Historic Spalding bowls club plays its last end due to falling membership

A historic and successful Spalding bowls club has played its last-ever match after 85 years.

Ayscoughfee Bowls Club’s B team met Crowland Town on Friday knowing that falling membership numbers and the cost of using the club in Churchgate made it difficult to continue.

The club’s closure comes just three years after its bowlers were crowned Lincolnshire champions and a year earlier, in 2014, three of its members claimed two national titles.

Jordan Philpott (20), a member of Ayscoughfee's winning county club championship team in 2015, said: "The loss of Ayscoughfee Bowls Club will be a major blow to our town.

"Before I started playing bowls, all my family were at the club and I myself had a couple of years there as well. "In my last year at Ayscoughfee, I was selected to play for my country, recognition that came just after our success in the Driffill Trophy where we became the best club in the county.

"Ayscoughfee was such a great venue for a game of bowls, in my eyes one of the best in the county, if not the country, having to many places as an England international.

"But the players there didn’t just care about the bowls, they cared about the community as well which is why it was such a great club.

"It's really sad to see it go but all the memories will live on forever. "

Maurice Bingham, B team captain, said: "South Holland District Council wants £3,500 a year but the club only has about 20 members so we've not got a leg to stand on.

"We've gone round to different businesses to ask for sponsorship but no one has come up with the money we need.

"Our membership has gone down due to old age and illness, with no new members coming to join us.

"We're reluctant to call it a day but we have no alternative."

Club president Nigel Brown said: "It's obviously a shame and I don't know whether it's a sign of things to come for sport locally.

"But we seem to be getting fewer players as the years go by, while the costs don't tend to go down.

"So there comes a point where it's no longer viable to go on.

"When I started at Ayscoughfee Bowls Club about ten years ago, we had about 50 bowlers.

"But now we're down to 22, despite the fact that we have a lovely green which certainly the best and most picturesque in the county.

"I do sympathise with the district council because the club does take some looking after.

"But, unfortunately, there comes a point when enough is enough."

Coun Gary Taylor, the district council’s portfolio holder for communities and facilities, said: “Ayscoughfee Bowls Club has a long association with the hall and gardens on a green which is a popular location to visit for many of the local clubs.

“The annual price we offer for the use of the green has been frozen since 2014, despite that fee covering less than half the council’s total costs towards maintaining the facilities for them.

“We have strived to help where we can in encouraging new membership for the club to help them raise the funds to remain at Ayscoughfee and would be happy to continue this help moving forwards.

“We will be extremely sorry to see the club go and would welcome further discussions with its officials to ensure that we can carry on their long association and history with Ayscoughfee Hall and Gardens.”