Long game as bowlers celebrate 100 years

WELL, we missed out on the 100th test between the All Blacks and the Springboks but, given the way the game turned out, we didn’t miss much. But all is well. At least one centennial event is not being moved to Townsville. The 100year celebration of the Ranfurly Bowling Club is in Ranfurly this weekend with games, a dinner and yarning. I’ve wangled an invitation and it’s the stories I’ll be there for. Not so much who won what and when, but more the bits which tell us something of our social history.

By 1921 Ranfurly had grown over 20odd years from a few paddocks in the Maniototo Plain to a bustling railway town and it was the stationmaster Fred Meggett who pushed for a club to be formed. His successor Lionel Edwards kept up the pressure, but the railways hierarchy had the audacity to transfer him just months before the club actually began in October 1921.

My theory is that, with only a few trains each day, the stationmaster needed something to fill in his time, and bowls was the answer. Railwaymen continued to support the club and engine driver Fordham Drake played a big part in the club’s revival after World War 2. In the same way, the Ranfurly policeman was usually an enthusiastic bowler, Constable Bill Bandy becoming a life member. Constable Tom Kennedy was club president in the 1950s and presented a cup for games against Dunback. These days, no country cop would have the time to take on the sport.

With a horse and scoop and willing helpers an old gravel pit was turned into a bowling green and the game was on. Between games, fundraising became constant. The ladies ran bazaars and the men ran raffles. Dunedin radio pioneer Norman Arundel offered a “radio concert” at which a Ranfurly audience would pay to gather in a hall and listen to music

The Ranfurly Bowling Club is preparing to celebrate its centenary this weekend. Right: Moses Hanrahan shows the way at the Ranfurly Bowling Club in the 1920s.

transmitted from his Dunedin radio station, but reception was bad and the whole thing was called off.

Once in operation, the green needed much work and the enterprising greenkeeper fitted a Triumph motorbike motor to the hand mower to make things easier.

A convivial drink was part of the game and whisky company Dewar’s gave a trophy, which was discovered, burnt and twisted, in the remains of the Ranfurly Hotel after the big fire of 1933 but now cannot be found. But playing bowls on a Sunday was strictly forbidden.

All the while, money was being raised and facilities improved. Today the bowling club house is one of Ranfurly’s most impressive buildings and is the venue for many local events, although long ago a request from the rugby club to hold its aftermatch function was turned down for what the bowlers described as “logistical reasons”. GovernorGeneral Sir Michael Hardie Boys and his entourage dined at the bowling club in 2000 and were no trouble. Mind you, a viceregal party is unlikely to put down a scrum and wreck the furniture.

Although the ladies had raised much money and catered for hundreds of afternoon teas, they were only grudgingly admitted to full participation in the sport, having to seek permission to use the green and being given somewhat restricted access. Mind you, this was the 1940s, long before Fem Lib.

The achievements have been many. Successful tournaments, excursions into indoor bowling and curling, and creating a community spirit no other sport can match. I’ll be hoping to find out more about the characters, the quirks and the contretemps of the club’s 100 years.

So far, I’ve winkled out one story from an oldtimer.

A few years ago two of the club’s most experienced and respected members turned up to play each other in the club singles tournament. It was bitterly cold and everyone else had adjourned to the warmth of the bar and the Dewar’s but this pair were determined to play on. And so they did, through a touch of sleet and a hint of snow and hands numb with cold, end after end. But, at last, a result!

The couple sought the clubrooms and the noticeboard.

There to inscribe the result of their marathon game only to find that they hadn’t actually been drawn to play each other at all!

I could mention their names but won’t. I may well have to play against them this season and you know what happens to blokes who don’t obey the rule, “What happens on the green, stays on the green”.

More tales from the Ranfurly greens may yet emerge and this weekend will be the time to gather them.

I’ll let you know.

Jim Sullivan is a Patearoa writer.