NELSON BOWLING CLUB - 1990 - 2000	(Compiled by Allan Griffiths)
Business House League:
In the 1990-1991 season the Executive of the Nelson Club approved the proposal by a club member to introduce Business League Bowls to the club. The idea was that we contact businesses in the city to play bowls on a Tuesday evening at 6:00pm and play for 2 hours. This would introduce people to the sport, make use of the clubs facilities, generate much needed revenue and hopefully attract some new members.
The league proved so popular that within 3 years we had 22 teams of 4’s playing every Tuesday evening. The social aspect was a huge success with the clubrooms often still open at 2:00am. Match stick games with jugs of beer were very popular and two of the best exponents of this game were current Bowls New Zealand Players Val Smith and Jo Edwards (nee Barrett). These two players also joined the Nelson Club and in their first season won the Nelson Centre Champion-of-Champion Senior Women’s Pairs.
The Club:
The club was also fortunate to be able to attract some new members – not a great number – to the club and the success of the venture was such that several clubs from throughout New Zealand made contact and asked how we had gone about it. Several other clubs in the Centre followed the lead of the Nelson Club and introduced the concept with some variations into their clubs. The secret we believe was to encourage participation and enjoyment but also to offer advice on what people needed to do if they wished to join a club and while we always hoped they might join Nelson we were quite prepared to provide information on other clubs. The setting of the club was also a catalyst to enjoyment.
The Club also had become more competitive in its approach to the game and more and more players were taking part in Bowls Nelson Centre events and they were the last club in the Centre to hold the Interclub 10’s trophy. Several Champion-of-Champion and Centre events came its way during this period and a number of players were accorded representative honours.
The Business League Bowls are still popular in the club on Tuesday night and after a lapse of three or four years the club is once again making its presence felt in Centre events by active participation in Interclub and Centre events.
Property:
Following the Presidents report to the 1993 Annual Meeting of the Nelson Bowling Club (inc) a sub-committee of George Pearce, Peter Price and Bob Sanders was formed to “report into the better use of club property and provision of a better financial base”. Their initial brief was to revisit the 1989 proposal to rebuild the clubrooms incorporating 2 units. This was found to be uneconomic and other options needed to be investigated.
In addition their report showed a wide range of concerns including the club finances, membership, maintenance and upkeep of the club facilities. Along with that report was a recommendation to the Executive of the club.
This recommendation involved the selling of the Hedwig Green, which was the lower of the club’s two greens, the building of new club rooms on the lawn area in front of the current clubhouse and the provision of off street parking. This recommendation would be subject to an overall acceptable financial return to the club. It was also recommended in the report that no Special General Meeting of the club be called until complete details of the proposals were available with estimates of costs and financial benefit to the club.
The result was that the Executive of the day unanimously recommended to the 1994 Annual General meeting of the Nelson Bowling Club that the proposed scheme plan as suggested together with the next stage of building new single level clubrooms, incorporating off street parking, and the possible extension of the Vining Green to 120 ft be proceeded with, and that Mr. Gordon Beck, a partner in Stoke Real Estate, be appointed our sole agent to this effect (in conjunction with Messrs. B.B. Jones and Son Ltd) and that subject to acceptable plans, costs and club room design etc the project be proceeded with as soon as possible.
In acknowledging the fact of the granting of sole agency to the office of Stoke Real Estate they in turn undertook to recognise and honour an existing verbal undertaking between the Nelson Bowling Club and B.B. Jones & Son Ltd.
An Agreement for Sale and Purchase of Real Estate relating to the Hedwig Green was duly signed with the clubs solicitor Gary Stocker from Knapps representing the vendor and Brian Rowell from the Stoke Law Centre representing the purchaser on 14th October 1994.
When the clubs decision to sell the Hedwig Green became public knowledge all hell broke loose with many of the neighbours, and many well known Nelsonians protesting the sale. The local newspaper had a ball and wrote an editorial on the issue, the Nelson City Council responded to the pressure and made the Club an offer for the whole of the Nelson Club property – forgetting that only the Hedwig Green was being sold!! Letters to the Editor of the newspaper were plentiful and there was even one from a lady in California who supported the clubs decision.
The outcome of all the hoo-hah was that the club had to go through a Commissioners Hearing in response to the objections. The Commissioner, Richard Fowler, ruled in favour of the clubs right to sell and develop. After all it was private property and we wished to provide a facility for members of the public to enjoy and also to protect the future of the club.
Throughout this time the sub-committee was completely transparent, (although on occasions because of commercial sensitivity some matters had to be dealt with in confidence), with the members of the club although there are members who will tell you they did not know half of what was going on. A very difficult time for the sub-committee as they not only were having to deal with the publicity but with club mates who had conveniently developed what can politely be called selective memory recall.
This of course delayed the development of the facility and it was to be some years (2004) before the club achieved its new pavilion albeit in a totally different locality and unfortunately still without improved parking.