The club is closed and can't host bowlers due to the coronavirus pandemic but its members are banding together away from the greens.

Dennington, in the past fortnight, started a buddy program for members to keep in contact during the pandemic restrictions.

Members have a club booklet with the phone numbers of their fellow bowlers.

Some people have paired up as buddies but the idea is that you can connect with everyone.

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They are being encouraged to reach out via phone to ask for help or even just for a chat.

"It's nothing high-tech, it's just something so that people know they're not forgotten and if they need to have a talk or they feel lonely or dispirited, they have friends only a phone call away," Ross said.

The vice-president said he hoped the program would have value for those living on their own.

He said the club had many members who were single.

There are many whose partners have passed away.

Ross added there were also members who don't have any family members in the south-west.

"With the present problems with the coronavirus, people are largely confined to their homes," he said.

"For a single person, it can be quite lonely."

The vice-president said members wanted to help each other in whatever way possible, including helping with trips to the supermarket.

"If they need a message run, they know somebody has got their back," he said.

Ross said the buddy system was already starting to attract the interest of other south-west organisations.

"It's something all of society could do," he said.

"There are so many lonely people or people who don't have many local relatives.

"This coronavirus can be terribly isolating.

"It's jut a little helping hand."

It's not the first time Dennington Bowls Club has embraced change.

The club took on the Bowling with Babies program late last year.

It aims to support new and expecting mums to be more active, without the guilt of leaving their babies in the care of someone else.

Bowling with Babies, a VicHealth funded program, is a Bowls Victoria initiative.

Ross also told The Standard in December 2019, the club wanted to become a social hub for the Dennington area.

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