The Club with No Beer

The Lightning Ridge Bowling Club has been the community’s beating heart since its official opening, but its journey to that milestone was not easy.

The club opened its doors in Morilla Street in 1966, but it wasn’t until April 1969 that its first official competition as a member of the Royal NSW Bowling Association was held. In a day marked with speeches by office bearers, matches with visiting bowlers from the Barwon District, and traditional toasts to Queen and country, the club had finally arrived.

It had come a long way from the days of it being known as ‘The Club with No Beer’ because it served only tea, coffee, and soft drinks. Despite (or possibly because of) this, a team of lady bowlers formed in 1966, a year ahead of the men. Regular weekend games were held, and the club thrived from the outset.

Securing a liquor license however, proved arduous. The town’s publican, Derek Skeets, feared that liquor sales would hurt his business if the club were licensed. The LRBC’s financial backer, Madeleine Lenz (1917-2009), was pressured to purchase alcohol from the pub at a 10% markup. She luckily refused, later discovering that bowing to the pressure would have jeopardised the club’s future.

After six days of typing up an application on her Hermes typewriter and travelling to attend a stringent two-day hearing in Walgett, Madeleine secured the club’s liquor license in her name. Two weeks later, she drove to Sydney to collect it and arranged to take delivery of eleven Aristocrat one-armed bandits (pokies) to bring in extra revenue.

Madeleine’s dogged perseverance paid off, and her legacy endures; today, the club’s competitions offer prize pools of up to $40,000 and the ‘bowlo’ is a cornerstone of the community.