RE L O’Bee’s letter, of November 15, he said that he could have predicted the closure of the Archers Road club several years ago.

He must have realised the club was in the red when he was a member – as it was when I was (a member of the committee often said as much).

How deeply in the red I cannot recall but if there was ever a time to raise membership fees that was it. I drifted away from the club but remember many happy times there.

A fee of £100 a year is not unreasonable these days as it works out at slightly less than £2 a week and, as most drinks cost less than that in a public bar, the membership fee was recouped – almost self financing.

Shirley Working Men’s Club suffered a similar fate when it closed heavily in dept. I was a member of that club too and when I suggested upping the fee I was talked down. There were those that expected to pay the same membership fee as the day they joined and were extremely reluctant to pay more in spite of rising prices of practically everything then.

It was the old die hards and poor management that killed the clubs.

PETER GREEN, Southampton (RN Retired).