The new outdoor bowls season is upon us and Alan Taylor, the chairman of Cheltenham Spa Bowling Club, is as enthusiastic about the 2017 campaign as a teenager about to go on his first date.

Alan has been playing bowls for more than 30 years but familiarity has bred only contentment as he continues to enjoy a sport that keeps him young at heart.

The 78-year-old said: “I’m still very active and playing the game I love. This time of year is a great time of year.”

As befits someone who has been chairman of his club for 22 years – “bowls is like any other voluntary sport, I’ll do the job until someone else comes along to do it” – Alan wants the very best for his sport and is vocal in his support of it.

“It’s a young person’s game played by older men and women,” he said. “It’s got the broadest appeal of any sport. Since I’ve been at Cheltenham Spa we’ve had one member who was as young as nine and another who was 92. Anyone of any age can enjoy bowls.”

Alan, whose wife Maureen also plays, admits that bowls does need to attract more young players. While insisting that there are a significant number of youngsters taking up bowls, he believes more needs to be done.

Alan is happy to embrace change to make this happen as he accepts that bowls faces strong competition from sports such as golf, cycling and cricket in the battle to boost player numbers.

“Tradition has got a place in bowls but we’ve got to progress as a sport,” he said. “People see us through the railings at our club in St George’s Place playing in whites and think we’re very aloof, but we’re not.

“These days we also play with coloured bowls, we wear coloured tops and some people even play in shorts. That’s not for all clubs and you have to respect that. Some clubs want to retain the traditional white trousers and blazers and that’s fine with me.

“But the message we need to get across is that bowls is a fun, social game. Sometimes we don’t connect with the non-bowling fraternity. I’ve heard many people who have taken up bowls in later life say that they wished they’d started playing when they were younger.”

There are some 60 bowls clubs in Gloucestershire and Alan, who last season played his 50th game for the county, says he and his team-mates are made welcome wherever they play.

“I still play in the North Gloucestershire League and the Gloucestershire County League,” he said proudly. “I go all over the county and it’s great fun, I’ve got to the final stages of a few county competitions but I’ve never actually won anything at that level but I’ve enjoyed success in our own club competitions over the years.

“I just enjoy playing and if I win that’s a bonus I like to think I’m playing as well as I used to but time does catch up on you a bit!”

For the club which has become Alan’s second home since he left Stoke to work for Cheltenham Borough Council 50 years ago, exciting times are just around the corner.

They host an open day on Saturday, May 6, starting at noon, and looking further ahead will celebrate their centenary in 2024.

Alan said: “The club was founded in the aftermath of the First World War because the government at the time were worried about people’s fitness.

“Local authorities were given money to create sports clubs and our club has survived to this day, although a lot haven’t.”

Alan has played his part in the club’s ongoing success and he has a simple philosophy.

“I believe the more you put in, the more you get out of life,” he said. It’s a philosophy that’s certainly worked for him.