Bowlers must use it or lose it

The bowling green across from our house is thankfully well-used, but the one behind the back garden has never seen a jack thrown in the 20 years we’ve lived here, planted with trees long before we arrived. But the shape, flatness and boundary hedge are a giveaway.

Just as I’m not a churchgoer but would have been sad to see our local place of worship sold off, I’m not a bowler but want those who are to keep on bowling across the road. There is something reassuring about the clack of the woods as the knots of players in their white sweaters and bunnets get set for another end in the summer sun.

Like most facilities, it’s a matter of use it or lose it, and in the case of cash-strapped Edinburgh Leisure sentimentality has no place if its facilities are underutilised, and repurposing of several of its bowling greens for allotments or community gardens is now on the cards.

With a list of over 6000 people waiting up to 50 years for an allotment, gardening seems more in demand than bowling so it’s hard to argue against the conversion of greens at Trinity’s Victoria Park, St Margaret’s Park in Corstorphine, Prestonfield and Regent Road, although the latter’s scenic location lends itself more to a park than plots for runner beans and spuds.

The opportunities don’t end at bowling greens, and Edinburgh Leisure could add the derelict site of the inflatable indoor tennis court at Craiglockhart to the list. No-one except maybe Judy Murray would complain about that.

Bowlers must use it or lose it - John McLellan