It was a quiet Sunday afternoon at the club where Dick McGuigan worked. The raffles had just finished when two masked men armed with guns burst in. What happened next affected not just Dick but his whole family.
Dick told his story to ABC Newcastle's Melanie Tait in the lead-up to a free seminar on armed robbery prevention to be held at Hexham Bowling Club on Thursday.
This year has been the worst for robberies on clubs since they were first recorded in 1995.
The robbery in which Dick was shot happened at the North Lambton Water Board Bowling Club in June last year, with patrons just starting to leave after the raffles.
"Next thing, two masked men entered the club, held the staff up," Dick recalls.
He can't go into detail about the robbery itself as the case is still before the courts, but says the pair then ran out through the foyer.
Thinking they'd left, Dick and several other people followed to try to get a look at the getaway car so they could pass on details to police.
But one of the men, armed with a rifle, was still in the foyer.
"I saw the flash, heard the gun and didn't feel anything at first, and then I felt a burning sensation in my side," Dick says.
"I put my hand down and saw blood on my hand." The bullet had passed through his abdomen.
The gunman fled as Dick fell to the floor.
"I remember lying on the floor and people working on me," he says. "I wasn't in pain, but at one stage things started to go a bit hazy."
Dick ended up in intensive care for days, then spent seven weeks in hospital undergoing 13 operations, and had five months off work.
"I was unlucky, it was unprovoked, I don't know why the guy pulled the trigger," he says. The bullet wound left a big scar on his stomach, but he says the emotional fallout has been worse.
"The ongoing effect is the effect on my family."
Dick's wife was at the club when he was shot, although she didn't witness it, and one of his grandchildren has needed counselling.
He now works at a different club, but still patronises the club where the shooting occurred, though he admits it's a strange feeling to revisit the scene where he almost died.
John Chin, the Hunter State councillor for ClubsNSW, says there have been nine robberies of Hunter clubs since June this year.
"And they were quite vicious as well," he says. "They're coming with guns, machetes, crowbars and knives and they've threatened staff, they've tied staff up.
"What I want to see all our clubs do is be realistic about it, that we're potential targets and that we need to be more vigilant and be prepared."
John says club staff need to be trained in what to do if they find themselves in the middle of an armed robbery.
"Because they've got to learn what to do and, more importantly, what not to do," he says.
"We're not so much worried about loss of money, but what we're worried about is the safety of our staff and our members."
The free seminar on armed robbery prevention will be held at Hexham Bowling Club on Thursday, November 1, from 9am. Representatives from the NSW Police Robbery and Serious Crime squad, WorkCover NSW, the Newcastle Forensic Unit and the Trauma Centre will attend.
