There was a massive cheer when City Memorial Bowls Club found out it won the Community Clubs Victoria (CCV) best sports club award for regional Victoria at a virtual awards night this week.
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The award covers many sports including cricket, golf, tennis and football.
Board members and staff gathered at the club on Monday night eagerly anticipating the announcement.
"Everyone was so happy, we've come out of a terrible time and had some good news, it was just great," City's general manager Julie Dosser said.
The acknowledgement is a nod to the club's achievements in the past three years including hosting State Champions Week earlier this year and the completion of the dome over two new greens.
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Dosser said it was a reward for the club's hard-working staff and volunteers who had ridden the bumps of the coronavirus-impacted past 18 months.
"Employment-wise, there's been stopping and starting and reduced hours. We were really lucky to maintain most of our staff throughout COVID," she said.
Dosser said the award encompassed 2019/20 and 2021 with last year's awards cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"We put in for that (award) because of the money we invested in the infrastructure with the double roof over the greens which we thought was the way to go to try and keep bowls alive and introduce new people to the sport," she said.
"It's been great because we run a lot of corporate groups, even at the moment, we are inundated with Christmas bookings for people that want to come and have a game of bowls and then some sort of catering option afterwards - it was all about extending our business."
There's also been changes to the inside of the building with The Carmichael function room given a spruce up.
"We stripped it out completely and re-did all that which has come up beautifully," Dosser said.
"That's been really busy with bookings, especially for people who have had weddings throughout the COVID period, they've all moved those bookings forward.
"So we're pretty busy with weddings, which is good and it's a beautiful room for weddings now."
The momentum keeps rolling along for the club with more renovations nearly completed.
"We've just re-done all of our gaming room, it's all brand new, we pulled everything out of there," she said.
"All the carpet, all the bases, we re-modelled all of the ceiling up the top, repainted it all, laid new carpet down, put all new bases down so all the (poker) machines were spaced the 1.5 metres apart only because we felt our patrons like that bit of space between one another.
"I think the (coronavirus) regulations are gone now that you don't have to have every second machine shut down if they're not 1.5-spaced, but we just felt that it looked nicer."
There's more work to come with Dosser confirming the bars would be upgraded, a new food preparation area would and be built and there'll also be a new reception area.
The other nominees were Traralgon Bowls Club, Italian Australian Sporting and Social Club of Gippsland and Morwell Bowling Club.
Dosser said the club received a similar award about a decade ago.
City's office manager Loretta Williams was a finalist for the club employee of the year while Dosser was a finalist for club manager of the year. The bowls venue was also a finalist for best club renovation.
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