Last summer the Roslyn Bowling club was teetering on the edge with just 12 registered members and seemed likely to go into recess.
But it has been thrown a lifeline through its involvement with community bowls that has attracted members of the Roslyn community to use the facilities at the club.
Tournament secretary Isobel Bell said the club now had 22 registered members and the addition of social members had increased the club strength to 40.
Each week the club holds twilight bowls and this encourages the Roslyn community to use the facilities.
It has resulted in an increase of membership.
The women of Gamma St, who have used the club facilities, have banded together to cater for the Roslyn Bowling Club's 125th anniversary celebration dinner tonight.
Roslyn, the third bowling club established in the city after Dunedin and Caledonian, was formed in 1883 and shifted to the Gamma St site 20 years later.
Prominent in the early days was Charles Tyrrell, the only Roslyn male bowler to win a gold star, who claimed his five Bowls Dunedin titles from 1930 to 1945.
He won the national pairs title with R.B. Clark in 1938.
Ernest Fountain won the New Zealand singles title in 1915 and was killed at Gallipoli a few months later.
The best woman bowler in the club was Dora Berry, who won five Otago Women's Bowling Centre titles.
In 1948, when the New Zealand championships were held in Dunedin, the Roslyn club had to bring back a truckload of cotula weed from Shag Point to improve its green.
Ken Stott, the only Bowls New Zealand president from the club, held office in 1999-2000.
He will be a special guest at the centenary dinner at the Westpac Dunedin indoor bowls stadium tonight.
The club has had seven Bowls Dunedin presidents over the past 125 years, with the latest Isobel Bell who filled the role for the centre's centennial last year.
The other presidents were R.H. Scott (1909-10), W.J. Nicholson (1914-15), J H Matheson (1918-19), W D Richards (1940-41), Ken Stott (1988-89) and Dawn White (1997-98) A social evening was held at the club last night and a roll-up will be held at the Westpac Bowls Stadium from 2pm today with the anniversary dinner being held at the same venue tonight from 7pm.
A roll up and luncheon will be held at the Roslyn club tomorrow morning.
