A CENTURY-OLD bowls club has folded after Colchester Council scrapped its £12,000-ayear funding.

Paxmans Bowls Club, based in Colchester’s Castle Park, was told it would have to pay for the upkeep of the green.

The club was only able to raise £2,000 from members’ fees.

The last fixture took place on Sunday.

Peter Joslin, vice-captain, said: “We have been going for 103 years.

“The council can pay all that money for things like the Firstsite art gallery, but it can’t subsidise one bowling green in Castle Park which has been there for a long time.” Mr Joslin, a member for 13 years, said the council told the club last year it would no longer provide funding.

Efforts to encourage more members and raise extra cash failed.

The club was started by members of the Paxmans engineering factory and initially ran from Hythe Hill, before the land was sold for housing.

The club relocated to upper Castle Park, but was later moved by the council to the lower section, as it said the clubhouse was subsiding.

The club has about 20 members, many of whom, like Mr Joslin, worked for Paxmans.

Mr Joslin’s career as a chest engineer at Paxmans spanned 53 years.

He said the club’s final fixture on Sunday at Walton was quite emotional.

Colchester Council said it identified Paxmans Bowls Club as an “unsustainable facility due to continued low levels of membership’’.

A spokesman said: “We approached the club in the summer to advise we could no longer subsidise its payments and would be ceasing maintenance of the bowling green.

“The summer meeting was to give the club sufficient time to consider alternative arrangements.

“We encouraged it to look into alternatives, including maintaining the green itself or a ground-share with other teams in the area.Unfortunately, the club has not been successful and decided it should fold.”

The council is looking for alternative uses for the bowling green and adjacent thatched pavilion.