Arson-hit club to carry on bowling

Determined bowlers Joan Horton and Barbara Jones, standing in the wreckage of the clubhouse, say the club will be ready to play at the start of the new season

DETERMINED members of the Diggle bowling club have vowed to fight back and rebuild their clubhouse after it was burned to the ground in an arson attack.

The dedicated members say they will be playing again by the start of the new season in April.

Customers at the Hanging Gate pub, in Diggle, spotted the blaze at about 10.30pm on December 21, and watched as firefighters battled in vain to save the hut, which the club used for storage.

Committee member Joan Horton, who lives in Lees, rushed to the village when she heard that the hut was on fire.

She said: “It was just such a shock, our initial thoughts were that this could be the end of the club. Everybody is devastated.

“We are going to be playing again though.

“There is still a lot to do but we would be able to play without a hut if it came to it.”

More than 50 members, aged 18 to 80, make up the club’s six teams, with the green at the Ward Lane club being used almost every day of the week during the summer.

Treasurer Barbara Jones, who has played with the club for over 20 years, says the show must go on. She said: “It’s just awful what has happened, it was absolutely mindless.

“We will start the season, we’ll muddle through.”

The neighbouring tea hut has also been extensively damaged, rendering it unuseable, while the plumbing and electricity supply has to be reinstated before any rebuilding work can take place.

Joan said: “We have just been asking ourselves why somebody would do such a thing.

“We were on a shoe string as it was and a lot of the fees were spent on the upkeep of the green.

“We’ll hopefully come back stronger.”