AN ALTRINCHAM man has described the terrifying moment a machete was held against his neck in a robbery at an Altrincham bowling club.

Graham Nobbs, 37, had been having a drink at the bar of the Willow Tree Road club on Friday March 11 at 10.30pm, when three balaclava-clad men wielding a machete burst in.

The men ordered Graham, two other bar customers and the seven Altrincham Borough Bowling Club members who had been enjoying a game of dominoes onto the floor while they demanded the bar man opened the safe.

“I could feel the machete on my neck, it wasn’t pressed into my neck but it was there.

“He said to Pete on the bar ‘open the safe or he gets it’, Pete said there wasn’t a safe but he didn’t believe him and took the notes out of the till and threw it on the floor,” he said.

While this was going on, the two other men began stealing cash from the domino players, who were mainly pensioners, before escaping.

They stole around £500 from the customers and £70 from the club.

Graham said: “I was calmer than I thought I would be it was afterwards that it was a bit of a shock.

“I’ve had a few sleepless nights but it could have been a lot worse.

“There is nothing you can do, you can’t argue with a machete!”

Norman Yearsley, 73, club manager who had been playing dominoes at the time of the raid, said it was the first incident like this in the club’s 92-year history and it was “very scary”.

He said security would be improved at the club and CCTV cameras fitted.

Altrincham Borough Bowling Club has 80 members and had opened its bowling green for the first time this season on Friday.

Anyone with information should call police on 0161 856 7657 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.