BROADBEACH BOWLS CLUB PASSES THE PUB TEST
RUN it like a pub.
That is how Barry and Colleen Gilbert transformed the Broadbeach Bowls Club from a debt-ridden mess on the verge of a takeover into a renowned establishment attracting bowlers from around the world.
In 2008 the club was in financial ruin. They owed $150,000 and barely able to pay the couple of staff they had while trying to survive each day.
A special general meeting was called and Barry, who was playing socially at the club at the time, was thrust into the frame.
They were on the verge of handing over the club to Kurrawa Surf Club within a week but they asked Barry if he would consider running it in a bid to keep hold of the club.
Who better? Barry and Colleen had spent their lives running pubs in the NSW regions of Narromine, Thirroul and Glebe before they partnered with late friend and NRL immortal Arthur Beetson to run a pub in Brisbane.
“I stuck my hand up and asked them to give me six months to turn it around,” Barry said.
“They voted me in as chairman. Colleen wasn’t at the meeting so I had to ring her to let her know we were running the club.
“When we took it over it was a mess. I had to even pay a painter out of my own pocket.
“There were weeds growing up the side of the green. The first Friday night we were here at 8pm and there was one other lady bowler here. The kitchen contractor had got a friend of his to sing and we weren’t game to go home because he would have had no one to sing to.
“On a Friday now we can take $25,000 over the bar and there are hundreds of people everywhere. Some Saturday’s you can’t move in the place and we have $1 million in the bank.”
The greatest challenge the Gilbert’s have now is finding enough staff to cater for how busy the club is. It’s why they have both been nominated for the 2022 Daphne Pirie AO MBE Spirit of Sport Medal.
The Medal will be awarded to an athlete, coach, administrator or volunteer who best demonstrates the true meaning of sportsmanship at the Gold Coast Sports Star of the year Gala on Friday, July 8.
The club is now a bucket list destination for bowlers from around the world who come to see the club’s life-size statue of a bull, another thing brought in by the Gilbert’s, play on the greens that hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games and have a beer at a club that will host the 2023 World Championships.
The club even has internationals buying shirts and other merchandise to send overseas.
Barry said it was his ambition to run the club like a pub that enabled it to thrive over the past 14 years.
“We had to move with the times,” he said.
“There was no Keno or TAB back in 2008 so we started putting them all in and fixing the place up.”
The club now intends to do further renovations and are eager to extend an area of the building to include a new function centre that can cater for around 300 people. The plans are with Gold Coast City Council and awaiting approval.