Wanaka Bowling Club
Newsletter January 2026
Wanaka Men's McIvor Plumbing and Rockgas Classic Fours
The Classic was won by a Wanaka team of Simon Nyhof (skip), Brett Simpson, Don Cameron and Bill Turnbull who beat a Queenstown team 15–12 in a high class final.
The Plate event was won by a team of Tim Scurr (skip), Peter Rutherford, Alan Burgess and Clive Kirkland who beat a Gore team after an extra end.
Simon thanked Val Ransom, the Tournament Secretary, and all who had been involved in the organisation and running of a very successful event.
As skip of the winning team, Simon Nyhof said, “This is a tough competition to win, and it’s great to have so many top players coming to Wānaka to compete each year.”
Get Ready for our Centenary
On 25 October 1926, our Club celebrated our first Opening Day and in 2026 it will be timely and appropriate to mark 100 years of the Club's existence.
The Board has asked a sub-committee to plan suitable celebrations to mark this milestone. Ken Mitchell convenes the sub-committee and members are Gaye Beattie, Val Ransom, Raewyn Hall, Derek Hope, and Ian Hall.
Early notice is now given of events to be held on Labour Weekend 2026, 23-25 October. More details will come as we get closer to the date but please note your diaries as the programme will look like:
Friday, 23 October - Centennial Progressive Bowls from 1.00pm with suitable prizes to be followed by an informal Meet and Greet in the Clubrooms.
Saturday, 24 October - Gala Formal Dinner from 6.00pm in the Clubrooms with appropriate formalites and top class guest speakers.
Sunday, 25 October - social bowls to be organised, and the Clubrooms will be open for further socialising.
Registration details will come soon. With a limited number of places available for the Saturday night dinner, we'll be encouraging your early registration.
The sub-committee is keen to make contact with former members who may have moved away from the district. Please contact any member of the subcommittee with any names and contact details or send an email to 100years.wanakabowls@gmail.com
We look forward to your support. From Labour Weekend onwards, we'll be ensuring further publicity to mark the Club's centenary and to encourage new members.
Publicity Report for year ending 29 December
Thank you to Ian Hall for his help in some of our media releases, winter news, photos, board updates. Val Ransom, Alister Moore, women's match committee photos and updates and Mark Daniels for his liaison and updates from the board and also his talented videos.
Our reach and reactions on our Facebook page have increased remarkably over time, in particular the last two months. Top four posts are below. For this reason alone it is great to see our members wearing their uniforms.
Website
Below are the years statistics compared to the previous year. The comparison doesn't show the huge increase as Facebook does. However, given the size of our club, the number of unique users (per annum) is considerable.
Helpers required:
If anyone out there would like to do a little bit (or more) then please contact me.
Updating Calendar
Regular emails
Media releases
Facebook posts
Newsletters
Website
Mens Triples
Congratulations winners of our men's Champ triples played 23rd December.
From left: Eion Willis, Dion Kiddey, Tom Malcolm.
Women's Fours
Congratulations our women who played the finals of their club fours on the 18th December. The games were played in calm, cool , overcast conditions.
At the commencement of play Team Pip Kiddey was on one life. Team Kim Tilly on 2 lives. Team Kiddey outplayed the first match with some very fine bowls being played. On their second game Team Tilly won. This time Team Tilly were all on form and had a good win.
Photo from left the runners up: Kathryn Liggins, Pieta Shore, Deb Hurt, Pip Kiddey.
Winners were: Kim Tilly, Jo Stock, Rae Hammond, Raewyn Hall
Womens Christmas Lunch
On 10th December 40 of our women met for lunch at the Tititea Restaurant. We had the restaurant to ourselves and we served lamb, steak, duck fat potatoes and salad. The match committee organised the event and had great number of raffles.
Trade Bowls
Tuesday 16th December 2025 evening was a very very successful finale before Christmas for the trades. Most got dressed up and the rain came as the bowls finished. Instead of the usual BBQ they were fed pulled lamb with coleslaw and buns which was very well received.
We gave prizes for Santa .. best dressed individual and the Ho Ho Ho's for the best team.
Our thanks especially to Stu and Rhonda Hurley for continuing to organise the trade bowls in great spirit and all their loyal helpers.
Mixed Pairs
We had a highly successful and our first ever mixed pairs Championship event on Sunday 14th December. In the photo below are Pip and Dion Kiddey being congratulated by organiser Simon Nyhof.
Pip and Dion won by 3 ends over the runners up Bev Mee and Richie Muir. It was a tournament format, 4 games were played with a random draw. We had a full green and lots of members and family at our BBQ afterwards.
Thanks to everyone who helped and the wonderful catering. It was a fun day and nicely timed with a Christmas BBQ.
Corporate Bookings
Photos from the night of 11th December. One of our larger groups. Booking from the QLDC for pickleball group.
