As young Blake Whitford sends a bowl down one of the greens at Dapto Bowing Club, tears begin to well in long-time member Bob Allan’s eyes.
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“This is what our club’s about,” Mr Allan says as he watches the 10-year-old roll up under the watchful eye of his dad, and fellow member, Brad Whitford.
“It’s about father and son … that’s the type of people that we have around us; it’s magic.”
It’s an emotional time for everyone – young and old – who has ties to the bowlo, as the last drinks are poured, the bowls get packed away and the doors close for good on Friday afternoon.
The shock and the sadness
Some had seen the closure coming.
The club has been in administration since September and, despite attempts to keep it operating, the business was deemed no longer viable.
But for many – including Mr Allan, who was inside the club last week when deed administrator Robert Brennan “dropped the bombshell” – the immediacy of the closure still came as a shock.
“[It was the] worst news I’ve ever heard in my life,” he told the Mercury.
As word of the club’s numbered days spread through its 900-strong membership, many made sure to visit one last time – to share stories about “the little joint on Marshall Street”.
Mr Allan, a social member of “15 or 20-odd years” was among them; he reminisced, around a so-called table of knowledge, about the “friendly club” with a sense of camaraderie “you just don’t find … anywhere else”.
That camaraderie was on show when the Mercury visited the dozens of members who gathered for one last hurrah on Wednesday.
Also evident was the sense of pride at what the club had achieved since it was established in December, 1950.
Outside the clubhouse, 34 district and state flags flapped in the wind against a cloudless, bright blue sky.
“A little club like this, with those sort of achievements. Look at ‘em [the flags in the wind], they’re all saying ‘Hi, look at me’, they’re magnificent,” Mr Allan, 72, said.
“I don’t know where we’re going to go from here.”
‘A big part of everyone’s lives’
Ireen Bonham will likely swap the bowl for a ball – of the golf variety.
“I’ve been procrastinating for about three years, so this is just the impetus, the push, that said ‘Alright Ireen, time to get out and try another one’,” the 65-year-old said.
“We have Citos [Dapto Citizens Bowling Club] close by, so I’ll still dabble in bowls, but it’s a new challenge for me now.”
Ms Bonham described herself as “little kid on the block” when it came to membership, having not long received the 10-year badge pinned proudly to her shirt.
Others have been around for 40 or 50 years, she said, and they would be the hardest hit by the closure.
“We’re looking at setting up a six-week get-together, just so that everyone keeps in the loop,” she said.
“It’s the friendships that we’re going to miss.”
Junior members ‘were the future’
Chloe Koziol has made many friends growing up around the Dapto Bowlo.
The 19-year-old has been involved with the club for seven years, rising through the ranks via its junior bowling program, and now working behind the bar.
“This is the place where I first stepped foot on the green and started playing lawn bowls,” she said.
“I’ve had a very great group of supportive ladies with me.”
Beryl Taylor was one of those supporters.
“The juniors; they were our future, I thought, and you needed to support them all the way and help them along,” she said.
“Everyone’s important in your membership, but juniors are your future. We haven’t got a future now and it’s so sad.”
Blake Whitford, too, has grown up going to the club.
The sudden closure left him shattered. “He is very sad, mainly for the friendship,” his mum, Lynn, said.
“He’s made lots of old mates here and they all treat him like their own grandkids.”