While some of Southland's small country bowling clubs may be struggling, Te Anau's bowling club is bucking the trend as it celebrated a half century of the sport in Fiordland on Saturday (5 Apr).

Te Anau Bowling Club sports both a modern pavilion and artificial turf. Photo (file): Southland App

President Brian McCandless said with 56 members the club was thriving, which he credits to the town's relatively larger population, strong community and entrepreneurial spirit and members commitment to invest in new facilities.

The club's 'Tradies Tuesday' - a social evening where trades and hospitality workers team up for a fun evening of bowling - has also helped with recruitment and regularly attracts up to 48 new people.

"A lot of young people [are] introduced to the game and ultimately when they've got the time and they're a bit older, we hope they'll become fulltime members," McCandless said.

"We've [already] had some good recruiting through that source."

The club's new $400,000 artificial green, installed in 2024, has also reaped benefits with members now comfortably playing year-round instead of the usual 5-6 months.

"Surprise, surprise, we've starting to win competitions in a way we've never done before," McCandless said.

"We're the Western Central Wednesday Inter-Club champions, the Western Central Saturday Inter-Club champions [and] our women's fours team is the Southland champions team."

And the club's new pavilion built in 2012 has also played its part in the club's success.

The Te Anau Bowling Club's original pavilion was a former ablution block from the West Arm power station project. Photo: Southland App

McCandless said that for years the bowling club had been not just a club but a community and social hub for the older people in the town.

"More and more organisations are [now] coming here for their Christmas parties, birthday parties, wedding celebrations. One even came for the wake for a funeral."

"That's almost as important as producing a good bowls game," he said.

The club also used today's occasion to awarded life memberships to Mike Dodd and Fraser Elder.