Royal Hobart 125th Anniversary
The Royal Hobart Bowls Club will celebrate their 125th anniversary with a unique wooden bowls festival The Royal Hobart Bowls Club will celebrate their 125th anniversary in style with a luncheon with dignitaries, a game of bowls on the green at Government House and a Wooden Bowls Festival.
An official luncheon will be held at the club on Sunday March 20 to celebrate the 125 year milestone; however the festivities are set to continue well into the year.
You may be wondering about the unique idea to hold a Wooden Bowls Festival?
The Wooden Bowls Festival will run throughout the calendar year, with the headline act to be the annual Barracks Hill Cup, a competition between the RHBC and the Anglesea Military Barracks which is located behind the clubhouse; this will be staged on the green at the Government House with the Governor set to roll the first jack on Wednesday April 6.
The RHBC is going to great lengths to locate and purchase wooden bowls; currently they have 18 sets of two bowls and they are looking to increase this by purchasing more bowls from overseas.
Club member Brian Winspear, the member who devised the idea of a wooden bowls festival, made contact with a club in Croydon London who offered to sell their collection of wooden bowls for five pound each on the basis that he pick them up; with that not an option and seemingly being back to the drawing board, two members from Croydon contacted Winspear offering to ship the bowls to Hobart if RHBC could cover the cost.
After weeks of negotiating freight costs with an abundance of shipping companies, finally three boxes of wooden bowls were on their way to Hobart at a reduced price courtesy of Matthew Flannery, an agent in London with connections to the sport of bowls.
RHBC is arranging for a competition with some of Tasmania’s oldest clubs on Sunday April 3, namely with Sandy Bay, Launceston and Buckingham Bowls Clubs.
In addition to these competitions RHBC is looking at running challenges with other bowling clubs to come and play and compete against them using the wooden bowls as a unique way of promoting the history of their club and encouraging more people through their doors.
Caption- Royal Hobart Bowls Club is preparing to celebrate their 125th anniversary
