Avondale pub or bowling club?
Public urination, violent incidents and drunk and disorderly patrons has seen the Avondale Bowling Club given six months to get its act together or risk losing its alcohol license.
Patrons often leave drunk, neighbours of the Avondale Bowling Club told the Auckland District Licensing Committee.
‘‘They allege ‘numerous violent incidents’, vandalism, littering, excessive noise and ‘inappropriate behaviour’, such as public urination and verbal threats,’’ the committee’s decision on the club’s licence application says.
The club’s president, Arthur ‘Pat’ Bell, has convictions for drink driving and assault after an incident at the club on New Year’s Eve 2014.
Police and a licensing inspector said the club’s bar should be shut down.
Constable Sebastian Miklos told the hearing the 150-member club was ‘‘operating as a tavern’’.
Information from the Companies Office shows the bar turned over $409,116 in the year to March 31, 2015.
Licensing inspector Tim Court says it’s one of the smallest bowling clubs in west Auckland but takes in the highest revenue from alcohol. Bell says the club now has about 60 bowling members and 20 social members and will ’’be lucky to make $100,000 this year’’.
The committee’s commissioners issued a sixmonth licence renewal in their September 1 decision. The new licence has shorter hours to ‘‘allow the club to put real focus on the game of bowls’’.
Club vice-president Keith Walker has stood down as bar manager. Bell says he has cleaned up the club since he became president five years ago, banning troublesome members and kicking out drug dealers.
‘‘We got rid of all the riff raffs. We are not called the Avondale pub anymore, we are called the Avondale Bowling Club.’’
The new bar hours of 4pm-8pm during the week and 2pm-9pm on weekends are a good thing for now, he says.
But the club is struggling financially now, with greens needing repairs while the liquor licence cost $50,000, he says.
Its women’s team is one round away from winning the Auckland interclub tournament. Bell will represent Samoa at the world championships in Christchurch on November 26.