How Things Began
A brief outline of our History.
From Shirley Pickles
In the beginning, Lloyd and Lola Butcher,
in 1975, were the publicans at the Junction Hotel Sanson. We formed
the Sanson Social Club under their patronage, taking over the
Assets of the Darts Club, which had been in recess for a number
of years.
Our aim was to form Darts, Pool, Cricket events, with our own
and members from other places - to organize trips, Gala days and
Christmas parties for adults and children. They were the good
days and we had a lot of fun - then Lion Breweries bought the
Hotel and put in a succession of Managers - these were also good
times with them being involved with us. The club also had a good
relationship with the local community. For many years we held
a Housie licence, which we used, not for our own income but for
the School, Play centre, Plunket and the like. Donations were
made to the school also.
In 1986 the Brewery started to lease
out the Hotel. Arthur and Penny from recollection were the first
and we had a great relationship with them. Later publicans were
not so interested in the Club members or even the locals, being
more interested in the Truckies. A few of us decided we would
form our own Club away from the Hotel which we did, using Naomi
& Ron Jensen's Pool room.
We had quite a reasonable following
even though our facilities were basic with the Beer kegs kept
in an old fridge. David Pickles, Barry Coombs and George Olson
were our operators. We decided to look for a more permanent place
to use. Suddenly, At this stage, word was about, there was a new
publican coming. Well this had to be good news, which for a time
it was. At this stage we shelved our ambitions of trying to get
our own premises.
The interests and fortunes of the
Club at the Hotel, waxed and waned until August 1987 when we went
into recess-reactivating the following year with the Publicans
encouragement, saying they would be more active and supportive.
I think the Pokies were installed about this time, which club
members and locals patronised well.
Relations with the Publican deteriorated because they expected
us to organize games etc., and to pay for the Shouts and suppers
from our income, which we derived from Raffles and small membership
fees.
In 1990 Lil Webb introduced Club 200
or 250 Membership Draw, which we have to this day. This proved
immensely popular bringing more people to the Hotel on Friday
nights.
In March 91, we made a request to
the Publicans for $5000. from Pub Charity to enable us to buy
uniforms with the Hotels name advertised -We were turned down.
Relations took a further tumble.
Imagine our feelings one Saturday
night when we were at the Hotel and in came a large contingent
of Soccer players from Wanganui wearing -you guessed it,
Jackets with Junction Hotel, Sanson emblazoned upon them. Later
we saw a newspaper article thanking our publican for a $20,000
donation from Pub Charity to a school in Wanganui. We were extremely
hurt and resentful, feeling this was local money which should
have been used here and not given out of the area.
This was the final straw and a boycott was organized to take place
one April Friday night at 9 o'clock. We did this and relocated
in the Supper room at the Sanson Hall.
Barry Bishop was determined that this
time we would succeed in forming our own Club in our own premises.
He set our sights much higher though with his vision of us becoming
part of the Chartered club Assoc., We were accepted into this
Nov 1991 - negotiations were started with MDC for lease of the
old school. Barry was the chief motivator and with help from Lil
and Florry spent 18 months going through all the legal and council
requirements - not easy. We were extremely lucky to get the services
of Simon Murfitt, lawyer from Feilding. He did a magnificent job
and to this day, I don't think he ever charged us anything.
Whilst all this was going on in the
background, the Club operated up at the hall. Our Inaugural meeting
on 24th May 1992. This was good fun but extremely hard work, taking
everything including ours and Pat and Florries pool tables up
there on Sundays and then having to bring them back on Monday.
There must have been more hours in a day back then. We operated
firstly on a BYO system, later lucky to be able to use Mere Rurakuras
Managers licence until Barry and myself obtained ours.
Our negotiations with MDC for lease
of this building came to fruition August 1992.
The place had been vandalized and was indescribably dirty, filthy,
broken glass and you name it, it was here. A lot of dedicated
volunteers worked extremely hard just to clean & re Jib all
interior walls, before getting down to the building of the Bar
and decorations done, which looked wonderful at the time of completion.
Not everyone was visible at this stage but a lot of people were
busy in the background getting things organized.
We opened here in these premises 10th December, 1992.
Four couples borrowed $30,000.
to enable the Club to get started. In alphabetical order Barry/Heather
Bishop, Lloyd/Lola Butcher, David/Shirley Pickles, Pat/Florrie
Smith. We paid back this loan in 3 years. Membership was set at
$50.00 j. fee and yearly sub $25.00 - a lot less than currently.
I would like to thank Heather Bishop
who was extremely generous in letting Barry spend so much time
on the interests of the Club, she having to do a lot of work on
the farm that he normally would have done
I can only thank Barry for his fervour,
vision and dedication for which he was awarded Life time Honorary
membership. We were, under his leadership and guidance a very
respected, professional and businesslike Club. I feel sure that
the Club will continue with his vision in mind.
