LAHEE Park Bowling Club has closed. Established in 1963, the club is one year short of their sixtieth anniversary.
Shaun O’Brien, the treasurer of the Lahee Park Bowling Club says that the closure is due to a combination of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and safety concerns in the area where the club is located.
“With Covid, we were closed and were still getting the normal municipality bills. The previous president of the club sent emails to councillors, but we never got a reply from anyone. It came to a point where the club owes the municipality R380 000. We can’t get out of that hole without assistance, and our biggest problem is the area as people don’t want to come here anymore. We lost some members to other clubs, and eventually, our running costs became more than our expenses, so unfortunately, we had to take the decision to close,” O’Brien says.
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The committee has chosen to sell the equipment, such as bowling balls, bags and other items to local bowling clubs in the Highway area.
O’Brien says, “We sold the equipment to other clubs who could use it for their members. We don’t know what we will do with the honours boards – we offered them to other clubs who could clean the names off and re-use them. There are some old names on them and late members, too. The Highway Hospice is coming to take the rest. Then I will liquidate the club – there is no going back.”
O’Brien says that although they had 52 current members at the time of closing, it was not sufficient to keep their doors open.
He said, “Our 52 members were not enough. Previously, other clubs came to play tournaments here, but then we were informed they were scared to come to the area. People stopped coming to afternoon tournaments as they didn’t want to leave after it started getting dark. We ran morning tournaments, and those numbers started dwindling, too.”
The Lahee Bowling Club members who want to continue playing league bowls have joined Westville Bowling Club, Westville Country Club and Gillitts Bowling Club.
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O’Brien says that the perception that bowls is a sport suitable for only the older generation is incorrect.
“Growing up, I always thought of bowls as ‘old man’s marbles’, but one of the reasons we battled here is because many of our members are still working – we were one of the younger clubs out of the lot. It’s not a sport for only the older generation. One of our younger players made the Port Natal U30 squad. Stella, Umbilo and Wentworth have many junior members, so it’s not a dying sport,” O’Brien says.
O’Brien feels that one of the most troubling aspects of closing the club is the waste of labour and cost of maintaining the greens to league standards. According to O’Brien, the cost of each bowling green is approximately R1m.
“It’s a sad day for all of us as we’ve had to sell all the assets to pay the last salaries for the employees. Our greenkeeper of 25 years, Dave Lindsay, has been here for as long as I can remember. The saddest part was when we announced the closure, some of the older members had tears in their eyes,” says O’Brien.
The club actively raised funds for charities through competitions they hosted. In 2021, R55 000 was raised for Highway Hospice.
O’Brien says, “The closing of the club is a huge loss in many ways.”
