THE recent closure of Gambier City Bowl came as no surprise to one local veteran of league bowling who revealed the sport had been struggling for years in the city.
Adam Duff has competed in the league bowling competition in Mount Gambier for 24 years.
He said fewer competitors and a shrinking social scene had left the league a shadow of its former glory.
“We just do not get the numbers anymore and I think that’s because of technology and computer games now,” Mr Duff said.
“But I think you’d find that across all sports.”
The situation leading up to this month’s sudden closure is a far cry from when Mr Duff walked through the doors in 1995.
“They would have had a couple of hundreds bowlers when I started, they had a social club,” he said.
“They even had a touring league.”
While personally pragmatic about the situation, he felt for the weekly contingent of disabled bowlers.
“I do not think they will really understand why it has closed and why the cannot go anymore,” Mr Duff said.
“I know they were upset when it closed briefy last time, so I feel sorry for them.”
The locks to Gambier City Bowl were changed over two weeks ago by DeGaris Lawyers due to the payment of rental arrears not being met.
“The landlord has not shut down the business as has been portrayed on social media,” Mr DeGaris said.
“The tenant has failed to meet rental commitments and the landlord has exercised its rights under the Landlord and Tenant Act to recover rental due.”
A public auction will take place on Monday where a number of different items will be sold.
“A full list of items listed for sale has been advertised in The Border Watch.
“Those items which are not items owned by the landlord cannot and will not be sold in the auction process.”
Looking forward, Mr Duff is not holding out hope for the Mount Gambier centre to be revived.
Despite the challenges with attracting players, he said other centres had shown 10-pin bowling was could still be profitable.
“The Warrnambool league is doing really well and in Adelaide they have the adult circuit league and all sorts of tournaments,” he said.
“If they were to look at going as an AMF franchise, I think that would be the only way of doing it.”
He said he would support the business again if someone took it on board.
“If a new centre started again, I would play.”
