Club rooms are a part of the

sports world. They are considered essential places for people to change from muddy sports gear to other clothes after a football match.  They range from simple sheds with nothing more than a bench to sit on while you pull off your boots to buildings which have toilet facilities and showers to even bigger buildings which have bars, gaming machines, a food service and a meeting area. 

There may be even more facilities. I don't know. I don't belong to any clubs like that but I have been thinking about them all recently. 

I belong to another club. It has, like many other similar groups, been meeting in a hall which belongs to another group. Recently we were informed that we had to move. The building is required for other purposes at the time we meet. An alternative has been offered in a nearby location. I imagine it will all work itself out.

What occurred to me though was the number of non-sporting clubs that do not have their own facilities. It is a rare thing to find a gardening club, board games group, or craft group with their own facilities.

There are exceptions but they are few and they struggle to maintain their premises. They do not get government support in the way that sports clubs get funding. 

For many years the Senior Cat belonged to a "magician's circle". It meets in an old air raid shelter next to a bowling club. The last time I looked the bowling club had wonderfully manicured lawns and well maintained buildings.  The Senior Cat has not been able to go to a meeting of the magicians for some years now. The steep stairs into the basic underground facilities have been too much for him. The group is getting smaller, the members older. It won't be long before it ceases to exist. Their attempts to get younger people in have failed for a number of reasons but one of them is the location and nature of the place in which they meet. The bowling club is probably doing well and getting government funding as well.

There is an embroidery "guild" which has its own premises. This is sheer good fortune. The house was left to them in a will. I don't imagine for a moment that it is easy for them to maintain it despite their large membership and many activities. They have had a small grant for a specific purpose but there is no large scale government funding the way there is for some sports groups. A lace "guild" has much smaller premises but I know they struggle to maintain it. The premises do not belong to them as such but they do have sole use of it. 

I know of no other gardening, games or craft group which have premises solely for their own use. They all seem to pay rent to other groups. Our library knitting group can only meet if nobody else requires the room. We can't meet in November for this reason. As we don't meet in December because the library is closed for the Christmas and New Year break and January is usually far too warm we won't see one another until February next year...if nobody else requires the room. At present I am trying to organise we do meet in November - out of doors. It is however difficult.

And I wonder about all of this. Sport has always been revered but do other activities really deserve such second rate treatment? Surely we should be doing more to encourage people to create things, grow things, think things? There should be more places where people can meet on a regular basis and they need government funding just as much as any sports group. It would almost certainly encourage others to join such groups - and that has physical and mental health benefits for everyone.