
during their time at the club –
Kelvin Scott, Glen McDonald
and Nathan Glasson.
Scott became the only Belfast
member to win a national
singles title in 1997/1998 when
he defeated Maurice Symes in
the final 21-15 at the Naenae
Bowling Club in Wellington.
Belfast has also been a
dominant force in Canterbury’s
interclub competition – winning
13 of the last 20 sevens titles.
The club has hosted many
social occasions, including
a regular Thursday club
night, which is rumoured to
occasionally turn into a bit of a
party.
“It’s a very social club.
Thursday nights is a real social
occasion, we have meals and
do get carried away sometimes.
Not too much, though, there’s
been no dancing on the tables
yet,” said centenary committee
member Ann Gray.
The committee got some
extra funding for the centenary
through their Mickey Mouse
piggy bank, which can be found
at the Thursday club night.
“If someone does wrong
biases, they get a fine. If they
travel overseas, that’s another
one,” said centenary committee
member Jasmine Latham.
With the clubrooms regularly
hired for birthday parties and
other gatherings, it’s not just
members at the club who have
TURNING
100: Belfast
centenary
organising
committee
members Bill
Haase, Malcolm
Taylor, Jasmine
Latham, Ann
Gray, Murray
Jones (club
president), Les
McFadden and
Eric Allison with
their Mickey
Mouse piggy
bank.
created memories there over
the years. The club’s green is
also often hired out for private
bookings.
“We had one group on a stag
do. They had been on about
a five-hour bus trip before
they even got here, so you can
imagine what sort of state they
were in . . . to get them off the
green when they were finished
I said the sprinklers are set on
a timer and they’re about to
come on, so I suggest getting
off the green,” said centenary
committee member Eric Allison.
“I just snuck into the control
panel and turned them on. The
SPORT
stag just stood right over the top
of the sprinkler and got a good
washing down.”
The current clubrooms and
facilities are the result of a lot
of hard work from members in
the late 1970s and early 1980s,
mostly by volunteer labour.
Sheldon Park, which the
Belfast Bowling Club is part
of, was generously gifted to
the Belfast district by William
Nicholls who was the owner of
Kaputone Wool Works. The park
was named in 1913 after his wife
Sarah Sheldon Nicholls who
passed away in 1911 aged 56.
A significant year for the
club came in 2000 when the
amalgamation of the Belfast
men’s and ladies bowls sections
took place.
The Belfast ladies section was
started in 1955 and has had
fluctuating member numbers
over the years from 18 in 1965
to 10 in the 1979/80 season to
a peak of 42 members in the
1990/1991 season.
“We had a uniform with long
skirts that you had to measure.
When you kneeled down it
would touch the ground. We had
hats and everything,” said Gray.
The club currently has 39
men and 18 ladies who are full
playing members. It also has 10
limited playing members, 76
social members and six living life
members.
HOME: The
Belfast green
and clubrooms
at Sheldon
Park.
•If you want to register for the centenary, email belfast.bowls.
centenary@gmail.com or phone the clubrooms on 323 7205
EARLY DAYS:
Belfast’s
first ever
Manning Cup
winning side
in the 1934/35
season.
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