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Bowling ladies turn to Beyoncé to help save their club

The Chadstone Bowls Club ladies have gone viral in just a few days.

The Chadstone Bowls Club ladies have gone viral in just a few days. Source: Facebook

A Melbourne lawn bowls club at risk of redevelopment is fighting back using the power of dance — and Beyoncé.

And its sassy protest has sent the little club global, attracting interest from the likes of The New York Times and the BBC.

Three women from Melbourne’s Chadstone Bowls Club — Terry Foster, 82, Janine Hall, 82, and Wyn Hewett, 72 — have starred in a video featuring them dancing to Beyoncé’s hit, Single Ladies, in a head-turning bid to save their club making way for a new stadium.

But instead of singing about break-ups and sisterhood, the trio sing about their love for the club and call on Stonnington Council to “pay attention”.

“Cause we’re bowlers and you can’t take this away from us,” the chorus goes.

“Now we’re mad and you won’t get away with it.”

Since being posted to Facebook on Saturday night the video has been viewed almost 700,000 times and the bowling ladies have attracted plenty of wider media attention for their cause.

Denise Wallish, from the Save Chaddy Bowls group, told The New Daily she’d expected a few thousand views of the video, but was now “getting greedy” and aiming for a million.

Despite two of the bowling ladies not being familiar with Beyoncé and having to negotiate some difficult dance moves, they managed to film the video within an afternoon.

“If you ask the ladies, they didn’t know what they were in for,” Ms Wallish said.

Late last year, Stonnington Council nominated the park where Chadstone Bowls Club sits as the preferred site for a proposed new $25-million indoor stadium.

The council has said it was struggling to keep up with increasing demand for sports facilities and was also considering building the stadium in three other locations.

Ms Wallish said club members had written letters to the council ad nauseum since the proposal was first floated late last year, but with no effect.

She realised that to create greater awareness, the club needed a more modern method of delivery.

But Ms Wallish had only reckoned with greater awareness throughout the community, not the world.

While the video has created waves internationally, Stonnington councillors are yet to react and say whether the global reaction has swayed their vote.

“A new indoor facility is particularly important to meet the needs of women’s sport which is currently under-catered for,” the council said on its website.

While the council said they have not made a final decision, the club is determined not to lose its beloved green.

“The bowling club is not just a just sporting outlet, for many people it’s their connection with their community,” Ms Wallish said.

“We have a man in his ’90s who said he would chain himself to the fence to save it.”

“This has been our home for 60 years, our sporting home, and we want to be here for the next 60.”

– with AAP

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