The fate of Alyth Bowling and Tennis Club is to be decided at a community meeting next month.
And the local community is being urged to turn out to help give it a secure future.
It comes as membership has significantly dropped over recent years and concerns grow over the impact of the pandemic in the club’s long-term prospects.
And bosses hope the meeting will encourage locals to get involved to safeguard it for future generations.
Decline in membership
President Allan Strachan has been involved at the club since he was a teenager.
When he first joined, there were between 150 and 200 members.
Now, there are around 30, with only a dozen or so active regulars.
Allan is determined to ensure the club remains open – but desperately needs support from the community.
Now in his 50s, he said: “As the community comes out of Covid, we need support to run.
“It is over 100 years old this club. I have been a member since I was 14.
“It would be a terrible thing if it was to close.
“We are asking people ‘Do they want the club to be there?’
“If we open this year after Covid and we don’t get enough people, it will close.
“What the club needs most at the moment is people being involved to make it a good place where people want to come to.
“I am trying to be proactive instead of reactive.”
He added: “What I hope happens is we get an influx of 50 or 60 members.
“It would give it a new lease of life.
“It is financially stable now.
“But if we go on like this after Covid it wouldn’t be and there’s no going back from that.”
‘I care passionately about the club’
And Allan hopes he can reinvigorate locals’ interest in bowls as part of efforts to save the club.
“This is just my opinion, but bowling as a sport is going to struggle after the pandemic,” he said.
“We have always struggled to get younger people to play the sport.
“And older people are more wary to come out.
“I care passionately about the club. And I want to see it have the best future and be there for future generations.”
The meeting will be held at Alyth Bowling and Tennis Club at 7pm on February 16.
