Bowls: Kensington Bowling Club in Whangārei celebrates 100 years

Kensington Bowling Club life members Ann Muir (left) and George Lyddiard will be part of the club's centenary celebrations. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Recognising the mahi put in by forefathers in establishing the Kensington Bowling Club will be at the forefront of its upcoming centenary celebrations.

A two-day bowls tournament with former members and a dinner at the club, on Huapai St, are part of the celebrations on the weekend of March 4 and 5. South Island-based Bowls New Zealand president Ann Wright will also attend.

The club has around 190 members.

“The centenary celebration is in recognition of our forefathers’ hard work that they’ve put into establishing this club. You think of the old days of picks and shovels, establishing greens was a lot harder physically than they would be now. They haven’t got mechanical diggers like we have now,” club trustee George Lyddiard said.

He started playing at the club in the 1993/94 season and has represented Northland.

The most high-profile bowls player at not just the club but arguably in New Zealand and internationally, Ann Muir, said the centenary celebration was about recognising success as well as the past and the present.

There was no limit to playing lawn bowls, she said.

“We’ve got somebody who’s turning 90 and she’s still playing bowls. You can be in a wheelchair and play bowls. You can have a limb removed and use an arm. We often have little kids playing out there with the indoor bowls. It’s like a game of billiard or snooker,” the 76-year-old said.

The club, she said, was a part of the community and was a safe hub where people could even come and socialise, not just play lawn bowls.

Or they can play indoor bowls, pool, darts, table tennis or enjoy watching the happy feet.

Muir is coaching the New Zealand Blind Bowling Team to the World Blind Bowls Championships in Brisbane in March.

She represented New Zealand women in lawn bowls at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, where the team won bronze in the fours, and at the Asia Pacific meet the previous year, winning gold overall.

Muir coached the New Zealand lawn bowls team to the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and she has been Bowls New Zealand president, a national selector and the convenor of selectors.

The first meeting to form the Kensington Bowling Club was held in August 1921 and four properties on which to construct a lawn bowls green were explored.

The club’s first committee decided to buy for £400 the Finch property on Huapai St, which is now the club’s bottom green, through a mixture of fundraisers, personal loans from members and interest-free £5 debentures.

In 2000, the Whangārei Women’s Bowling Club (formerly Marsden Women’s Bowling Club) closed their greens, sold their property at nearby Princess St and moved to Kensington Men’s Bowling Club.

A full merger was completed in 2010.