The Tranmere Bowling, Tennis and Croquet Club was officially opened on Saturday 31^st January 1925, and that day has always been considered to be the Clubs “Foundation Day”.

Tranmere House was built in 1893 set amongst 150 acres of estate. Our Clubhouse, bowls greens and tennis courts were once part of the gardens of that house.  The pillars on Magill Road were the Southern boundary of the house.

A Sunday afternoon outing was a trip to the Eastern foothills of Adelaide to view all the grand old houses that were located there.

Jackman and Treloar Ltd acquired the property in 1912 for a sum of 10,000 pounds, and that included the land from Magill Road through to Brookside Avenue. Mr. Charles Treloar lived in Tranmere House for a short period, after which the building was re-arranged and set up into flats. The company very generously made a gift of all the land extending from the house to Magill Road to our Club.

Charles Treloar became the Clubs Foundation President. With the contributions of so many people over the many decades our Club now owns an asset valued at over $3,800,000. The clubrooms provide a focal point for members, visitors and guests to enjoy the playing of bowls and tennis and to attend social events. The Club has the facilities to provide for seven tennis courts and three bowling greens with a maximum of 20 rinks. The bowling greens have excellent LED floodlight facilities for night bowling. 

Around the clubrooms there are many Club honour boards, shields, cups, pennant flags and plaques.  They remember and honour the many members who have served as office bearers. They also acknowledge those members who have achieved individual success with the Clubs many house championships and success awards for Tennis and Bowls. What cannot be seen is that so many members have given so much of their time to contribute to the progress and success of Tranmere as a sports and community Club.

Members are welcome to visit our Archives and Library room to view and peruse some of the old shields, cups and memorabilia of years gone by.

These are the words of Bill Fielden, who was a member of Tranmere for over 60 years, “My rich and fond memories of my Tranmere years were not so much of the buildings and the improvements to the Club, but of the members and character of the Club itself”.

The Club converted to synthetic bowling greens during 2008. The greens were installed by KCL Sports, a Newcastle based synthetic playing surfaces contractor. We have installed a product called “DryMax Pro” that requires little water except to keep the surface clean.

In 2013, Berry Bowling Systems, installed a retractable shade system over our two front bowling greens, a first for South Australia. The system will give members and visitors a very welcome protection from the sun’s damaging UV rays as well as prolonging the life span of the synthetic greens.  In 2016 we added another shade system to our “C” green.

Overall management of the Club is conducted by a General Committee that is responsible for the management of Club finances, maintenance and upgrades of facilities for both bowls and tennis, the Club bar facility and its’ legal requirements as a fully licensed Club, and many other obligations that are required to run a successful Club facility. The Bowls and Tennis sections both maintain separate committees to organize their individual requirements for their bowls and tennis members.

The clubrooms, gardens and surrounds of the Club are maintained by a very enthusiastic group of members. One day you may wish to join them, and continue the trend of members of Tranmere being more involved than just bowling and playing tennis.   

As a Club we hope that all of our members enjoy many years of bowling, tennis and social activities with the Club of your choice as have many members since 1925.