NORTH Albury Men’s Bowling Club members have made a firm commitment to continue operating.
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A gathering of members at a specially convened meeting on Tuesday night outlined what had transpired since the North Albury Sports Club went into administration.
The bowling club was in a sound financial position with about $35,000 in the bank, but it was taken by administrator Chris Chamberlain to repay creditors.
Club president John Eddy outlined how it had to start from scratch, but members vowed to play in this summer’s Albury and District Bowling Association season.
The club has paid its affiliation for the coming year to Bowls NSW.
But it may be some time before it can muster the necessary money to pay its dues with the district.
Members of the district board were at the meeting and decided to give North Albury plenty of latitude to provide its affiliation.
There has been considerable innuendo and rumour circulating about the bowling club and its apparent drain on the sports club.
Some people affiliated with the North Albury Football-Netball Club have been making suggestions along those lines.
The truth is, since 2006 the men’s bowling club has provided about $150,000 to the sports club to ease its financial problems.
And the women’s bowling club has likewise been a significant contributor for many years.
The men’s bowlers continue to frequent the club and spend money, as happened yesterday when about 40 played social bowls.
There are 104 members in the men’s bowling club and 48 women players.
Just last weekend, 24 teams entered a men’s two-bowl triples tournament, which provided a huge financial boost to the club through bar takings, the TAB, poker machines and other areas.
The tournament was won by North Albury’s Eddie Simmons, Brett Furze and skip Stephen Broad with six wins plus 45 shots.
Second place went to the Wodonga team of Ray Moon, Chris Bird and Bob Harbridge with six wins plus 38.
Daniel Markham, Clarrie Klepiak and Fred Markham were next with five wins plus 41, while Jason Thomas, Neville Shaw and Barry Wise were fourth with five wins plus 33.
The best performed team on Saturday was Ken Hanna, Phil Schuster and Peter Fitzgerald (North Albury), with the Lavington Panthers combination of George Chomatek, Brian Linehan and Stan Gerecke the best on Sunday.