Hamilton’s new covered deck is a big hit with members, as is the club’s ritzy new interior (right).
HAMILTON HOPES TO BE A POWER ONCE AGAIN Manly wasn’t the only club undergoing major renovations recently, with Hamilton Bowls Club also out to recapture some it former glory, both on and off the green. Hamilton, which has been on the up and up since their lease was bought out by Brisbane Racing Club in 2009, unveiled a new-look clubhouse earlier this year. The once-struggling bowls club has seen its financial worries fade in recent times, as BRC took on more and more of the club’s costs.
Today the bowls club operates as part of the Brisbane Racing Sports and Social Club and has over 150 bowling members.
Hamilton board president, Alan Inwood, said the decision by BRC to buy out the bowls club had made it a far more financially viable operation. “It’s a very financial club at the moment. We’ve held membership fees at the same price for the past two years, there’s no use putting them up if we don’t need to,” he said. Not everyone at Hamilton was happy when BRC decided not to renew the bowlers’ lease and buy them out instead, but Inwood said most members had warmed to the situation now.
“Originally, when it happened, a lot of our members were very disgruntled, but they’re getting to the point now they’ve realised we’re sitting on a very good wicket.” Recently the club unveiled a ritzy new bar and bistro area, however the biggest improvement was the construction v35/11
of an impressive covered deck area, overlooking the greens. In a bid to improve the club’s image on the green, Queensland and Australian representative Sean Baker has been recruited as Hamilton’s new bowls development manager.
Club members recently voted to reintroduce the long vacant development position and, as a high profile player with experience in a similar role at Broadbeach, Baker fit the bill. And Baker is eager to get Hamilton back on the bowling map as soon as possible. Since taking up the position in April, Baker has already organised a successful tournament at the club, the Hamilton Power Pairs and recruited some bigname members.
“At this point I’m trying to find more players, because pennant starts very soon. That is my first priority…so we can at least make division one,” Baker said. “We’ve signed up Steven Tong and we’ve got a few others in the pipeline, but we’re not going to give too much away before Premier League.”
While he is enjoying his new role, Baker said there would definitely be some challenges, particularly finding financial backing for tournaments. “My role is to boost bowls, not only to attract other players, but to boost the amount of times they play in a week and how many bowlers we actually get through the door in a week,” Baker said.
“In these financial times, getting sponsorship is probably one of the hardest
things to do. A lot of people don’t want to part with their hard-earned dollars.” If Baker is successful in his new role, he believes the bowling side of the club could see some changes too, but he is not getting carried away just yet. “In the future, we may look at undercover greens but at the moment we’re just looking at making the bowls club itself a bit more competitive and just bringing it back up to its former glory and maybe get a Division 1 pennant flag,” he said. queensland bowler | 21