‘Bowling is my lifeline, please save it’

Raymond Hunt, Greystone Avenue, Worsbrough: I spent all my working life in pits around Barnsley and then helped develop the Selby coalfield before retiring.

When I was young I spent my time playing football and cricket on council-made pitches and won several trophies at Oakwell. Labour and Conservative governments alike sold off school playing fields to finance their spending. In order that kids could enjoy the pleasure of sport that I had been given I ran Swaithe Juniors FC, and with the help of a borrowed van from a neighbour took the team to their fixtures.

It was with great pride that several gained English league status. When my own health deteriorated after retiring, Worsbrough Bridge's respected bowling secretary Ann Sanderson invited me to join the club. It gave me a lifeline to exercise, and the privilege to make many friends around Barnsley, not least to enjoy a beautiful game. T

here are few sports that the elderly can participate in, but bowls is an ideal one. I have played against other heart and cancer patients who literally live for their bowling. I have heard or read just one comment, coming from a Wakefield correspondent, in support of shutting bowling greens.

I love Barnsley, but Dronfield in Derbyshire provides bowling free, and Barnsley cannot keep mature greens open when bowlers are willing to pay. History tells us the recession will not last forever and neither will greens. For the sake of one hour's cutting twice per week. I beg the council to come up with a solution.