A POPULAR bowls club which was evicted from its base in Yate four years ago has launched a new appeal to find a home.

Yate Indoor Bowls Club is desperate to find a base so it can start playing regularly again and provide a meeting place for the 250 members its active steering group is confident would return.

The club all but folded after it was forced to give up its base at Yate Leisure Centre by South Gloucestershire Council in 2012, following an application by centre managers the Circadian Trust to increase the amount of space it sub-leases to sports clubs.

The controversial decision, which was vehemently opposed by pensionable age bowlers, allowed the trust to move King Edmund Acrogymnastics Club into its current home renamed Yate International Gymnastics Centre and out of its outgrown facilities at the Sports Shed on Armstrong Way.

But it signalled the end of the bowls club’s 24-hour history, with many members refusing to travel to the nearest rink in Thornbury.

Now, however, revitalised committee members have relaunched their bid for a new base and hope to start regular games again soon.

Secretary and administrator to the steering group, Susan Maloney, said: “We are trying to get funding and sponsorship and find a premises to start the club running again.

“We have sent nearly 200 letters to local businesses and shops in Yate and Chipping Sodbury asking if they might help, so far to no avail.

“We never really gave up hoping we could play bowls again in the local area, but we have not been able to move forward much since the death of our chairman Peter Webb over two years ago.”

She added: “We are sure the people who used to be in our club if they knew what we are trying to do and if the premises were found in the Yate Sodbury area.

“We are in the process of trying to get funding from Yate Town Council, and are still hoping there might be a place for us on the rugby club site at Chipping Sodbury.

“It is very difficult but we are going to keep trying as long as we can.”

The club has also written to all local schools in an attempt to re-establish its junior section and is working with Thornbury and Yate MP Luke Hall to try and find a new home. Anyone who can help is asked to contact Susan Maloney on maloneys24@yahoo.co.uk