Mention ‘Waihopai’ and you could be talking about somewhere in Marlborough. Or somewhere in Invercargill.
Waihopai, the Marlborough version, is renowned as a spy base … the home of two sparkling white radomes making up New Zealand’s contribution to the worldwide Echelon signal interception network.
Waihopai, the Invercargill version, is renowned as a suburb of Invercargill … the home of two sparkling greens making up the Waihopai Bowling Club … one of the eight lawn bowling clubs in the city.
“We’ve got over 110 full-playing members,” says Waihopai Bowling Club President, Stewart Stratford, “and another 30 or 40 social members. We are not only one of the larger clubs in Invercargill, perhaps even the largest, but the make-up of our membership gives us a great future.”
“About 40% of our members are women,” he says. “Which gives plenty of competition for the women within the club. At the same time, it also ensures that we can enjoy a rich mixed bowls programme within the club because the membership isn’t overwhelmed by men.”
“Our membership is also relatively young, and getting younger,” chips in Club Captain, Murray Heath. “When I came here 5 years ago, the club was predominantly retired people 70+ years old. Since then, we’ve attracted a lot of younger members, who are still working … even a couple still at school. The average age of the club membership may now be less than 50.”
“It also means we have a lot of new bowlers … I think 20 or so who have been bowling less than 5 years. That’s done wonders for the club in the Centre Juniors comps, because we have so many more entrants than the other clubs in Southland.”
“We’ve currently got 3 generations of the one family here. That’s never happened before at this club.”
But a diverse and increasing membership isn’t all that’s making Waihopai thrive.
“We believe that we have the best greens in the Southland Centre,” says Club Secretary Graeme McLaren. “I’ve even heard it said they could be the best in the South Island. And knowing how hard it is to grow grass in the North Island, I’d go far as to say we’ve potentially got the best greens in New Zealand!”
Bear in mind, that Graeme’s never short of a word. But he does have the evidence on his side.
“We’ve just had the Southland Centre championships here,” he says, “And in 2011, a test match between Australia and New Zealand was even held here. It’s been chosen for many other elite tournaments since.”
“The only problem is that it makes it difficult for us when we play away,” he says with a twinkle in his eye. “the greens are invariably never as good!”
Well, so the club myth goes.
Despite the praise for the greens, true or not, it’s not stopping the club from deciding where they should go from here.
“We got grant funding for Andrew Adams from Visitor Solutions to do a professional feasibility study into the various development options available to us for an artificial green,” says Murray. “We want to put something in front of the membership which provides the options for development … as well as some indicative costs, some indicative ways of getting funding, the pros and cons, etc.”
“Then a rational, informed decision can be made about a possible course or courses of action. We expect that report to be available mid-September.”
Meantime, it’s business as usual at Waihopai.
For many other south of the South Island clubs, ‘business as usual’ means no bowls over winter. Most clubs close at the end of March or beginning of April and don’t re-open until mid to late September.
“We carry on our Friday afternoon mini tournament over the winter,” says Greenkeeper, Keith Leighton, “but at the covered green at Waverley. We get 40 to 50 members playing mixed triples every week, and after the bowls, we come back to Waihopai for a few drinks.”
So successful has the Friday mini been, that it is regarded as a key reason the club flourishing. And whilst the club also runs a number of very successful ‘formal’ tournaments like the Breayley Pairs in January, it is a couple of ‘informal’ tournaments which keeps the interest high at Waihopai.
“Every year we have ‘The Spud’,” says Murray. “Members buy a seed potato and a plastic bag for $10. The challenge is to grow the greatest weight of potatoes in the bag using your own secret recipe of nurturing and nutrition. The weigh-in is on the morning of Waitangi day followed by bowls in the afternoon. Although not quite up to standard this year, in previous years the winner’s potatoes have weighed in at 6kg.”
“’The Lotto Tournament’ is also popular,” adds Murray. “For $20, entrants get to pick a number and get the chance to win a prize if their number matches the bonus number in the weekly Lotto draw. In the last Sunday in March, they all get to enjoy a tournament with prizes and a free feed. And a free shot of port for every toucher!”
“We get the maximum 64 entrants every year!”
But all this fun doesn’t mean that the members don’t take their bowls seriously as well.
“We won the Centre Women’s Champion of Champions Singles and Triples this year,” says Graeme, “And you may have seen us on TV in the Bowls 3 Five National Finals at Naenae … We won 4 of our 7 games ... not quite enough to get in the final.
“We also got Centre club of the Year.”
Despite all these goings-on, the club is focused on its centenary celebrations next year.
“We haven’t got down to finalising the detail yet,” says Stewart, “But it will be on the weekend of 25th/26th March 2023. Most likely they’ll be registration and drinks on Friday evening, bowls on Saturday, dinner at the Ascot on Saturday night and a barbeque at the club on Sunday.”
“We’re expecting a great crowd … 200 or more. It’s going to be a great weekend.”
We wouldn’t expect anything else!
