Ardrossan wins statewide award
The Ardrossan Bowling Club claimed a major achievement at the recent Clubs SA awards.
One of nine nominees, the Ardrossan Bowling Club took out the Small Club of the Year award.
The Henley, Modbury, Para Hills and Salisbury Bowling Clubs were also all nominated for the award.
Ardrossan Bowling Club Secretary Charmaine Simmons said it was an exciting time for the club.
“We are quite excited to win the award,” she said.
“It is a real honour for our little club, which only has about 93 members, and a dozen of those are social members.
“For a small club we are very proud of our achievement.”
Charmaine highlighted the support from the community as a key reason for receiving the award.
“I put in some testimonials from our local hospital and progress association,” she said.
“Another gentlemen, who came up from Victor Harbor to play in our Easter tournament and brought several other members with him, also sent in a testimonial, so that certainly help.”
Charmaine said it is a group effort to keep their club running every year.
“We are very community minded here, you have to be at a club like ours,”
Everything is voluntary, like the maintenance of the greens, and we still have three greens, which is against the norm in the country,” she said.
“All of our bar work, kitchen work and our committee is all voluntary, so it is amazing really.”
Charmaine highlighted the great interaction between the club and the local community.
“Our clubrooms are used for lots of things such as weddings, wakes and big birthdays,” she said.
“We are pretty proactive with fundraising as well, in fact we have Blue week this week, and we raised money for breast cancer last year and Legacy.
“We also have an annual hospital fundraising night, which is big for our little town, because we have got a private hospital.
“We try to support them as much as we can.
“We have also got a caravan park next to the bowling club, so we invite anyone who is over there to come in and have a meal on Thursday nights during pennant season.
“In turn, the progress association sponsors us, which we are very grateful for.”
Charmaine also thanked Clubs SA for their ongoing support of the club.
