By TANIA PHILLIPS
IT’S been more than a year in the planning, but finally this weekend the Cabarita Beach Bowls & Sports Club will start eight days of 50th year celebrations.
“It’s all going really well – there is a fair bit of excitement building now,” club general manager Nick Brabham said.
“It’s been over 12 months of preparation by the staff and the board, but we hope to have a big eight days.
“We have been getting a huge amount of support, people are excited to see old favourite things come back – this week is about showcasing what the club does. We are not doing things that are too different – we will just be ramping things up. We want to showcase what a great little club we have here.”
The club has come a long way in a short time – first going on to the drawing board at a meeting of the Cabarita Progress Association back in May 1962 when Alex Roberts of Lismore moved that the community look to establish a bowling club. In August of that year, the inaugural meeting was held at the Cabarita Beach Country Club Hotel and the first committee members elected. Work on the clubhouse began in late 1962 and a ladies Auxiliary was formed in January 1963. The opening of the new club was celebrated on 13 July 1963.
Fifty years to the day, club members past and present – including one or two present on that opening day in 1963- will gather again to celebrate and to kick off a big week for the club.
Nick Brabham said Saturday’s events would include the unveiling of a plaque celebrating the anniversary as well as an afternoon of bowls while Sunday was all about the past, present and future with past and present officials gathering for lunch ahead of a kids’ party in the afternoon.
“Monday it will be bowls and trivia whileTuesday we have a ladies invitational bowls day followed by our poker tournament. We have been running poker nights for a while here at the club, but we have turned up the prize money for this event,” he said.
Wednesday will be a bowls tournament while Nick said that Thursday would be a real highlight in the program.
“We will be running Eco tours with our greenkeeper Dave Perez,” he said.
“Dave is the former NSW Greenkeeper of the Year – the club has come a long way with its recycling program and we are looking to step up to the next level.”
He said the Cabarita now recycles 100 per cent of its kitchen waste – with Dave using worms, recycling and mulching to handle more than four tonnes of kitchen scraps last year. The tours will be held at 10am, 11am, 2pm and 3pm.
“We are also bringing back Bingo and we will be having a performance from the Bogangar Public School,” he said of the packed program which also includes a mega membership draw.
Friday is the George Davison Mixed Bowls Cup in the morning and a “round robin” involving each of the club’s “sub-clubs” in the afternoon.
“We will have members of the fishing, cricket, golf and darts clubs – as well as a staff team competing against each other and trying each other’s sport,” he laughed.
The event will culminate on Saturday 20 July which will include the president’s invitational bowls day and the burying of a time capsule to be opened on 13 July 2038 at the club’s 75th anniversary celebrations. The club will also be giving away a car and holding a giant meat tray raffle before a performance by well-known local band Round Mountain Girls.
