Spring is the season when we all like to get out and about a bit. We like some good entertaining company, not just of our own sex, but of the opposite sex as well. But why is good male company so hard for women of a certain age to find? Where are all the eligible men?

Before I continue, it’s as well to define that prickly little term “a certain age”. I know, it reminds me of the films of Merchant Ivory, full of European memsahibs “of a certain age” left alone in the hill-stations of rural India while their menfolk go hunting tiger. Then along comes a handsome stranger … I wish!

In fact, when I say “a certain age” I mean, simply, not too young and not too old – nothing more pointed than that. And certainly I wouldn’t accept any of the “left on the shelf” undertones the phrase used to have in the past. Those days are well and truly gone. Sixty is the new forty – and seventy is the new fifty! So let’s get specific. I’m not talking about 18 to 24-year-olds whose main aim is to have a good time, drink a little too much, bop til they drop in nightclubs as many nights of the week as possible – and perhaps even find a husband in the process. Sounds tiring but harmless!

And in terms of the upper age limit … well, I’m inclined to think there shouldn’t really be any. Except what nature itself imposes; we all have to accept that, sooner or later. As we hear in the endless ads for dating websites that litter daytime television in the first months of every year: “You’re never too old to find your perfect partner!”

It’s not often that easy though. “I’m 56, I keep myself fit, and I figure that, luckily, I can still pass for 10 years younger”, Kate, who was divorced four years ago, told abcMallorca. “I’m not interested in nightclubs, but I am interested in male company and in meeting men to see how we get on. But there just doesn’t seem to be any place you can do that in comfort.”

“What Mallorca needs is an upmarket singles club!” Then, of course, there’s another problem. Seeing as we’re talking about definitions, what’s your definition of an eligible man?

Let’s see … I suppose the same sort of age profile applies: not too young and not too old. Not mouthy, testosterone-driven, and twenty-something – certainly not. And not old enough to be your granddad either. Though come to think of it, Sean Connery is still looking pretty good! I think we’ll make the outer limit anyone who needs a zimmerframe. That probably would be a turn-off.

“If you look at dating websites”, says Petra, 38, a tour operator who moved to Palma from Frankfurt 18 months ago, “the first thing you see is the person’s photograph, and that tends to be what you judge them by, which is just not fair. That’s not what happens in real life.

“A man doesn’t have to be an Adonis for a woman to be attracted to him. Attraction is about chemistry; someone can be funny, or have a nice voice, or be relaxing company. You never know!”

Then, of course, there’s the elephant in the room: the question of “marital status”, as all the best official documents put it. The vast majority of women in the market to meet a male friend want to meet someone who’s not only not married, but who’s not attached. Any form of attachment just makes everything a whole lot messier, and means any new relationship is never starting with a clean slate.

On the other hand, the stereotype of the men women meet in nightclubs or in singles bars is that they’re all married – but desperately trying to hide it.

The oldest joke in the dating book is the ageing Lothario, black shirt open to show a hairy chest and gold chain – and a pale band on his finger where he usually wears his wedding ring! You’d never have guessed!

“I have to admit that’s the thing I’m always on the lookout for first if I go to a nightclub”, says Susan (29), who broke up recently with her boyfriend of long standing. “Nightclubs are fun when you’re younger and think it’s all great fun. Now though I find the whole scene a bit sleazy – and maybe for that reason I don’t give some of the men I meet a fair chance.

“I’ve met some men who were honest about the fact that they were attached, and so I immediately ruled them out. But afterwards I thought, some of the best love stories I’ve read or seen in the movies involved married people! Doesn’t change my mind though!

And yet – whether you’re a clubber addicted to Tito’s, El Divino or Abraxas, or a more reserved type who prefers the rarefied surroundings of Ritzy’s, Wellies or Michelin-starred Tristan – sometimes it does all work out.

Take our own esteemed abcMallorca Editor, Helen Cummins, for instance. She was one of the lucky ones. She met her husband-to-be when she was on a relaxed night-out with a friend at the Havana Moon in Puerto Portals – and the blissfully happy couple celebrated their tenth anniversary last summer.

“I’d been out for dinner with my friend, Niamh, and afterwards – purely by chance – we went for a nightcap. We got chatting to a nice guy at the bar, and after a while he mentioned casually, “Oh by the way, have you met my friend Georg?’ Little did I know that I was about to be introduced to my future husband. Luck plays such a big part in these things.”

Petra, Susan and Kate are still waiting for Lady Luck to smile on them, but they admit that it’s time they made some of that luck themselves.

There’s an enthusiastic murmur of agreement around the table at the idea of a new Mallorca Singles Club, where men and women can simply get to know one another –no strings attached.

It could be the social success of 2011. “It’ll be fun if nothing else”, says Petra. “In fact, the secret of success is probably not to take it all too seriously – just like life!”