One of the great things about sport is that it throws up so many interesting stories.

And there are few better stories than a sports person or organisation battling their way back to the top after some tough times.

At the very top level, think Roger Federer last year, Tiger Woods (potentially) this year and, in days gone by, the greatest of them all, Muhammad Ali.

Closer to home there is an uplifting story too.

MidGlos Indoor Bowls Club in Brockworth are on a strong upward curve after some difficult times in 2017.

New chairman David Crisp, who took over in September, admitted: “There was a real danger that the club may close. An emergency meeting was called and the threat of closure was real.”

That was then. Happily the closure threat was averted and Crisp, who is in his third spell as chairman, said: “It’s brilliant now.”

And things are certainly looking good at a club that were formed in 1989 in the domes at Bentham, but moved to their current site in February 2000.

There have been some difficult decisions along the way of course.

“It’s been tough because we had to make some staff redundant,” said Crisp. “Now we’ve got 20 volunteers for the bar, 15 to do the cleaning and in the kitchen we’ve got people making bacon butties.

“The buttie brigade are also looking to produce meals this coming winter season.

“We’ve got two helpers in the office and and a part-time accounts person. We’re doing very well financially.”

All good news then but Crisp says the club still have work to do after losing 88 members during last year’s uncertain times.

“A lot of them are rejoining and we’re working at bringing new members in,” he added.

“We’ve got about 260-plus members and about 50 social members, but we’d like another 50 to 60 members.”

The club are also reaching out to new people by opening their doors to other clubs.

“Gloucester Knights are a short mat club and they’ve adopted us as their home venue,” explained Crisp. “They lay their mats on their rinks.”

The great thing about an indoor bowls club, of course, is that players can play all year round although the indoor season kicks off ‘for real’ in September when the outdoor campaign is drawing to a close.

And bowlers returning to MidGlos after enjoying the great outdoors during the summer months will be greeted by more good news.

“We’ve always had to pay rent but we’ve just succeeded in purchasing the land that the club sits on,” said Crisp. “It cost £24,000 and a number of our private members clubbed together to raise the money.

“We’ve also put in new heating, new carpets and new air conditioning. It’s all going very well.”

Crisp is clearly very hands on, remarkably so when you consider he’s only been playing bowls for five years.

“I used to play outdoors but I’ve decided just to play indoors,” he said.

And with all that’s going on at MidGlos, it’s not difficult to see why.