By JONATHON HOWARD
THE Cooroy Bowls Club will cease to exist from the end of this week, but a new club will emerge under the title “Cooroy Community Bowls Club Inc”.
Cooroy Bowls Club members’ bowled their last rounds under the former name today (Thursday, 29 May), before new management takes over the land and lease from tomorrow (Friday, 29 May).
While members have welcomed the move to continue lawn bowls at Cooroy, in many ways they have reached a crossroads over what they feel is an “uncertain future” for the club.
The former Cooroy Bowls Club was owned and operated by the Cooroy RSL and Citizens Memorial Club, but the land was sold to Listra Pty Ltd under what many members labelled a controversial move.
Listra company director, Ronald McCarthy, has expressed a keen interest in working with the club members to ensure a long term future for lawn bowls in Cooroy.
“Because the club was run by a community group, and had not been formerly made a bowls club, we had to take steps to form a new club under the title Cooroy Community Bowls Club Inc,” he said.
Mr McCarthy said he was now in discussions with bowls members to agree upon a long term lease agreement.
“It’s our goal to continue bowls in the community and we’re talking with members over making that happen,” he said.
Mr McCarthy said rumours swirling around town over the takeover were only making matters worse.
“We absolutely support bowls and we support the group, we’ve provided the bowls members with a six month sympathetic agreement while we work towards a long term plan,” he said.
Interim secretary Julie Ainscough said the club was recruiting members and the ball was already rolling.
“We’ve already hit 100 new members for the new club and we are still recruiting,” she said. “We’re also looking for new office bearers for the new club.”
Mrs Ainscough said the club would hold an annual general meeting open to the public on 5 July.
