Nationwide bowls community rallied around Foxton and Beach club after fire

The bowling fraternity around the country rallied around the club at Foxton and Beach in March 2022 when their clubrooms burned down due to an electrical fault. The fire also damaged their near-new artificial bowling green, but the nationwide support helped them rise from the ashes. They held a festive opening of their new clubrooms last Saturday.

“Other clubs offered donations, some held special tournaments that brought in tens of thousands of dollars, others offered them space to bowl,” said Chris Lander, general manager clubs and community for Bowls NZ, who lives in Carterton. He was one of many who turned out for the official opening of the club’s new digs.

Alan Shannon and Tracey Macrae unveil the plaque for the rebuild of Foxton and Beach's Bowling club clubroom

He said bowls as a sport is in good heart, with 463 clubs around the country. “Most own their own clubrooms and many also own the land underneath it. Bowls offers a great day or evening out for retired folk with many joining clubs as social members only. The clubs are accessible and offer great support to their members.”

The Foxon club used to have a Friday night dinner which attracted many of its social members.

Lander said the national body helped by returning the annual fees for the year (several thousand dollars) and is currently busy ensuring every club has gone through the hoops of updating their constitution and reregistering as a charity, as the law requires. “That is a big job. Too big for many clubs, so we are travelling around the country to make sure they do it in time. If they don’t it can still be done, but it will cost them a lot more.”

The Foxton and Beach club, an amalgamation of clubs in Foxton and Foxton Beach from 2006, is situated opposite the Holben Reserve on Seabury Avenue, has used a disused hall from Hawke’s Bay for the first stage of the rebuild and then attached a new build to complete it. The burnt down building dated from the mid sixties. The insurance pay-out also took care of the artificial green.

Foxton and Beach Bowling Club's new building as seen from the artificial green.

A karakia and official welcome by vice president Ken Macrae, and a blessing for the building and its users from local priest Colleen were followed by a wander through the new building and then by speeches, with a glass of wine and a few nibbles, from president Alan Shannon, Grant Pratt from Bowls Manawatū and Chris Lander from Bowls NZ and others such as Viv Hudson from the Waitarere Club. All recalled where they were when they heard the terrible news of the fire at the Foxton club.

“It has happened before and we know this can happen to anyone,” Lander said. Clubs from all over the country rallied around, he said. Palmerston North donated $9,000, Naenae held a tournament that generated $20,000 plus, as did other clubs. “I got calls from the South Island clubs wanting to know how they could help Foxton.”

Inside the new digs for Foxton and Beach Bowling Club.

Club president Alan Shannon and club secretary Tracey Macrae unveiled the plaque commemorating the new start which can be found at the entrance to the clubrooms. Shannon recalled that the whole insurance process took just seven weeks and two days. “The payout was received within a week.”

Plenty of club members and others from the community helped to realise the rebuild. “It was two years of hard slog, but we can be proud of what we achieved,” Shannon said. Chris Landers talked about the camaraderie he saw on display in Foxton and the fact that so many others got in behind the cause. “The members made sure they were up and running as soon as possible.”

“Grit, determination made this happen in two years,” Pratt said. The club formed a separate building committee with retired builders among them, especially Bruce Harris, who passed away this year. The rebuilt was not only done in two years, it came in under budget.