Abattoirs Bowling Club Inc

130915-CBS-Anniversary-book.pdf

Abattoirs Bowling Club Inc

Club History

This club was first formed

in 1921 by the M.E.A.B.

(Metropolitan Export

Abattoirs Board) for the

benefit of its employees. The

club’s first President was Mr

A.G. Kuhlman and its first

Club Champion was Mr J.L.

Broadbent. The new club soon

became competitive, winning the

C Grade Pennant in the season

1922-23 and continued to be so

during the following years until

the club ceased its activities after

the completion of season 1934-35

when the then M.E.A.B manager

converted the bowling green into

a tennis court.

On the 1st of November 1956 a social function was

held in order to reform the bowling club. Twenty six

persons attended to see Mr Ken Wharton opening the

green in his capacity of General Manager. A number

of people were nominated to form a committee and

on the following day these gentlemen met in the

General Manager’s office during their lunch break and

appointed Mr Wharton as Chairman, Mr Farnden as

Secretary/Treasurer and Messrs Redwood, Gordon,

Hayter, Connolly and Eyre as members of the

committee. Subscription fees were set at 3 pounds ($6)

and membership would be restricted to employees of

the Board but outside members could be admitted by

invitation by the committee.

This committee met again on the 26th of November

1956 and discussed 31 applications for membership,

24 being employees of the Board were duly accepted.

The suitability of the other seven applicants was

fully discussed and all persons were found to have

‘creditable recommendations’ and accepted as 

members of the Club. An old

cottage served as a club house

and in December a working

bee ‘washed down the walls

with pieces of old bagging and

buckets of water’ in order to

prepare the walls for painting.

At a meeting held on the 7th

of August 1958 it was decided

to form the Abattoirs Women’s

Bowling Club, the first President

being M. Hupenden. The Club

soon developed into a group of

people who enjoyed their sport

and associated social activities

and completed the building

of a new clubhouse in 1969-70

and this clubhouse received

substantial additions in 1979-80, a clear sign that the

club continued to prosper off as well as on the greens

where numerous pennants were won. Meanwhile a

substantial donation by one of the Club’s members,

Mr Jack Blanc, resulted in the opening of an additional

5 - rink green on the 30th of September 1973. This

allowed the Club to field up to 5 pennant teams on

Saturdays and up to 4 teams on Wednesdays.

As time went by the Bowling Club became more and

more independent of the M.E.A.B. which had become

S.A.M.C.O.R. in 1972 and on the 8th of February 1979

President R. Dixon and Secretary R. Taylor signed a 20

year lease with S.A.M.C.O.R. and the members took

full control of the running of the Club whilst making

improvements year by year.

The Club continued to prosper until March of

1997 when, despite assurances to the contrary, the

Government of the day included the Club’s land

in the sale of S.A.M.C.O.R. to private ownership. It

soon became clear that the Club would not be able to

continue to function in a viable manner and at a special

general meeting held on the 26th of April 1998 the

members overwhelmingly decided to accept the offer

made by the Management Committee and members

of the Clearview Bowling Club Inc. and merge with

this Club.

This meeting appointed

This meeting appointed Ron Gaynes (President),

Colin Branford (Vice President), John Rosenboom

(I.P.P), Ian Bailey (Secretary) and Norm Amundsen

(Treasurer) to take care of the winding up procedures

of the Abattoirs Bowling Club.

Meanwhile the Club had held its last Club Tournament

on the 25th of April 1998, the traditional and popular

ANZAC Day Fours won by Pye Kumar (1), Bill

Lawrence (2), John Rosenboom (3) and Ralph Dixon

(S). Clearview President Bob Hussey assured us ‘the

tradition will continue’. During the course of years

the members had honoured a number of their peers

who had served the Club in many ways by awarding

Life Membership to the following members.

Men: J. Blanc * Women: E. Hayter

I. Wallace * F. Gehlken *

J. Hayter * O. Thorgerson

J. Redward * M. Hupenden

K. Wharton J. Blood

L. Gehlken Y. Wallace *

H. Eyre * M. Keating

R. Dixon W. Martin

J. Keating * M. Goldfinch

H.R. Pearce * D. May *

R. Taylor* J. Robertson

S. Blood*

M. Moar (*deceased)

J. O’Flaherty

Their Life Memberships will be recognised by the

Clearview Bowling Club

The following pennant player members also moved to

our new Club:

Men:

N. Amundsen

K. Atkinson

D. Bailey

I. Bailey

W. Baker

R. Baskerville

P. Benz

D. Birch

M. Birtles

K. Boyle

C. Branford

J. Candy

T. Coles

R. Constable

R. Cooling

J. Darlington

R. Dew

C. Errock

J. Evans

J. Fazekas

K. Filipcic

E. Flynn

T. Freeman

R. Gaynes

P. Gibson

S. Goldsworthy

G. Graham

E. Hage