Bulawayo Club

ATA 37th Annual Congress – Vic Falls 2012

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:33:07 +0000

Marketing Director for The Amalinda Collection, Sharon Stead will be a panelist speaking on WOMEN IN TOURISM at the Annual Congress for AFRICA TRAVEL ASSOCIATION to be held in Vic Falls from 18th – 22nd May 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDTyfm7Rp1g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Mafia at The Bulawayo Club

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:43:14 +0000

On the 6^th February 1895 the Bulawayo Club Committee were elected into office having taking over from the Club’s Provisional Committee.

In the late 1940,s the Honourable (later Sir) Humphrey Gibbs was Chairman of the Matableland Farmers Association, their monthly meetings were held on a Thursday.

After the meeting Humphrey used to invite those, who were Members, to join him for lunch, coffee and Port at the Bulawayo Club. This was the beginning of the Club’s “ Farmers Table”.

Along with the Farmers came the exotic gourmet meals – Starters – marrow bones on toast – no charge. Main course – tripe and onions or oxtail, both with vegetables in “season” and mashed spinach (green sludge), Followed by Blue cheese on French pine apple – this particular dish allowed the Members to jet home after lunch.

Later these monthly meetings developed into weekly Thursday meetings perhaps even arranged in order that the farmers could clandestinely retire to the Bulawayo Railway Station to meet the mail train.

The train brought the mail and the new female (lady) arrivals who had travelled the 10,000 mile two week, sea trip to Cape Town from the UK on their way to Rhodesia on the majestic historical Union Castle Line steam ships.

The Farmer’s Table rapidly became an influencing institution within the Club and caused sustained grumbles from some of the Town Members who complained that this Farmer’s Table had become a Club within the Bulawayo Club.

“We farm with farmers, we work with farmers, our friends are farmers so lets get away from farmers while we are at the Club” so In 1962/63 Bronko Greaves, a prominent Nyamandhlovu farmer, together with a few farmer friends broke away from the Farmer’s Table and with a few Town Members formed the Mafia with Bronko the Mafia’s first God Father.

Mafia is a sinister word and it was once considered calling the group “The Gay Cavaliers”, in this day and age what connotations this would have caused.

The Mafia God Father was elected for life or until he decided to confer it to someone else. Over the years prominent Bulawayo business men and Club Members filled the position of God Father – Bronko Greaves, Dave Woodliffe, Peter Store, Trevor Wright – (G M of Rhodesia Railways), Ron Gray, Peter Jansen, Robin Greaves, John Tippler unfortunately passed away just before he was installed as God Father and currently Malcolm Ross.

The Mafia used to enjoy annual formal Christmas Ladies dinner at the Club – as an expression of appreciation of our Ladies support especially when certain Members arrive home late on a Thursday night after a hard day’s work in the (Mafia) Office.

In recent years the Mafia have been privileged to enjoy this Christmas Ladies Dinner at Robin Greaves ranch and latterly at the Kirby/Ross farm.

Such were the make up of the Farmer’s Table and Mafia within the Club that helped make the character, ambiance and personality of the Bulawayo Club. Today you can still find them lunching on Tripe and Oxtail on a Thursday in the Members Bar.

Christmas 2011

admin — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:34:27 +0000

Hello world!

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:00:34 +0000

……. and welcome to the first posting from Bulawayo Club GM, Robin Waters, who recently visited one of Bulawayo’s less-well promoted attractions:-

“The NRZ Railway Museum is within walking distance of the Club in central Bulawayo. I had not been there since – well, since I was a boy, and I won’t divulge how long ago that is. I can pretty well guarantee that nothing has changed since my last visit. But then, when you are dealing with parked rol…ling stock, nothing really needs to change. As a whole, the museum reflects in microcosm the state of the National Railways as a whole; still ticking over, but in need of some TLC – or in this case a relatively small cash injection for a facelift. There are some gems like old C. J. Rhodes’ personal coach, which is worth a visit on its own; luxury is not the word by today’s standards, but given the unknown conditions and the virtually uncharted terrain through which the coach was to be hauled, it is a monument to the empire-building spirit of the era. You can almost still see the white-gloved waiter serving CJR with his afternoon tea and after-dinner port. As the world at large speeds up with every new innovation in IT, this museum is a timely reminder of what it took to get where we are today, in a time when values and morals were so different.”

The Chairman’s Christmas Message 2011

admin — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:14:17 +0000

Keith Patrick, Chairman of The Byo Club ……