Super club remains in pipeline
Life membership for Sixtus
The idea of a merging all the bowling clubs in Palmerston North into one super club remains an idea for now.
The project of all the city clubs, Terrace End, Hokowhitu, Palmerston North, Takaro and Northern, amalgamating into one has long been in the pipeline, due to dropping memberships.
Jim Owen has been driving the idea of one club, but he said they were just reviewing bowls in Palmerston North, rather than trying to set anything up.
‘‘At this stage we’re still talking to [Palmerston North] council and trying to come to a decision about the direction the combined bowling clubs might want to go,’’ he said. ‘‘I think a lot of people think there’s something happening, but there’s nothing on at this stage beyond myself and representatives from each of the clubs having meetings with the council.’’
It is uncertain where the potential new site would be.
Hokowhitu owns its clubhouse and part of the car park, with the council owning the rest, Palmerston North is owned by the club, but the others are owned by the Long-serving administrator Vern Sixtus has been made a life member of Bowls Manawatu.
Sixtus, who is a long-time player and has been involved as an administrator since the 1980s, had his life membership announced at the Manawatu annual meeting at the Palmerston North Bowling Club on Sunday.
He is the third life member of Bowls Manawatu since the men’s and women’s centres merged in 2004.
John Vibert, who died last year, and Coral Wing are the other two.
‘‘When it was suggested I wasn’t keen,’’ Sixtus said. ‘‘I got bullied into it. ‘‘I don’t do anything for the bowling centre for the glory of it. I do
council. Owen said most of the city clubs would be happy as they were, but there was a requirement to do something in the future.
‘‘In Palmerston North we have over 300 members in total. For it for the bowlers.
‘‘When it comes down to tin tacks, it’s you guys out there that make the sport.’’
Sixtus first came onto the Manawatu men’s executive in the
each 100 members you need one green and we’ve got 15 greens in Palmerston North.
‘‘We’ve got enough members for three greens and we’ve got enough capacity for 1500 members. It just 1982-83 season, becoming junior, then senior vice-president.
He was president for two terms from 1990 to 1992, then became secretary, and retired in 2004.
In 2010 then president Maggie May convinced Sixtus to come back and he has since become the centre manager, which encompasses the secretary-treasurer role.
Sixtus’ first club was Takaro, where he is a life member, and was on their committee, before going to Hokowhitu, then Palmerston North.
‘‘I’ve had a lot of good times playing bowls. I’ve met a lot of good people and probably seen the glory days of bowls back in the ’60s, ’70s and the beginning of the ’80s.
‘‘The game has changed so much it’s not funny.’’
He has umpired and as a player he has won Manawatu titles and reached the national club finals.
doesn’t make sense. At some stage there’s got to be a move to try and rationalise things.’’
Manawatu’s country clubs, who already have low numbers, are worried about being excluded.
Owen said he could understand their concern, but didn’t think it would be that bad.
‘‘I think it would be the growth of the game, to be quite honest. There’s a group concerned there would be no competition with the clubs in town if that went ahead. That’s premature.’’
Bowls Manawatu president Tony Woodley hasn’t taken kindly to the idea and believed the centre, and country clubs, have been left in the dark.
No-one wanted to talk about it at last weekend’s annual meeting, but Woodley addressed it in his president’s report.
He said one of the disturbing issues of the season had been rumours about the merger and he has been unable to clarify things for the country clubs because Bowls Manawatu has not been invited to any of the meetings.
He said it was discourteous that no input from the centre was needed and all 16 clubs should be informed about planning that may affect their future.
‘‘It is beyond belief that at least there should have been some contact made with us as a matter of etiquette.’’
Most city clubs sang from the same hymn sheet, wanting more information about the potential merger. Takaro president Brian Jarvis said his club members wanted them to look into it, but not agree to anything.
Terrace End president Lindy Crawford said they were yet to ask their members their feelings.
She said there wasn’t anything concrete yet, but acknowledged with falling memberships, something would have to be done eventually.
‘‘All bowlers would like to see the facilities in the city maintained or improved for them to use. But many of the older school will struggle to move way from a club structure into a single facility and will see that as a loss of identity.’’
Northern president Paul Darbyshire said it was about making sure any idea was feasible.
Hokowhitu president Willis Inman said they needed to find a way to get more people playing.
‘‘As far as I’m concerned we would support the process of going towards a nice new all-singing, alldancing facility.’’
Palmerston North differed from the rest, and president Eric Cairncross said most of his members were ‘‘totally against it at this stage’’.
‘‘They don’t think it’s going to come up trumps for at least five to 10 years."