Life Member

Perhaps the best-performed bowlers in the Gisborne-East Coast district are brothers Bill and Geoff Crowley, 29 Score Road, who were both elected life members of the Gisborne Club at its last annual general meeting in recognition of their service to the club as green-keepers.

Members of the green-keeping committee, they have put in countless voluntary hours along with the permanent groundsman keeping their club's turf up to the exacting standard demanded by the sport.

As competitive bowlers they have figured prominently in local and national championships for more than 20 years.

As a family team, including their father, the late Mr E. Crowley snr, and the late Mr W. F. Hurlstone, representing the Tolaga Bay Club, they won the N.Z. fours title on two occasions, in 1947 and 1950.

Locally they have competed successfully in such prized contests as the Burton Bowls and the E.C centre's Champion of Champions.

Their interest in bowling commenced in Tauranga where their father, also a very prominent bowler, had a private green on which to practise his favourite sport. The family then moved to Broadlands Station, Tolaga Bay, in the 1930's and soon became stalwarts of the local club.

Retiring from the farm in 1957, the brothers moved to the city and joined the Gisborne Club, where they are pictured below playing as a pair.