“This begs the question whether it is a viable sport in such testing economic times, taking into account the high levels of maintenance needed to achieve the standard of surfaces it demands”
green behind it, for a Pitchcare report, and was glad to note that it is still the bustling community hub it was then - one of the few bowling greens blessed with floodlights.
How starkly this scene of urban community health contrasts with the vision of The Bowling Green pub, sited on one of the main roads into Manchester city centre and squeezed between a hospital at its rear and university buildings in front. The name says much about the
relationship between the pub as a social centre and the bowling green as the sport of preference so intricately associated with it. This pub’s green closed many years ago, replaced by a car park and urban infrastructure. But, the pub itself is boarded up now too, so any sign that a national sport was once played in its grounds may disappear. The future of bowls may be secured by more than single saviour - Government funding,
community/volunteer management and supportive breweries - but, what the
likes of Chapel Street Bowling Club need to recognise, urgently, is that the weight of expectancy falls on them to haul themselves out of the quagmire they find themselves in. A reliance on councils could prove fatal. Traditional sport may indeed suffer as the dynamic of local communities evolves - perhaps a rising migrant population might not have the desire to invest time and effort in bowls - but the governing body’s efforts to attract younger people can only be to the good surely, and the more it is seen to be doing that by Sport England, the more that funding is likely to flow through from central coffers. But ill-feeling over green closure
threats runs deep. As Hilda notes poignantly in a recent letter to the Manchester Evening News: “Always remember, the measure of a good society is how it looks after the weakest; the young, the old and the poor. Manchester is obviously not a good society.”
Images © BBC and Speed Media One Hilda Uren
“Always remember, the measure of a good society is how it looks after the weakest; the young, the old and the poor. Manchester is obviously not a good society”
Hilda Uren, Chapel Street Bowls Club
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