MANAIA BOWLING CLUB: ROLLING ON IN STYLE

The past few years have seen a transformation at the Manaia Bowling Club as its members prepared to celebrate the club’s 125th Jubilee in March 2024.

“The clubrooms needed a lot of work before we could host such a big event. We painted the building inside and out, installed new carpets and bought a chiller,” said Megan Peters, Club Secretary.

“Now we have an amazing building which is used by the RSA and the Manaia Community Group, too.”
Toi Foundation funding enabled the club to purchase and install new aluminium windows to replace the old leaky ones and helped with costs of the Jubilee.

“Our Jubilee was a tremendous success–122 players came from Friday to Sunday during the Taranaki Anniversary weekend. It’s still being talked about to this day,” said Megan.

There have been plenty of matches at the Manaia Bowling Club since they completed their renovations.

“We have around 40 members. Some are competitive players while others prefer the social games. Fridays we have roll up night, where anyone can come along, have a game and get some coaching,” said Megan.

“Then, on weekends, there’ll be some sort of tournament. It could be club champs or we might host tournaments. Recently, we were headquarters for the Bowls Taranaki Centre fours tournament, and the Taranaki Men’s Team played Whanganui not long after.”

The club also has a separate building stacked with memorabilia from Manaia’s Bowling, Rugby and Tennis clubs.

“We have tour groups coming along and asking to go through the museum, so our next project is to sort that out,” said Megan.