Orange City Bowling Club started with humble beginnings and on Saturday members celebrated the club's 125th anniversary and its continued success.
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Orange City Bowling Club secretary manager Neil Southcombe said the club formed after 21 enthusiastic supporters of the game met to discuss forming a lawn bowls club in Orange.
However, 125 years later the club now has about 3000 members in total including social members and about 160 people who actively play bowls at the Warrendine Street location.
"The first location was in Robertson Park and then they moved to the Kmart block and from there moved to where we currently exist," Mr Southcombe said.
We have our ladies team competing for a state pennant and one of our men's teams is competing for a state pennant.
- secretary manager Neil Southcombe
As well as changing locations he said uniforms also changed with society with clothing ranging from vests and ties to whites and now bright colours.
He said about 90 people celebrated the 125th anniversary on Saturday night including long-term and life members, former managers and directors.
Mr Southcombe said the event was celebrated with drinks and canapes as well as speeches and a presentation on the club's history.
Despite the statewide decline in the sport, which has seen other clubs close or merge in the region, Mr Southcombe said membership at Orange City Bowling Club has stayed consistent.
"We've got five greens but we only use three of them, it's just the way bowls is going, these days the members are dwindling," Mr Southcombe said.
He said the clubs that struggled the most were those that solely depended on bowls whereas the Orange club, has expanded to be a social club, function centre and eatery.
"We also have mini golf now, it's very strong and very popular," Mr Southcombe said.
As one of only two surviving clubs in Orange, the other being at the Orange Ex-Services' Country Club, the club also remains competitive.
Mr Southcombe said the number of playing members has remained consistent and the ladies club has increased in numbers.
"We have our ladies team competing for a state pennant and one of our men's teams is competing for a state pennant," he said.
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