After 92 years, the last bowls are about to be rolled at the Millers Flat green.
Dwindling membership meant some hard decisions had to be made, so the Millers Flat Bowling Club will fold at the end of this season.
‘‘It's a real sad day but what do you do?'' club president Jack Sheehan said.
‘‘We've tried and tried and tried to get new members. We've run Friday afternoon bowls, Friday night bowls, Saturday afternoon bowls, Saturday night bowls, we've tried everything we can think of and sure enough, you get a few more coming along but then numbers drop again and you're back to where you were.
‘‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.''
The club has 12 members - seven men and five women. The average age of the men was probably in their late 70s, Mr Sheehan said. Various options were considered and closing the club was the last resort.
‘‘I like a challenge but this one has defeated me. Financially, we're pretty sound, but we haven't got new members coming in and we needed about 10 new members to keep it viable.‘‘
‘‘The last thing we wanted to do was to close the club when it's in its 92nd year. It's a shame we couldn't have held on until our 100th year, but we just can't.''
The last tournament at the green will be held on Sunday, run by the RSA, which has hired the Millers Flat green.
The retirement of the greenkeeper at the end of this season was another factor in the decision to fold, Mr Sheehan said.
‘‘Finding a replacement is nigh on impossible. It's a big job and a lot of time and dedication is involved; our greenkeeper spends a lot of time here.
'‘Some clubs have spend megabucks changing to artificial greens and some of the bigger clubs, with grass greens, employ a fulltime greenkeeper.''
Mr Sheehan, who is also the Central Otago Bowls president, said in some ways it was a sign of the times.
‘‘This won't be the only little country club that's closing ... things are changing ... people work seven days a week now and don't have the weekend off for sport. If they're younger people, they're following their own family's sport.''
The clubrooms were built by the club and the land is reserve land. No decision has been made yet about the future of the building.
A meeting was held at the start of the season about the future of the club and a secret ballot was eventually taken and the majority voted in favour of the club folding, he said. The closure will be officially marked in some way but no decision has been made yet on what form that will take.
The club facilities had a good reputation, Mr Sheehan said.
‘‘The Millers Flat green is renowned as one of the best in the country.''
