History

HISTORY OF LAWN BOWLS IN PORT VINCENT

The idea of a Bowling Club in Port Vincent was first mooted in 1953 as a suitable form of memorial to the fallen servicemen of WW2 in the form of a Bowling Green with Memorial Gates.
This idea was eventually discarded in 1955.

A public meeting was called in May, 1959 to again consider the formation of a Bowling Club with a resolution being passed by majority vote to establish a club
A committee was elected and stayed in office for three years to oversee the construction of the green.
Development of the green began in mid 1960 and after considerable effort from all involved the members were able to play a few social games on the new green in April 1965.

Interestingly, during the time that the “Bowling Club” was constructing it’s Green, the licensees of the Ventnor Hotel had been busy constructing their own 2 rink bowling green which was laid down in August, 1961 and was ready for play by January, 1962.
The green boasted electric lights to enable night-time play and was made available to the people of the town without charge. It was maintained for social bowls until the hotel changed hands in 1971.
In 1993 the new licensees of the hotel erected a transportable building on the bowling green site.

The foundations of the Port Vincent Bowling Club clubrooms were poured in October, 1962 and construction of the clubhouse commenced shortly afterwards. By January, 1963 overhead lighting was installed allowing night-time play.
The formal opening of the green and clubhouse was held on October 16^th, 1963.

In 1976 the green was re-planted leaving the club without a “Home” green for the 1976/77 pennant season forcing teams to play Pennant matches at Stansbury and tournaments at Curramulka.

In April, 1984 a special meeting of the club decided to construct a second green.
The new green was opened in January, 1986.

The second green was converted to a Dales “Pro-Green Plus” synthetic surface in September, 2016, allowing bowlers to potentially play throughout the full year.

The men have been playing in the Southern Yorke Peninsula Bowling Association pennant competition since the 1962/63 season with the women starting a little later in the 1963/64 season.

Over the years the club and its players have achieved many honours in both team and individual disciplines including Association Divisional Pennant wins, State and Association Teams Championships and Association Champion of Champions Titles.