​Kyleakin Indoor Bowling  Club

I think we all had a load of fun for our end of season extravaganza. First and foremost we must thank the ladies for yet again doing us proud with food throughout the day, and that in spite of having a big part to play in the bowling too. We missed our generous club sponsors, Anne & Ken, and our thoughts are with Ken who we heard was taken into hospital in Oban during the day.

I suspect there will be fewer Sunday hangovers than last year but our Finals Day was just as much fun in spite of the lower alcohol intake. This year's addition of hats and bow ties combined well with the sh*t-shirts. Such sartorial elegance has not been seen at the club since... well, since last year's Finals Day.

I'm far too modest to mention who won the pairs but I would say I was fortunate to be drawn to play in that with this year's Ladies' Club Champion. Thank you Rose Mary for keeping our pairing on an even keel. Congratulations also go to Chris who clearly was not satisfied with his haul of Monthly Medals and took the Singles title as well. I'm beginning to regret that comment about him not having won a monthly medal in living memory...  

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So, another season draws to a close. We had a pretty successful one all told with a really fun trip over to Inverness in January, winning the SLLBA league, many of our members having successes in practically every local competition, a magnificent triples win over in Tain, more fun in Stonehaven, and even something to celebrate in Dumfries. Let's hope next season brings more of the same.

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Photos from yesterday's Finals Day will be appearing in the photo galleries soon.

David.

The last SLLBA competition was held in March with slightly fewer entries than had been evident in the previous competitions. With two groups of six challenging for the title, only the top two would qualify for the semi finals. Last year's champions Chris and Jill Mackinnon with Kevin Lawley found themselves in a battle to qualify from their group: two other Kyleakin triples and club mates, Roddy Morrison, Sandra Dew and John Stuart plus Dave Harrigan, David McHutchison and Heather Harrigan, both qualified at their expense. In the other group another Kyleakin trio of John Booth, John Govier and Ian Sikorski were joined by the Lochcarron triple of Mary Henery, Cathy Ross and Bart Mcfleat.The two semi finals were closely contested with Roddy and Dave’s triples winning through to the final, and the final was also a fairly close affair with Roddy just failing to shift a bowl in the final end which would have earned him an extra end. And so the two Daves and Heather took the trophy.

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The League also came to its conclusion at the end of March with Kyleakin2 (Kyleakin had entered two teams) winning fairly comfortably. The team consisted of Dave McHutchison, Kevin Lawley, Ian Sikorski, and Dave Harrigan, with John Booth ably filling in on two occasions when Kevin was unable to play.

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Chris.

On behalf of Kyleakin 2, I would like to offer our very best wishes to our team mate, Kevin, and of course his wife, Sue. We hope you find a wonderful new life in... well, wherever it is you end up buying your new home! I'm sure everyone else in Kyleakin and indeed the SSLBA will want to join us in wishing you all the best.

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I'd also like to thank Kevin for his support and advice through my first league season - it was very welcome and valuable! Good luck to you both, and we'll see you in Dumfries next year with any luck!

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David

The SSLBA was well represented over the weekend in the inaugural Saint Duthus Bowling Club Dunlop Triples. The conditions were unusual for most of us, with very rapid carpets, reminiscent of those in Plockton though wider at somewhere over 10 feet. However, the extra width was welcome for handling the wide draw on both hands. Even Jill's bowls drew a bit! Oh, and it was 3 bowls each, so the skips usually had a dozen bowls to negotiate their way through in the head. Some slight variations in the rules had to be quickly understood and absorbed but this gave none of us any serious problems. Gauging the speed of the carpets, however, did!

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Two teams from Kyleakin and one from Kintail attended, with varying degrees of success. David M, Geoff, and Dave H found the going just a bit too tough on the Saturday, failing to come through the round robin stage to reach Sunday's knockouts. However, Ann, Ian, and Roddy from Kintail fared a little better, getting through "by their fingernails" (to quote Ian Grimmer). Meanwhile Jill, Korky, and Chris were undefeated on Saturday and so qualified comfortably. They had begun their campaign with a win over Dave H's trio (who like to think they helped by setting their club mates off on their winning way).

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A very large and tasty meal followed in the evening at the Royal Hotel. We had listened to Ann's comments earlier about how a main course and starter were too much to handle, so most of us skipped starters. Ann, however, had two! That said, she had no main course. Meanwhile, and much to our astonishment, Roddy polished off an enormous mixed grill that barely fitted on the big dinner plate. We must be losing our touch as only about half of us had the stamina to remain for a comfortable sit down in the bar after the meal. I thoroughly enjoyed my Glayvas - thank you Ian Grimmer and Roddy for those! If these were my consolation for playing so poorly and being knocked out, they went down very well and eased my pain!

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Sunday's early knockout stages threw up a lot of excellent matches against teams qualifying from 3 other Saturday venues (Including Kintail's triple who had played at the Royal Hotel). Everyone was now playing at the St Duthus club venue. Every match turned into a grueling battle of between one and two hours. I can't give a full account of the first match as I had a wee issue occupying my time but I do know that perseverance and determination were the keys to winning these 14 end games. Our lads and lasses were locked in battle out of my sight but Chris's trio made a great comeback in their first round match, giving their first opponents the boot in the last end.

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Roddy's Kintail trio came through their first round (of 16) but were unable to defeat their strong quarter-final opponents. Chris's trio, however, pulled out another great comeback to progress to the semi-finals. This match, against Wilson's trio from St Duthus, was an epic battle which was eventually won by an absolutely delicious final bowl of the match from Chris, perfectly springing the jack just a few inches to give them a hard fought for but well deserved victory - and a place in the final!

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By now it was approaching 6pm, some 9 hours after the day's start, so those of us with a long journey home ahead very reluctantly made our apologies and headed off. If I'm not mistaken, the opponents in the final for Chris's trio were the team who had defeated Ann, Ian, and Roddy earlier. I'm pleased to say Roddy was able to remain to give our three some support. Thanks to "Roddy live on Facebook" I was able to confirm that the eventual winners were indeed our very own Jill, Korky, and Chris with a dominant display of bowls. Although I was not present to see the end of their marathon for myself, if they continued to play with the same breathtaking nerve and accuracy at crucial moments as they'd done earlier, it is little wonder they were triumphant. A hearty "Congratulations!" to them all, and a huge thanks to the St Duthus Bowling Club for their friendly welcome and non-stop supply of marvelous food from the ladies in the kitchen throughout the weekend.

Oh, and the raffle deserves a mention! We did rather well in that too with prizes including a box of After Eight mints, a bottle of Bacardi, a bottle of gin, and a bottle of whisky! 

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We certainly plan to be back next year if we're allowed! 

David.

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p.s. any subliminal messages contained in this report are entirely coincidental.

Congratulations to Kyleakin's winning triple: Jill Mackinnon, Ian Sikorski, and skip Chris Mackinnon. Immensely well played!

Kyleakin 2 started this evening's match against Kintail knowing that they must avoid the dreaded 10-0 scoreline to secure the league title. They failed to do that! However, it was 10-0 in Kyleakin's favour so the title is well and truly secured.

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Kyleakin, in determined mood, got off to a cracking start with 5 strong winning ends in the rinks. Kintail got off the mark in the 6th end with two shots but it was too little too late, and Kyleakin took a single in the final end to re-establish their authority. The first two pairs matches were also very heavily in Kyleakin's favour. 

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The final two pairs were very much closer affairs, with John Booth and Korky sneaking a 6-4 win in the tightest of games. Going into the last end, Dave H & David M were behind for the first time in their final match of the season but managed to take two shots to complete the full set of Kyleakin wins on the night.

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Our thanks go out to all our opponents throughout the season for matches which have been played with good humour and great friendship.

It appears we were misinformed. The hall IS available for bowls this Friday (24th) but will NOT be available on the following Friday (31st).

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Poor Geoff!

Before tonight's match with Kintail, Roddy Gillies handed me a copy of the league table as it stood at that time. I have updated it to include tonight's result though without all the details from Roddy's original as I don't have the full information from tonight's match. I was too busy concentrating on my own games! So here it is with just the games information and points...

Club              Played   Won   Drawn   Lost   Points

Kyleakin 2         35       26         1          8          53

Kintail                40       22         3         15        47

Lochalsh           40       14         2         24        30

Lochcarron        25       13         1         11         27

Plockton            35       13         1         21         27

Kyleakin 1         35       13         0         22        26

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With 5 games (10 points) available from each outstanding match, there's still a lot to play for and things can change rapidly. If Kintail can whitewash their last two opponents (one of those, importantly, being their return match with Kyleakin 2) then they could take the lead in spite of losing heavily to Kyleakin 2 tonight. And don't count out Lochcarron yet either. If they can gain three strong wins from their outstanding matches (one of those against the league leaders) then Lochcarron could be right back in the mix. Who knows, we could still be crowning Lochcarron as the 2017 league winners! There is certainly no room for complacency.

David.

The usual contingent of west coast bowlers descended on Dumfries on February 5th for a weekend's competitive bowling. Kyleakin, Kintail, Plockton, Lochcarron and Mallaig were all well represented. There were two disciplines being played on the Friday and two further open competitions on Saturday and Sunday. The two disciplines being contested on the Friday were the Scottish Championships in Fours and Singles. The way the format was played in the fours and the singles meant that basically if even one game was lost in the round robin qualifying it was highly unlikely that progress could be made in the Championships, and so it proved. Although all played well in a very competitive environment no west coasters made it through the qualifying.

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The following day saw the Open Triples competition get under way and true to form all the west coast triples found themselves drawn in daunting groups. The day's bowling went the same as the previous day's with any mistakes being calamitous, resulting in non qualification again. Chris Mackinnon, Kevin Lawley, and Jill Mackinnon's triple probably came closest to qualifying but one loss and a tied game out of six wasn’t good enough. However all agreed that a fine day was had and again performances were good.

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And so we moved on to the final day's bowling, this time the discipline being the pairs. Three pairs qualified for the last sixteen, Dennis Eddie & Jim Morton (Mallaig), Chris Mackinnon & Sandra Dew ( Kyleakin) ,Geoff Harrington & David McHutchison (Kyleakin). Dennis and Jim got beaten narrowly. So did Chris and Sandra, however the manner in which they got beaten is the bowling equivalent of meltdown. With one end to play and four shots ahead they lost a four to tie and then got beaten in the extra end by a hairsbreadth. Ho Hum. That was the bad news out of the way though, as Geoff and David continued their good form, seeing off all their opponents and in the final ironically meeting Paul Walker and Billy Fraser, Chris and Sandra’s beneficiaries. In an excellent match which came to the last end with the Kyleakin pair two shots ahead, Skip Geoff trailed the jack to leave Paul with an almost impossible shot and so it proved. Geoff and David lifted the Open Pairs shield. Both players have enjoyed a bit of a purple patch with Geoff being a member of the four who won the Cathy B trophy and also made his debut for the Scotland International team, and David got through to the final of the SLLBA singles and is a member of the Kyleakin four who are winning the league.

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Meanwhile the local SLLBA Pairs was played in Kyleakin on Feb 11th with a sterling turnout of 26 pairs. An enjoyable day was had by all. The four pairs who fought their way through the round robin and knockout stages were Kevin and Sue Lawley( Kyleakin) who would face Ian Grimmer and Ann Lloyd ( Kintail). The second semi would be an all Kyleakin affair with Ian Sikorski and John Govier taking on Chris and Jill Mackinnon. Both semis were very competitive with Ian and Ann besting Kevin and Sue, the other game ending in a narrow win for Ian and John over Chris and Jill. Although by Ian’s admission they had not played well and rode their luck in qualifying, they turned on the style in the final and, despite Ian and Ann fighting hard, the Pairs title went to John and Ian.

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The next competition will be the SLLBA Triples to be held in Kyleakin on March 4th.

We had a tremendous entry this year with 25 pairs, forming three groups of 6 and one of 7. Most groups saw a close contest for the top two spots. Kevin & Sue won group 1 With Rose Mary and Sandra qualifying as runners up. In group 2 Roddy G & Craig won but Ian S & John had to wait for the last game to be completed to find out that they'd squeezed through to the knock-out stages. Group 3 saw a dominant Chris & Jill winning, with Peter & Elspeth as runners-up. Finally Bart and his son, Josh, who played some super bowls, won their group with Ian Grimmer and Ann completing the quarter-final line-up.

The draw saw two Kyleakin pairs playing each other. Although the number of ends won was equal, Chris & Jill's heavier scoring was enough to see off Rose Mary & Sandra. Meanwhile Kevin & Sue were pretty dominant in their game, beating Roddy & Craig convincingly.

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The other two quarter-finals were closer affairs. Ian Grimmer & Ann were behind for most of their match against Peter & Elspeth but single shots in each of the last three ends were just enough to turn the match around. Bart & Josh got off to a flying start, 5-0 up after three ends, but Ian S & John came alive and finally poked their noses into the lead for the first time with three shots in the final end to win by just one.

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So to the semi-finals: the first half of Ian G & Ann's match with Kevin & Sue was closely contested but, as Kevin observed afterwards, he & Sue were beaten by the better players on the day. Ian & Ann's strong showing in the latter stages saw them through to the final. The other semi, between Chris & Jill and Ian S & John, was a tussle. Chris & Jill edged into a single shot lead after six ends but then a three shot end swung the match back to Ian & John. With 2 shots needed to take it into an extra end, Chris & Jill just couldn't quite do enough, and so once again a surprised Ian & John took another step towards a potential title.

Having started the day slowly, Ian S & John had by now built up a head of steam and they stormed into a lead over Ian G & Ann. With two ends remaining, and a 7 shot difference, Ian & Ann still tried valiantly to avoid the inevitable but it proved to be too much. So it ended up with our hearty congratulations going to Korky and Sarge, the new SLLBA Pairs champions!

Not too bad a weekend!

For this month’s medal we were missing a few players who were away on winter breaks so it was contested by just 9, a group of 4 and a group of 5. The group of 4 was tight but Geoff emerged as the winner with Chris exacting revenge on David M to sneak past him as group runner-up. I do think it was a bit rich of Chris to claim 8 shots first end because all the bowls were his! In the group of 5, John G found a rich vein of form and Dave H just hung on for the runner-up spot.

The ladies decided it was time to go home and watch Coronation Street. Meanwhile, the two successful players from each group ended up being drawn against each other again in the semis. John G again won his match with Dave H but in the other semi, in spite of Geoff playing toucher after toucher, Chris reversed his earlier loss to Geoff. However, it took a burnt end and an aggressive final bowl to turn it Chris’s way.

John G got off to a solid start in the final, winning both the first and second ends, but Chris fought back and sneaked past him to win a third monthly medal of the season (including the Christmas Pairs). Perhaps this is Chris's way of making sure that, on Finals Day, he doesn’t forget who won them!

January 14th saw the much coveted SLLBA Singles competition being held in Kyleakin. An excellent turn out of 44 players contested the Championship and, following the qualifying rounds, last sixteen, and quarter finals, the last four standing were Dave Harrigan who would play Plockton’s Pete Madden, and an all Kyleakin match up between David McHutchison and Chris Mackinnon. In the first semi Dave’s consistency was putting Pete under pressure and he would end up a fairly comfortable victor. The other match was an altogether closer affair. Playing the last end Chris was holding a one shot lead, and also a match lie with one bowl to play. Despite David’s protestations to the contrary, lady luck played her part with David not only clearing Chris’s shot bowl but turning his second bowl out of the head also. So it was a final between the two Daves. Maybe the long day's bowling had eventually caught up with the players but the final which was eagerly anticipated was a fairly quiet affair with Dave Harrigan’s renowned consistency being too good for David McHutchison. So congratulations to Dave Harrigan on securing his second SLLBA singles title.

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Chris.

Fantastic day at the SLLBA Singles Championship today. Huge thanks to Chris & Jill who do so much organising behind the scenes. Even during the day itself they tirelessly process all the scorecards - well, maybe not tirelessly! - and keep the whole day on track. Then there are the ladies working away in the kitchen, keeping everyone fed and watered all day. I'm sure there are many more I've not mentioned but I'm too tired to think after a long day of competition! So, thanks to all, whether mentioned specifically or not.

A more comprehensive report should be on the way soon, and a photo gallery will be added in due course.

Oh, and I suppose I'd better congratulate Dave Harrigan for beating me in the final! (That certainly wasn't part of my plan!)

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David McH.

Last Saturday Kyleakin IBC had an outing to the Inverness & District Bowling Club's wonderful indoor facility. We had a couple of very enjoyable hours experiencing the bigger brother of our sport. Some of us had done this before, some hadn't, but we all certainly want to do it again. If nothing else it gives us a much greater appreciation of the skills we see from the top bowlers on TV.

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The day began with David Macrae collecting us in the Skyeways minibus from our scattered locations and driving us over to Inverness through some spectacularly misty scenery. There we met Roddy Gillies in Fairways for tea, coffee, and bacon rolls to revive us beautifully for our bowls session. We played a mixture of pairs and fours matches with a fair mix of results. Adjusting to the greater length was an interesting experience with any flaws in our deliveries being greatly magnified. The rink ran beautifully consistently, which is more than can be said for our bowling upon it!

Following the bowls we were back at Fairways for a meal. And what a meal! Nobody left hungry - and very few left sober! Any deficiencies in bowling skill were more than made up for with the ability to polish off the bottles of wine. Quote of the day most definitely came from Jill though... "I'm having Simon's meat!"

Our journey back seemed much quicker in spite of frequent "comfort breaks", being filled with a variety of song and bad joke telling! At least, it felt quicker until we had a wee diversion to surprise Simon by arriving at his house for an impromptu visit. Poor Simon, but what a very generous host!

Big thanks go to Ian for organising the outing, Inverness & District BC for a warm welcome, Fairways for providing food & drink and putting up with our rowdy bunch, Simon & Joanna for their hospitality when invaded and, last but not least, David for his very long day, skilfully getting us safely there and back.

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See the photo gallery (or click on the photo above) for a more visual account of the day.

Twice postponed, we finally played the November monthly medal on 6th December. It was an evening of tremendous "final bowls". In a match between Geoff and John G, John had a winning lie when Geoff delivered his spectacular final bowl to turn 3 down into 1 up, but then John delivered his final bowl to trail the jack and take the shot back to win their encounter. The evening turned into a marathon with the round robin matches going on so long that we considered finishing it off on Friday. However, in the end we just had a final between the two group winners, Dave Harrigan and David McHutchison.

Dave H took an early 1 shot lead in the final but lost the next two ends to be 1-2 down with just the final end to go. David McH had manufactured a winning lie with several blockers protecting it but with the last bowl of the night Dave H somehow found a way through off a shoulder or two. With that he managed to spring the jack to his own bowls behind and to one side, leaving everyone open-mouthed, David McH realising he's still got a lot to learn in this game, and of course himself, Dave Harrigan, the winner! 

Congratulations to this year's Morrison triples winners, Sandra Dew, Jill Mackinnon, and Chris Mackinnon. Having won their group in style they dispatched the defending champions Heather & Dave Harrigan and David McHutchison in the semi-finals and went on to defeat another strong Kyleakin trio, John Govier, John Booth, and Ian Sikorski in the final. I don't think anyone can argue that the best triples team won on the day, and in some style.

As most of you will already know, the British Isles Championships take place this weekend at Bromsgrove in Birmingham. Many of us know players who will be there representing Scotland and I am certain we are all wishing them a successful tournament, and may all those "wikkies" go their way! I have added a link on our "Links" page for the official English Short Mat Bowling Association's web page for the Championships, but also below for your convenience: 

http://www.esmba.co.uk/british-isles-page/

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I hope someone can make more sense of the way the results are presented than I can. As far as I can tell, they show the scores after every 3 ends for some reason. 

The Skye, Lochalsh and Lochcarron Association season got under way in September and already a couple of competitions have been held.

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The Arthur Smith Triples was hosted by Kintail IBC in October and a good turnout ensured an enjoyable day's bowling. Following the initial group stage skirmishes and two closely contested semi finals the final was played between skip Chris Mackinnon’s triple of wife Jill and Sandra Dew tackling skip Dennis Eddies' triple of guest player Rose Mary Finnie and his brother Alan. Although Chris’s triple was never headed until the final end, Dennis drew the winning bowl and Chris’s attempt to remove it failed narrowly.

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So on to the Cathie Bryson fours, again hosted by Kintail. Another very good turnout saw 10 teams entered. Two groups of five played out the round robin stages which ended with Kyleakin’s defending champions Chris Mackinnon, RoseMary Finnie, Jill Mackinnon and Sandra Dew playing stable mates Dave Harrigan, David McHutchison, Ian Sikorski and John Booth in the first semi final in which Dave’s four played the more consistent bowls and ran out winners. They would play Dennis Eddie, Kevin Lawley, Geoff Harrington, and lead Alan Eddie or Kintail's Roddy Gillies, Craig Cummings, David Macrae, and Ann Lloyd. Indeed it looked like Roddy’s team would prevail until in the final end Kevin Lawley played one of the bowls of the tournament. With the Kintail team lying shot Kevin connected perfectly with a running shot and trailed the jack into the ditch. So Kyleakin's Dave Harrigan played Mallaig's Dennis Eddie in the final where the Kyleakin four failed to play as well as they had in the semi, and once again brothers Dennis and Alan Eddie, ably assisted by guest players Kevin Lawley and Geoff Harrington, took the spoils.

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The next competition will be the Morrison Triples on the 26th November in Kyleakin.

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Following the AGM held in September it was decided to start the League competition in January. Details to follow.

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Several local players have been selected to represent Scotland in the British Isles Championships in Bromsgrove, Birmingham. They are Dennis and Alan Eddie, Chris and Jill Mackinnon, Roddy Gillies and Craig Cummings who won the Scottish pairs title last year, RoseMary Finnie, Dave Harrigan, and making his debut will be Geoff Harrington. The Association wish them all the best and I am sure they will do the west coast proud.

Chris Mackinnon.

With our club nights now largely being wee competitions to keep us "well tuned", the Monthly Medal didn't seem so unusual, and the friendly banter (I think it's friendly ...and banter) carried on as normal.

Three players emerged as group winners: Korky, Roddy, and Chris - after a tight tussle with Jill. However, Jill went through, too, as best runner-up. In the semis Roddy was a solid winner over Ian, and Chris had clearly had enough tussles for one night, putting in a more convincing win over Jill second time around. He carried this form through to the final to end Roddy's unbroken run of wins on the night. So our winner was Chris ...er.. whatsisname. You know, the one who's not won a monthly medal for so long that we've forgotten him... 

Unfortunately the hall is unavailable to us on Friday 23rd September so bowling is cancelled for that evening.

Change of website to this new all-singing, all-dancing one. At this point we're still adding information as it becomes available and more photos as soon as they're ready.