Every club has its comedians, says long-time Warilla Bowls Club member Steve Feeney.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He spins off a few yarns he has heard in his time about fish being transported in Brambles trucks through to fish landing on rail tracks.
"Humour keeps the club alive - there's always yarns to spin," the 70-year-old said.
Mr Feeney has been a member for about 40 years and is now the club's chairman.
He started when a Warilla fishermen's group operated as a sub-club supported by the registered bowls club.
"We had our own barbecue shed that we built ourselves ... it was an era that's disappeared," he said of the sub-club's disappearance in the 1990s.
Mr Feeney was also a long-time member of Port Kembla RSL until it closed in May.
"It was very sad - I went in in December to pay my membership and they said then that things weren't looking good."
He attributes the Port Kembla club's struggles to price wars with pubs and BlueScope's continual shedding of workers.
"People are getting their work hours cut - even if they get $50 less a week it means they don't go out for dinner," he said.
However, membership at the Warilla club is increasing and Mr Feeney said it was because the game of bowls was attracting younger players and their families.
"I think people have always thought bowls was an old man's game but now it's not seen as that," he said. "The young ones are the future of the club."
He said many people moving into the area were signing up as social members, while a lot of the old tradition still existed with older playing members.
"Most bowlers, after they have a game they'll buy you a drink, so you buy them a drink back, you stay around for dinner and then the meat raffle," he said.
"On Wednesdays you'll get 50 guys turn up to go and play golf [outside the club]."
And contributions to other clubs in the area remain strong.
"We support every football club in the area," he said.
"We get letters from schools - we try and do it so everybody gets a bit of the cake."