From Biggest to Smallest, Top Clubs of the Year Celebrated
The Sturt and Somerton Bowling Clubs were crowned winners of the Small and Large Clubs of the Year respectively at the Bowls SA Awards last Friday night.
Somerton Bowling Club president Robert Crabbe said his club was “very proud” to be named large club of the year.
“It is a fantastic achievement for our club and we are very proud,” he said.
Robert credited the hard work of a number of people in helping Somerton thrive as a club.
“I think the many volunteers who work tirelessly all year round make our club great,” he said.
“We have got a board of nine directors and over 120 volunteers.
“The events like night owls and the other ways we engage with our community are important and the way we manage relationships with our local council and other government bodies are also crucial.”
Despite being based in an area that has many other clubs nearby, Robert said it actually makes all of them stronger.
“It makes for very healthy competition,” he said.
“We feed off each other and we might be competitive on the greens, but we cooperate a lot off the greens all in the name of bowls.”
Sturt Bowling Club president Jim Trennery said his club felt “honoured” to be named small club of the year.
“We have worked really hard in the last year to make it a more fun club, but we also want to get more serious about success and elevate our teams into higher divisions,” he said.
“This recognizes that we are making a considerable effort to engage more with our community.
“It has grown organically and we need to be more targeted in how we approach younger people and getting more women involved and becoming more ethnically diverse.”
Jim said his club continues to try new things as it looks to achieve some key goals over the coming years.
“Just in the last few weeks we have been letterboxing the neighbourhood to get more women to come to our club, because we don’t have a women’s pennant team,” he said.
“Our goal is if not this summer, then the summer after, to have a women’s team.
“We have got women who play night owls, but there is certainly a gender imbalance at our club, and we want to correct that.
“We also don’t have many young people and successful clubs do, so we need to change that.
“We have increased the number of social functions we are having, which brings more people to the club, and they bring their friends, and that is paying dividends.”
Congratulations to Sturt and Somerton Bowling Clubs for their efforts in growing their clubs and engaging with their communities.
