Published: Thursday, 6th May, 2010 10:14am

Barred?

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By Ewan McInnes

TO BAR OR NOT TO BAR: Chic says members have tried to ban him from the clubhouse. PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE MULGREW

A KIND-HEARTED fundraiser has been left puzzled at claims that members of a bowling club want him barred.

Chic McCormick recently set up a campaign with his friend John McCuish to save a 30-year-old fir tree at Shanks Bowling Club in Barrhead.

But generous Chic, who regularly sets up charity evenings at the club, has since been told that because of his bid to save the tree some members think he is no longer welcome there.

It is claimed that a motion to have Chic banned from the clubhouse was put forward at the bowling club's committee meeting last week, but Chic has been told that a majority of members voted against it.

The Save Shanks Tree campaign now has 180 members on the social networking website Facebook, and Chic has told the News how some people at the bowling club reckon he has stirred up a hornet's nest.

He said: "I heard that myself and John have been barred from the bowling club.

"I'm not a member but I'm allowed to go in because of the fundraising and charity work we do so we do go in there now and again.

"We have got to know a lot of people from going in and out and John's dad is a member.

"It is has been ever since we started a campaign to save the tree.

"Campaigning for the tree has obviously upset some people at the club but banning us is taking things a bit too far.

Chic added: "I wouldn't be that annoyed about being barred but it is the principal of it all.

"I received a phone call on Wednesday night to tell me that although someone on Shanks committee put forward a motion to get me barred they voted against said motion.

"Whether this information be true or false I don't know."

"It's their choice at the end of the day but that doesn't make it right."

A Shanks Bowling Club committee member told the News he could not comment on last week's meeting and that he did not know if Chic was banned or not.