Glasshouse Country Bowls Club officials are excited to join the Sunshine Coast district, where they will continue to focus on developing their juniors.
The club, which is a section of Club Glasshouse, was aligned with the Caboolture district before that association folded two years ago.
They linked with the Moreton Bay district, but that relationship was short-lived.
“We had a really good look at it recently and it was (deemed) more practical for our club, geographically, to be part of the Sunshine Coast district,” club secretary Bruce Angus said.
“It’s a really strong and growing district that’s got great administration.
“And there seems to be stronger interest in junior bowlers in the Sunshine Coast and we are passionate about our juniors.
“We want to continue to build a pathway for the junior bowlers because they’re the future of bowls.”
The club boasts about a dozen enthusiastic youngsters and seven of them, including prospects Chloe Runge and Jack Chirgwin, attended state championships at Toowoomba in January.
The juniors receive expert coaching from co-ordinator Bill Tumbridge and Jacqui Hineman, who is on the state committee of coaches. Club chairman Jim Tatum also assists.
A handful of the youngsters at the club are younger than 10.
“We start them on Junior Jack Attack, with rubber bowls and then progress them once they have basic principles and then start putting them into proper games.
“It’s an exciting pathway. The parents are very supportive, and a lot of kids don’t want to play soccer and football or stand on a cricket field.
“This is giving them a very healthy alternative and it’s a very cost-effective sport for the young ones. They don’t have to fork out big money for membership and equipment.”
The club will host a significant juniors’ carnival in July, boasting $5000 in prizemoney.
It also hosts an inter-school competition, featuring local schools Glasshouse Christian College and Beerwah State High School, and they run a Glasshouse under-18 competition in July.
“We’re really focused on juniors. We strongly believe that all bowls clubs need to focus on juniors to give the sport a future,” Angus said.
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Seniors set for busy year too
Glasshouse Country Bowls Club consists of about 112 regular bowlers.
Many of their senior bowlers will compete in events around the district, likely in divisions 3 and 5.
“We’re not going to be like Kawana (bowlers),” Angus laughed. “We’re just content to be regular bowlers.”
“We’re going in the GR8 competition in February and we’ll have three men’s teams and one ladies’ team in division 5.”
The club hosts regular bowls meets for club members and they will invite other clubs to a series of competitions.
They’ll invite other clubs to compete in the Kerry Capern Memorial event in March and will run a fiesta day and ladies’ day.
The intra-club Glasshouse Cup is poised to continue after a successful running last year, when a Glasshouse team, featuring bowlers who live in the local postcode, defeated a Hinterland team which included bowlers from other postcodes.
Rich history
Angus said the club has been “really welcomed into the Sunshine Coast district.”
“There’s really strong administration at district level, there is really good coaching and umpiring pathways and we’ve started to play at some of the clubs and all the clubs are so friendly, so we’re looking forward to it.”
Angus said the club was formed in the 1936, when a group of locals signed a lease agreement with William Reed to use part of his land near the Glass House Tavern.
They created two rinks with restricted membership.
In 1952, after being invited to play, a group of local women started their own club.
But in 1957, the bowlers were asked by the owners to vacate the land, after they could not agree on a new lease.
The School of Arts agreed to grant the bowls club a lease near where their club is today, and a four-rink green was built.
“It was built by locals and we’ve used the same green since,” Angus said.
While the men’s bowls started to decline there, the ladies club evolved and a full-size green of eight rinks was introduced in 1959.
There was renewed interest in men’s bowls, with the full green and mixed bowls became more common.
The club thrived and the clubhouse was relocated to its present site in 1963, with upgrades and expansions since.
But by the late 1990s the club was in decline again and neighbouring Beerwah Peachester RSL Bowls Club had its issues as well.
They agreed to form a completely new club at the facilities of Glass House Mountains Bowling Club and merge all interested members of each club into a new entity known as Club Glasshouse.
In 2001, the green opened under the name of Glasshouse Country Bowls Club.
Sunshine Coast Men’s District Bowling Association secretary Barry Ashby said it was a “progressive little club”.
“It has more juniors than most other clubs and a couple of them are very good players.
“That club is going ahead. There are some people there who are really involved. The more presence we can have, the better the district will be. We just want people to get involved.”
