A new venture for the Ōtāhuhu Railway Club led to investigating new possibilities in several areas, and after the dust settled it was acknowledged that it was something that could have been done before now. That said, a bit late was not too late.

For the first time, the club put its toe into the waters of a Twilight competition, sourcing entries from the local business community and the secondary schools in the area, whose staff and pupils are making increasing use of the facilities Ōtāhuhu Railway can offer. Nobody expected a full house, but there was about half of that, so everyone was quietly pleased.

The second part of this new venture was that some new entry-level bowls were definitely required; there might be a few old sets in the lockers but ‘99’ date stamps suggest that ‘old’ only just covers it. Applications were made to the Rawhiti Trust through Bowls Auckland, a price was settled on with Hunter Bowls after three quotes had been sourced, and within days the order had been filled. Many clubs have already taken advantage of the opportunities the Trust offers and Ōtāhuhu Railway acknowledges it was something else that could have been done earlier, but we got there in the end.

Actually the whole process was simplicity itself. Most club secretaries understand how it works – get your quotes, pick the best one, apply, and in Railway’s case the positive answer came through within days. A quick phone call to Bryce, and later that day the goodies were delivered.

It promises to usher in a new era for the bowling club. Within a week there had been five groups on the greens – the field for the Rangitahi competition, the normal Wednesday triples, a school hire group, the Twilight players and then an in-house club tournament – and three of the five were using the new kit.

The Twilights were a success; nobody went to bed hungry as the barbecue was fired up each time, the players enjoyed themselves and a team from TransRail is off to Mt Albert this Sunday representing the club in the Auckland Twilight Final.

Next spring ORBC will be back into it, this time, with a small foothold established, and is looking forward to expanding and building on the lessons learned from this first gentle foray into what is rapidly becoming an integral part of most clubs’ calendars.

Somebody should have told us it was this easy.