As the clock ticks past 9am on Tuesday, Richard Noble is busy getting preparations in order ahead of midweek bowls action.
It is nothing new for the Euroa Bowls Club president.
Noble passes team sheets and paperwork to club stalwart Libby Byrne, with a hint of extra spring in his step and an eagerness to have his tasks completed before the 9.45am roll-up.
He later reveals that he ticks off his team sheets the night before, so “I have plenty of time to chat now” he says with a smile, as curious opposition players and teammates poke their heads into the clubrooms.
It’s been a significant week for the Goulburn Valley Playing Area outfit.
Euroa officially opened its restored clubrooms to its members and opponents on Saturday for the first time since the devastating floods of October 2022.
Like other sporting clubs in the region — Kialla Golf Club, Shepparton Swans and Shepparton United Cricket Club to name a few — Euroa was unable to escape the wrath of Mother Nature.
The neighbouring Sevens Creek engulfed the clubrooms and greens for several days.
And while Noble jokes that the extra water did the greens a bit of good, it destroyed the contents of the clubrooms and left it uninhabitable for the past 60 weeks.
“There was eight inches of water through the building, it filled up the greens and they benefited of course,” he said with a wry smile.
“The building was completely gutted.
“They ripped the floor up, the walls were taken up to here (about eight inches). They removed everything; the bar, the kitchen was completely gutted as well.
“And then it sat like that for six or seven months and people are saying ‘well, what’s going on?’.
“A lot of areas it’s been restumped and levelled ... the building is more than 30 or 40 years old.”
The fact that Noble, after what he described as a “frustrating” ordeal, can crack a joke says a lot about the type of person who has been at the helm of the century-old bowls club during one of its most challenging periods.
Noble was quick to point out that although the club faced hardship, it was still able to function as a bowls club.
“We were still able to bowl, we could play midweek and weekend and council installed some portable toilets out there too,” he said.
“And then the club purchased a shipping container and we put all of our property in there.
“We set the bar up in there, so we were fully operational, you know what Aussies are like, they can adapt.
“We operated as a club no problems, we did lose a lot of money from not hosting big events ... overall, it’s not an exercise that any organisation would like to go through, but we’ve come out of it okay.
“We did lose on our insurance, but we’re a pretty healthy club and we were able to get going again.”
Noble pointed out that the club faced a major block on its road to recovery.
“The insurance was the biggest thing, that was a real hassle,” he said.
“We made a claim straight after the floods, we lost the cool room, the kitchen ... and we got good communication from the insurers in the initial stages, but then it went dead, we heard nothing, so that was frustrating.
“That’s really been the only hassle.
“We got a state government flood assistance grant for our furniture and things like that which was between $5000 and $10,000. And because of that, we qualified for the $50,000 state funding, but we’re not a business so we missed out on that.
“So that’s the only assistance we’ve got really.”
Or so it seemed.
Noble was quick to add that people, his teammates who were quickly congregating inside the clubrooms for refuge from the sweltering heat, put their hands up to help out.
“The other assistance that you can’t put money on is these people, the club members have been fantastic,” he said proudly.
“That shed down there, well a couple of days after the floods, that was set up as a makeshift bar by the club members.”
With the events of the past 12 months now in the rear-vision mirror, Euroa’s bowlers can now focus on competing and enjoy the restored clubrooms during morning tea and smoko.
“We’re very happy at the moment,” Noble said.
“It’s the right time of the year, we’ve got our Christmas celebrations ... at the moment nothing is worrying us which is good.”