A lack of available food and operating without a certified duty manager for a month and a-half culminated in the St Kilda Bowling Club being hit with a one-month liquor licence suspension by the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority.
The club’s licence was suspended from March 16 to April 12, but Judge Robert Spear warned it could lose its licence completely if it did not clean up its act.
The suspension was designed to ensure the club understood it was ‘‘on a knife-edge as to whether or not it continues to hold a club licence’’.
‘‘The impression we are left with ... is that this club operates almost as a bar and that the sporting side for some of its members is secondary.
‘‘This raises a serious concern for the authority and it has required us to give careful consideration as to whether this is a club that should hold a licence under the Act.’’
Judge Spear also said in the authority’s decision when police visited the club in February, one patron said they were ‘‘bringing the mood of the club down’’ and police felt they were ‘‘effectively abused’’.
Club president Leo Harwood said yesterday the authority’s ruling was ‘‘fair and justified’’.
The breaches could not be disputed, were dealt with appropriately and could have all been prevented with better education and more consistent oversight.
‘‘I would not want any other community sporting club to endure what we have been through,’’ he said.
Judge Spear acknowledged the suspension period would cause some financial hardship, but said it was necessary for the authority to make its point.
‘‘If the matter comes back before the authority, we assure Mr Harwood that we would be looking seriously at cancellation.’’
During a visit in June last year, licensing inspectors found eight to 10 patrons drinking alcohol on site ‘‘without any visible signage advertising the availability of food’’, he said.
A club representative advised she believed toasties were available, but when the inspectors asked to see evidence of available food they were taken to a rear storeroom that was locked and for which no-one on site had the key.
The club’s explanation was this was an oversight and there were toasties and hot chips available in the storeroom, albeit ‘‘deeply frozen’’.
The authority was ‘‘distinctly unimpressed’’ by the notion that an acceptable range of food could be considered reasonably available ‘‘when it is locked away and deeply frozen’’, Judge Spear said.
Mr Harwood said some of the club’s operational practices had ‘‘slipped through the cracks’’ over the years as committee roles changed hands.
‘‘While these breaches were disappointing, they have prompted us to review and correct all procedures to ensure the next committee inherits a well-organised and compliant operation.’’
Mr Harwood disputed the authority’s impression of the club — ‘‘the bar does not exist simply for the purpose of drinking,’’ he said.
‘‘Between bowls, pool, snooker, darts, petanque, table tennis, cards, bridge and indoor bowls, the vast majority of activity at our club is sport-related.’’
There were no big game celebrations, excessive drinking, binge culture nor disorderly behaviour at the club, he said.
