Forfar Indoor Bowling Club has folded after failing to fully recover from the Covid pandemic.
A drop in player numbers and rocketing energy costs at its town rink have forced the decision not to open for the 2023/24 season.
The club is based at Forfar Indoor Sports on Suttieside Road.
Curling and skating will restart there this week and there are strong signs of a positive season ahead.
But while those sports have bounced back from the pandemic, indoor bowling has never fully recovered.
Six-figure gas bill
FIS owner Mike Ferguson said the double whammy of a lack of members and utility bills which have rocketed by tens of thousands of pounds led to the decision.
It’s a blow to many elderly players for whom the six-days-a-week club was a social lifeline.
“It’s a decision which has been taken with a huge amount of regret and sadness, but it’s one we could not avoid,” said Mr Ferguson.
He revealed the gas bill for the indoor rink has gone from £2,500 to around £12,000, with electricity rates jumping by 90%.
“The last thing I wanted to see was indoor bowling not happening at Forfar,” he said.
“But we have been working with the club for months to try and get the commitment from members and the numbers were just not there.
“Many bowlers go to indoor when the outdoor season finishes, but the costs of running an outdoor club are just not the same.
“The cost-of-living crisis means that we’re also not seeing the secondary spend from players who might stay on and have a coffee or a drink with their friends.
“There’s no blame game, but we can’t run on a model which isn’t working.
“I’m not saying the door is shut forever, but we had to take a decision for this year and it is one we took with great regret.”
Ageing demographic
Match secretary Ian Stewart said the pandemic was the beginning of the end for the club.
Last year numbers got back to more than 100, but it has proved to be a false dawn.
“We’ve never recovered from Covid in terms of numbers and then the energy costs just became astronomical,” he said.
The club tried to rally support ahead of the new season, but the numbers didn’t transpire.
“The demographic is an ageing one in bowling and we didn’t get enough commitment from members to come back,” Ian added.
“No-one is to blame, it’s a set of circumstances but the starting point was the pandemic when we really dropped serious numbers and have never recovered from that.
“We really were left in a very difficult and sad situation.”
Conversation