Club History

The Drysdale Bowling & Croquet Club – Our History

The land for the Drysdale Bowling and Croquet Club was bought in 1943 at a cost of 100 pounds. This was financed by Jim Henderson, Harold Bennett, C. Halliday & A Filbay.

The club was formed and officially opened on 2^nd October 1948 and become Affiliated with the GDBA &  RVBA (region now GBR) in the same year.

Drysdale Bowling and Croquet Club first office bearers included:

President: J. Whitcombe

Ladies President: Elsie Rodgers

Secretary: R. Clarke

Ladies Secretary: Ada Mannix

Treasurer: M. Dossett

The First Club Champions were:

Men: R. Withcombe

Ladies: F. Sanderson

The land was then handed to the Bellarine shire in 1952.

The clubhouse was a two room cottage which was moved to site and the western end had an open area with a thatched roof used for afternoon tea and so forth. The club was extended when a dining room was added in 1956 to the eastern side, and in 1965 the men’s room replaced the open area.

A new clubhouse was erected in 1989 mainly due to the efforts & the money raised by Norma Mortimer, with the work done by A.E. Evans, E.J. Silver, S. Hughes and assisted by H.M. Peel, M.E.R. Foord and many other helpers.

The new clubhouse was opened on 7^th January 1989 by the RVBA president Bob Poulton.

Originally the club had two greens, one green having seven rinks and the other having five rinks; with the five rink green being used by the croquet section.

In 1968 the five rink green was extended to seven rinks and the croquet greens were established.

The club does not own all of the land but has title for most of the Number One green which was obtained by adverse possession.

On the 7^th October 2016 the clubhouse was named “The Norma Mortimer Clubhouse” to honour Norma Mortimer’s commitment, in terms of the time, effort & financial input she has given the club over many years.