Numbers do not matter for the Hampden Bowling Club.
Bigger does not necessarily mean better for the club, which has just won the Mills Shield, the symbol of supremacy for lawn bowls in North Otago.
The club competed in the fours based competition over the past summer and managed to win the shield with four rounds to go.
The remarkable fact is that the club only has six male playing members.
It was believed to be the smallest membership of any club to win the competition.
Club member Bob Cheyne said it was a solid effort from the club members who worked hard throughout the season.
The club has two female members so club nights are hardly bursting at the seams.
Cheyne, who is also the club's greenkeeper, said clubs were usually expected to enter two teams of four each for the competition but Hampden was given a dispensation to just front with one team of four.
The Hampden team was always out in front of the competition and he considered it to be quite an achievement.
It won 16 out of 18 rounds and had the shield safely tucked up and won four weeks before the competition finished.
Cheyne said the six members changed a lot and there were not many Saturdays in a row where the same team fronted up.
There was not one Saturday - games were played on Saturday mornings - when the club had a spare player but dedication from the six players meant the club did not once have to default.
The club had last won the shield in 1996.
It won the shield eight times between 1940 and 1996.
It will be presented to the club in a prizegiving later this month.
The club is due to celebrate its centenary in 2020 and Cheyne said he hoped the club could keep going until then at least.
The six players were Tony Hill, Bob Cheyne, Noel Riddell, Dave Taylor-Hayhurst, Peter Ross and Bill Hare.
