Lenore ‘Chicky’ Robertson has bid farewell to her job at the Penola Football and Netball Club after 15 rewarding years.

Ms Robertson managed the club and will now enjoy retirement, so the much-loved local shared her story from where her career began.

Ms Robertson began working at the club after she sold her business and said to somebody at the club “if you ever want me, just sing out”.

“The next morning the sports club committee rang up and said come quick,” she said.

“And I had been there ever since.”

Ms Robertson was equipped with plenty of previous bartending and hospitality experience and was a familiar face to many when she began working at the club.

“I have been in hospitality since 1989, in 1989 we bought the Prince of Wales Hotel, then I have been Responsible Person since 1989,” she said.

“And then Cobb and Co restaurant and then Irises Café (Vintage Café).

“So I have met a lot of people.”

Ms Robertson’s duties at the club included organising the bar and drinks, filling the fridges, organising the kitchen and dinners and she said there was lots of voluntary work involved.

“We used to have lots of dinners, 21sts, weddings,” she said.

“I got to know the Mount Gambier boys that came and played, the Adelaide boys who came to play, and they all recognised me and still recognise me, so it is a big job, but it is very rewarding.”

Ms Robertson said black sambuca shots were a crowd favourite at the club and they sold lots of Coonawarra wines.

Ms Robertson said she loved working at the Penola Football and Netball Club and had watched many of the players grow up during her time there.

“I love the people, loved the players and got to know everybody, I have got to know them because they have grown up as kids and now they are A Grade,” she said.

“It is a great job, a very responsible job.

“I did enjoy looking after the boys and they all respected me.

“It is a very, very friendly club and the netball girls they are good too, they are involved with the club too.”

Ms Robertson said Penola was a great community and said something that made the club great was they used local footballers.

“It is such a small town, but everybody loves the Penola footy club,” she said.

Ms Robertson said she had received lots of lovely remarks from the community regarding her retirement.

“I love them all too, there is nobody that I do not like,” she said.

In her retirement, Ms Robertson plans to take some time out for herself and work in her garden.