Bowls club rises from the ashes
When the Foxton and Beach Bowling Club was destroyed by fire two years ago, members vowed to rebuild.
A fire ripped through the clubrooms in March 2022, gutting the building and torching memorabilia.
But now a new building has risen from the ashes, and the club is looking to the future.
For the past 18 months the club has operated out of a temporary site, including a marquee to start with, as it was important to keep bowls going so membership didn’t drop.
Work on the new building started in August and finished in March.
The club has adopted an unofficial icon of a phoenix rising from the ashes, and a painting of a phoenix hangs on the wall.
Vice president Ken Macrae said the number one aim had been to keep bowling.
“We’re just lucky, eh? It was hugely sad, the club burning down, but now we’ve got a new facility, and we’re grateful for that. And we’ve done it under budget.”
The build cost about $700,000, but was covered by insurance. A lot of items and money were donated, too.
President Alan Shannon said it had been important to reopen and keep offering bowls for the club’s members.
“We always believed that we would [reopen], but we didn’t know how long it was going to take.”
Before the fire, the club offered Friday night meals, which were popular in the community. Shannon said he hoped this would return now.
After the building burned down, the club used a marquee when events were on, and had Port-a-loos brought in.
Then it shipped an old hall over from Hastings to use as a temporary clubrooms. The club put a new kitchen and toilet in, and started using the hall last year.
The old hall was incorporated into the new clubrooms.
Building committee member Kerry Johnstone said getting the old hall up and running was important for members because it gave them certainty the club could go ahead with the rest of the build.
Shannon said that if it didn’t get the hall, the rebuild could have taken an extra year.
The artificial green was damaged in the fire and was replaced, while a new deck was also built.
Despite the initial damage, it didn’t take long before members were back out bowling.
“The fire happened in March and the new season started in September, and we had no clubrooms,” Macrae said.
“We still played bowls on the green but would sit in shelters on the ends and socialise around the green.”
Membership could have easily dropped off, but soon after the fire, the club gained new members. Now it has about 60 full playing members, with a lot of social members as well.
Macrae said the building was a community facility, and the club had a bright future.
While the club was able to rebuild, it still lost years of memorabilia – photos, trophies, honours boards and certificates.
One old trophy was salvaged, and the club made a new trophy from parts of the door from an old safe that was inside the building. The safe was burnt but is still sound, and will be turned into an outdoor bar leaner.
A bottle of wine from the old bar is now a bit of framed memorabilia, and a door from the old clubrooms has been turned into the benchtop for the new bar.
Club members have paid tribute to the late project manager Bruce Harris, who died in March.
The club was founded in 1960.