Mount Maunganui Mens' Bowling Club

Mt Maunganui Bowling Club, undated postcard published by Photogen
Image collection of Justine Neal

The club was established in 1925 when the foundation members, a group of Waikato farmers, built the first green where the present hot pools are situated in Adams Avenue. The members used wheelbarrows to push the soil from a barge berthed in Pilot Bay, along Adams Avenue to the green. Unfortunately, the approach of the Great Depression saw the greens abandoned, but on the eve of World War II the club was resumed at a meeting on 29^th June 1939 and the annual subscription was set at two guineas.

Mount Maunganui, Bowling Club at lower left, undated postcard
Image collection of Justine Neal

No. 1 green was built by members in 1946. No. 2 green was later built in the early 50s. A few years later the ladies had their green made, adjacent to the existing greens. The first club house was a small wooden building. On several occasions working bees were held to make additions. The Bay of Plenty Times 6^th May 1949 reports:

Saturday last saw the official closing of the summer season at the Mount Maunganui Bowling Club and was actually the last day on which the Club would be using the old green situated on the Domain at the foot of the mountain. Members can look at this past season with pleasure, for it has been a most successful one in all respects and, at the same time, can anticipate with pleasure the opening of the winter season on the club’s new greens at Coronation Park where steady progress has been made.

Mount Maunganui Township, Tauranga, N.Z. 5666
Undated postcard published by National Publicity Studios, Wellington
Image collection of Justine Neal

In 1985 the Harbour Board approached the club with an offer of resiting the club in an area between Tawa and Totara Streets where the original Mt. Maunganui Primary School was. After several meetings with the Harbour Board, they and the Bowling Club signed an agreement. However, for reasons untold to the Bowling Club the project was abandoned. The Bowling Club then made a decision to rebuild the clubhouse. A building contractor built the new clubhouse over the top of the old building. Several working bees by members demolished the old building.

In 2010 the Mount Maunganui Bowling Club and the Cosmopolitan Bowling Clubs amalgamated forming Bowls Mount Maunganui. In December of that year club members played their final games at their former Nikau Crescent greens, which have now been bulldozed to form part of Coronation Park, and moved to their new clubrooms in Kawaka Street.

A History of Mount Maunganui, by Bruce Cunningham & Ken Musgrave
www.Mountbowls.co.nz
BOP Times Feb. 17. 2011