Mention the Riccarton Racecourse, and New Zealand’s premier gallops event, the New Zealand Cup, probably comes to mind. As does the whole of the ‘Show Week’ extravaganza at the racecourse in Christchurch in November.

Locals also know Riccarton Racecourse as a great events centre on the outskirts of the city … a place for weddings, school balls, milestone birthdays, conferences and Christmas festivities. As well as the venue for Riccarton Market every Sunday … rain, hail or shine.

And Canterbury lawn bowlers also know the racecourse as the home of the Riccarton Racecourse Bowling Club.

It has cuddled the periphery of the racecourse since 1928. But it’s probably only been recently noticed by passing traffic along Racecourse Road after the 6 foot corrugated iron fence was pulled down in 2003 … revealing hitherto shy men and women in whites enjoying the gentle game.

2003 was a big year for the club.

“There used to be another bowling club down Yaldhurst Road : the Winter Club,” says Selector and Match Committee member, Peter ‘Speedo’ Speedy, “It was a non-affiliated club where members only played in winter on a pretty rumpty old tar ‘green’. The council wanted them out, so they joined us.”

The compensation the council paid to the Winter Club enabled the amalgamated club to put in another, artificial green at Riccarton Racecourse (and replace the old iron fence with a see-through brick and wrought iron affair).

“For a while the two clubs retained their separate identities on the same site,” says Speedo. “But these days we’re all one club. However, we still have a ‘summer’ and a ‘winter’ membership.”

Over summer, the 60 or 70 ‘summer’ players can play on the original cotula green, as well as on the new artificial. When the season closes mid-April each year, play is restricted to the artificial ‘winter’ green until season opening on mid-September.

“Our membership effectively triples over winter,” says Speedo, “when winter-only members come to play on the artificial. Like the original Winter Club down Yaldhurst Road, ‘winter’ members aren’t affiliated .. they simply enjoy the opportunity for a roll-up and the chance to enter drawn championships over the off-season.”

And 20 years after amalgamation, they’re no longer just the original Winter Club members that moved from Yaldhurst Road : many of the Riccarton Racecourse summer members have taken up winter bowls. And new members have come on board winter bowls as well.

“We’re seeing our overall membership increasing,” says Speedo. “Three of our members live in the new Kevin Hickman Retirement Village in the racecourse precinct, so they’re actively recruiting more from the village! It’s an easy sell … the bowling club’s only a short walk down the road.”

“They see us as a ‘boutique’ bowling club.” says Speedo. “We’re social … but not overly social!! We don’t have any cliques or groups within the club. Everyone’s equal. I can’t even say we have any bowling ‘names’ here ... the only one I can think of is Liam Eathorne who won the Under 20’s about 10 years ago.”

“Glenn McDonald also used to bowl out of here … he was a Blackjack and in the winning four with Gary Lawson, Andrew Curtain and Adam Newman in 2004.”

“What we do have is a great Club Captain in Mark Buist,” says Speedo. “He’s a young bloke in his 40’s, with lots of energy and enthusiasm. One of the things he did was set up a fun day where people played corner-to-corner, spider, left-handed bowls, and with indoor bowls on the outdoor green. He even got sponsors to chuck a few prizes on the table. Members loved it.”

But the club also organises a couple of notable ‘serious’ tournaments.

“Our big tournament is the Riccarton Racecourse Hotel/Ryman Village Fours in January. It’s a mixed open, and we get entrants from a lot of clubs around town. We also have a big tournament on Paddy’s Day … everyone dresses up in green. We even have a waiting list.”

“While most of our tournaments are mixed, the women also put on a big fours tournament in February, which is very popular in Canterbury.”

“Unfortunately we can’t do anything special for Show Week … the road is completely blocked off for Cup Week by ‘traffic managers’, so we can’t even get to the green and clubhouse!”

“It’s not a big deal. The 60 or 70 summer members still have a wonderful place to play the other 51 weeks of the year. And the other 100 or so winter members enjoy an uninterrupted 22 weeks of the year.”

You could say the club is just galloping along