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It was a multiple celebration at Omaha Beach Bowling Club on September 10, when dozens of members past and present gathered for an extra special Sunday meet.
As well as the start of the summer season, the club was also celebrating the 30th anniversary of its founding, as well as the completion and opening of a significant extension to its clubrooms.
President Christine Wilkinson said the light and airy extended social area provided a fantastic facility for the club, as well as for community groups looking to hire a meeting room smaller than the community centre next door.
“We were getting to the stage where we weren’t all fitting in, or we’d be inside and visitors would be outside – it was difficult for everyone to mix,” she said.
“Now we’ve got this, it’s such a great facility. It’s really given us so much more room.”
Wilkinson said the clubroom upgrade had been a real community effort, with local builder Affinity Homes doing the construction, club vice-president Frank Timmins managing the project and working on-site, and ITM Matakana supplying materials at a good price.
The bulk of the funding for the build came from Lesley Lawson, who joined Omaha when Rawhiti Bowling Club in Remuera was sold for development five years ago. Rawhiti members received a portion of the proceeds, but they had to be invested in bowling facilities and Lawson donated her share to the Omaha Beach club.
The rest of the cost came from a Lotto grant and club fundraising efforts, Wilkinson said.
There were just 17 members and a small shed when the club was founded next to the golf club at North West Anchorage in 1993, at a time when no houses at all had been built at the southern end of Omaha.
Now, there are more than 100 members and a thriving timetable of social, championship and inter-club fixtures from Wednesday to Sunday every week, and new members are always welcome.
More than 60 gathered at the opening day event, which featured a spit-roast lamb donated by the family of popular club member Ivan Talich, who died in July, plus salads and rolls provided by Damian Langley and New World Warkworth, and a large cake decorated with the club’s logo, a scallop shell with a bowling ball for a pearl.
Wilkinson said it has been a great day with plenty to celebrate.
“We had Graham Ward, who’s in his 90s, put down the first bowl, ex-president Warwick Spicer, who’s in his 80s, cut the cake, and we welcomed a major new sponsor, Heather Walton of Ray White Matakana & Omaha as well,” she said.
Anyone interested in joining Omaha Beach Bowling Club or hiring the clubroom should go to https://omahabeachbowls.co.nz or email Christine Wilkinson at wilkinsonsmc@gmail.com
