A TROUBLED social club in Brighouse has shut its doors.
The Blakeborough club in Bradford Road closed this week, after a bitter internal wrangle which included a police investigation.
But a breakaway bowling club formed by social club members is to remain in Lane Head, Brighouse.
Two opposing groups have been debating the future control of the Blakeborough Social and Sports Club for the past two years.
Both clubs have been formed out of the original social club set up by workers at the Blakeborough plant in Brighouse many years ago.
The bowlers went to court over fears the Halifax Road bowling site could be sold off by the social club owners.
There was also the suggestion of fraud. Police spent a year investigating allegations that £250,000 had been embezzled by committee members of the club.
But Calderdale CID failed to find evidence to support the accusations, levelled at the Bradford Road club by a breakaway committee at Albion Bowling Club, Halifax Road.
Blakeborough, which owns Albion Bowling Club (ABC), has been embroiled in a two-year battle to sell ABC to raise cash for the financially troubled Bradford Road club.
The club, which has been running for 26 years and owns the Brighouse Town Football Club site and the Halifax Road bowling green site, has seen an internal split over the past few years.
Andy Speechley, a committee member of the bowling section, said: “The social club in Bradford Road has been closed down.
“A notice has gone up on the doors saying that it is closed for the foreseeable future.
“It is sad it has come to this. Officials of the bowling club have been trying to get talks going over the future and we are very surprised at the decision to close.
“The troubles of the Blakeborough Social Club in Brighouse will not affect the bowls club and all our teams are all looking forward to the new season.”
No-one from the social club was available to comment. Telephone calls went unanswered at the clubhouse, an imposing Victorian building off Bradford Road.
