Sunshine City must wish it had the power to put the brakes on the clock in Bowls Victoria division 4 section 1.
City is facing a race against time with an ageing playing roster endangering the club’s role in the competition.
“We’re an ageing club,” City secretary Ian Bowker said. “We’ve got a 93-year-old playing bowls and people in their 80s and 70s.
“We’ve got no players between the ages of 20 and 50 – in fact, there’s probably no players between the ages of 20 and 60. That makes it very hard.”
Sunshine City’s player numbers illustrate a steep decline.
Nine years ago, the club had 147 bowlers.
“We’re down to the mid 30s – about 35 or 36 bowlers,” Bowker said.
“It won’t be long before it will be uneconomical for us to continue to play bowls.”
Sunshine City needs young players to keep the club alive.
But with Sunshine RSL, Sunshine VRI, Deer Park and St Albans in close proximity, it’s hard for City to attract new faces. Some of those clubs are also struggling.
“It’s very hard to recruit,” Bowker said. “It’s a pretty hard job when you look at the competition around the area.”
What has not changed is Sunshine City’s desire to compete.
The players keeping the club alive will never roll over.
City has struggled this season, but on Saturday took down finals contender Werribee, claiming three of the four rinks.
The win was not enough to lift City from the bottom of the ladder, but it gave its divisional survival prospects a nice boost.
What it also showed is that Sunshine City’s home ground advantage is substantial.
“We’ve got a carpet green and they couldn’t handle that,” Bowker said.
“We’ve got a good home ground advantage.
“We also beat Laverton at home, convincingly on four rinks.”
Lance Jenkinson
