Historic Bexhill tournament in danger of extinction

Action from the 2016 Bexhill Men's Open Bowls Tournament at The Polegrove greens.

This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.

One of Bexhill's oldest sporting tournaments is in grave danger of extinction.

The Bexhill Men’s Open Bowls Tournament may well not continue beyond this year - when it will be held for the 80th time - unless help is forthcoming to run the event.

Tournament organiser Bill Whittington said: “It’s really serious; I can’t stress it enough.”

Three prominent committee members have decided to relinquish their respective duties after many years of service at the end of this year’s event.

The tournament committee is urgently seeking to fill several positions, namely tournament organiser, entries secretary, treasurer, programme advertising and scorecard controller.

Approaches have been made to some individuals over the last few weeks in the hope of filling those vacancies, but without any success.

“We’ve all got into our 70s and just had enough,” continued Whittington, who has run the tournament for two decades but told the committee after last year’s staging that he would continue in the role for one more year.