Creditors have voted to place the Dubbo Railway Bowling Club into liquidation and its assets will be sold.
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The decision was made at a meeting of creditors held at Dubbo on Wednesday, four days after the club, which traded as Sporties Dubbo, ceased trading.
It comes just over three months since the Erskine Street venue entered voluntary administration, with Aaron Lucan and Graeme Beattie, partners of Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants NSW & ACT appointed administrators.
“Unfortunately, despite lengthy negotiations with a number of interested clubs, we were unable to reach an agreement with an amalgamation partner who had the resources to enable to club to rectify its financial difficulties and continue to trade,” Mr Lucan said on Thursday.
“In the circumstances, the liquidation of the club offers the best chance for a significant return to creditors.”
The club had fallen into financial distress as a result of “unfavourable contracts and operational challenges”, the administrators said in November.
The club’s course was set this week.
At the second meeting of creditors, held on Wednesday, the creditors of the club voted to put it into liquidation rather than adopt the Deed of Company Arrangement proposed by the club’s directors, the administrators said.
Both options available to creditors required the club to close and for its assets to be sold to meet creditor claims, the administrators reported.
Accordingly, the club ceased trading at close of business on February 23, they said.
The club had 15 employees at the time of the appointment of administrators.
All staff had now been made redundant due to the insolvency of their employer, the Worrells partners said.
Employee entitlements accruing during the administration had been paid and the entitlements that accrued prior to their appointment would be referred to the federal government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme, the administrators said.
Worrells will now start a sale program for the assets of the club, “including its real property, plant and equipment and gaming machine entitlements”.
For more information or to make an enquiry, call the Worrells Central West office on 02 8844 1200 or centralwest@worrells.net.au
Social media shock
People expressed shock at the decision on social media.
“Sad to see this happen. Times are a changing,” Jan Pateman said in a post to the Daily Liberal’s Facebook page.
There were recollections of good days on the bowling greens.
Cathy Neely said the bowling club was “like a second home” to her grandfather, Roy ‘Happy’ Willmott.
Sporties Dubbo is not alone in its fate
Bowls NSW chief executive Greg Helm said in February about 40 bowling clubs in Sydnay had closed or amalgamated in the past decade.
Earlier this year a spokesman for Clubs NSW said there were 500 registered bowling clubs in NSW and 60,000 active bowlers - an average of just 120 for each club.
It was established more than 60 years ago in 1954 to cater for NSW railway employees domiciled at Dubbo.
The forerunner of Sporties Dubbo was established in 1954 to cater for NSW railway employees domiciled at Dubbo.
Since then it has undergone renovations and refurbishments, most recently in 2012, its website reports.
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