​Kyleakin Indoor Bowling  Club

Almost before we knew it our Finals Day was upon us again. Again, it was a beautiful day outdoors and a few players took advantage between games to enjoy it. (Typically, the following day was wet!)

This year the theme was "ties" (or it might have been "Thais" - we never actually saw it written down). Anyway, ties was what almost everyone assumed and we had a colourful and imaginative variety. Of course, there's always one - and yes, it was Geoff again. His ever-so-subtle, tiny can of Tize(r) pendant may have gone unnoticed by some but it was quite definitely there. It may have been an inspired option as most of us wearing more traditional ties spent much of the day with them dangling in our way when trying to bowl. Jill & John Booth had similar ideas with their plastic ties though admittedly JB didn't have the option of using them to tie his hair in bunches. (I do hope Jill managed to find and remove all hers before heading to bed for the night.)

Roddy Gillies again managed to surprise - or scare? - us all with another inspired costume. Very smart and imposing he looked too - in stark contrast to his Rab C Nesbitt that's still scorched into our collective psyche from a few years ago.

Some bowls did get played! Chris again proved to have enough in the tank to win the club championship title, and Rose Mary won through to take the Ladies' title this year. In the pairs the draw brought Chris & Jill together and they proved to be unbeatable on the day, winning their group and then running away with the final against Roddy & Geoff.

Once again our day was made a success with plentiful tasty food provided for us all by the ladies, who somehow manage to produce meals for everyone even while competing (while some of the men would probably struggle just to open a tin of beans as well as bowling).

Photos are in our gallery if you feel up to a glance through these.

The last monthly medal of the season was a hard fought battle, full of good matches and good play. Before getting to the nitty-gritty, it's worth mentioning the lowest scoring (and therefore one of the hardest fought) matches of the night, finishing just 2-1 after the 4 ends. It consisted of three single-shot ends and one no-scoring end. So who played this brutal match? Notably, it was Dave Harrigan, twice Scottish Singles Champion, losing ...yes, losing... to Mary Sikorski in her first full season! I'm sure Mary went home with a well-earned big grin tonight! Watch out Ian: you might soon find you're not even the best Sikorski in the club!

Very close scoring in the two groups saw Geoff and John G from one group join Chris and David McH from the other in the semi-finals, with the draw mixing them up. David played a few luckily placed early shots, effectively freezing John G out of the head, something John was unable to recover from. Chris & Geoff had a tighter tussle but Geoff ran out the winner in the final end.

Trying to ignore his comment, "Are you umpiring then?" David joined Geoff on the centre carpet for the final. Geoff coped better with the carpet, finding a good line to the jack more frequently than David and ran out the worthy winner, breaking the stranglehold David & Chris, but especially Chris, had on monthly medal titles this season. Congrats Geoff, but don't go thinking this gives your Plockton team the edge when visiting Kyleakn for their next league match! 

Warm congratulations to Bart, Robbie, and Mary for their win in today's SLLBA Triples Championship. They put up a very solid performance in the final, defeating Kyleakin's Ian Sikorski, John Govier, and John Booth with an end to spare.

It's great to see new faces in our competitions and Robbie Brown was certainly that. I understand today was just the 7th time he's played short-mat. We're guessing he'll be back!

Many congratulations to Kintail's Roddy & Craig for their success in this year's pairs, defeating Kyleakin's Chris & Jill in the final. It was a well attended and hard fought championship this year, with very few "easy" matches for anyone throughout the day.

With everyone raring to go after the festive break a large contingent of bowlers attended the SLLBA Singles competition in Kyleakin on Sat 13th January. After receiving one or two call offs through health issues, four groups of six and two groups of seven contested the round robin stages. There were some slight surprises on completion of the round robin with, for example, previous winners Ian Sikorski and Roddy Gillies not making the knockout stages, however that only illustrates the competitiveness that exists in local bowling. With the top two from each group and four best thirds going through, on completion of the last sixteen round, the last eight to make there way through to the quarter finals had every right to feel optimistic about their chances.

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The quarters were drawn with Steve Watkins ( Skeabost), winner in 2004, drawn against Sandra Dew ( Kyleakin), Ian Grimmer ( Kintail) faced up to Lennie Chiffers, showing some excellent form despite not having played for some time, David McHutchison ( Kyleakin ) played stable mate John Govier, and Chris Mackinnon ( Kyleakin) was drawn against old foe, and clubmate, Davie Harrigan. The four matches were eagerly contested and played in good spirit with the four battling their way to the semis being Chris Mackinnon playing Ian Grimmer, Ian obviously in good form to dispose of Lennie, and Steve Watkins, rolling back the years, playing John Govier’s nemesis , David McHutchison.

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In the first semi, the eagerly anticipated Mackinnon v Grimmer match, Ian could not reproduce his previous form and Chris ran out a fairly easy winner. In the other match Steve continued his march to the final with a closely fought victory over David McHutchison.

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So the final was to be between Steve Watkins of Skeabost, winner of this title 13 years ago, and Chris Mackinnon Kyleakin, himself a previous winner. Steve showed his intentions early in the game and played some nice bowls to give himself an early lead of 3 – 0 after three ends. However Chris displayed his own positive spirit and, following some crucial final bowls over ends 4, 5, and 6, found himself 9 – 3 to the good with only two ends remaining. Despite fighting hard in the seventh set Steve couldn’t quite pull back such a large deficit.

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The beginning of February sees West Coast bowlers from Skye, Lochalsh, Lochcarron, Plockton, and Mallaig making their way down to Dumfries for the Scottish Championships on Friday 2nd February, with the Open Triples and Pairs being held on the 3rd and 4th respectively.

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Chris Mackinnon.

Congratulations to John "Slippy" Findlayson & Roddy Morrison for their victory over Ken Bryan & Donalda Johnston in our Christmas Pairs in what I understand was an extremely late finish! 

Congratulations to Ann, Craig, and Roddy! They fought their way through to the final, only to meet Jill, David, and Chris who had defeated them in their group earlier in the day. However, true to Roddy's words, "I'd rather beat them in the final than in the group", that is precisely what they did. The score swung heavily in the Kintail trio's favour in the penultimate end, leaving Jill, David, and Chris needing a full house of 6 shots to win. After 4 bowls each the Kyleakin trio were holding 4 and suddenly it looked like "match on" again. Much to the Kintail trio's relief, gaining a 5th shot, never mind 6th, proved just too difficult.

The day was well supported once again with 18 triples playing, and by all accounts everyone had an enjoyable day. There were some notable successes and some near upsets, with John Bird's triple getting off to a flying start, 5 shots to nil up against Chris Mackinnon's triple after the first 3 ends. They weren't able to see their way through to a win but they certainly put the wind up one of the day's more fancied triples!

Sorry for the delay in posting this news item. I've spent almost the whole time since the competition in bed suffering from a bad cold.

I'll start by apologising for any factual errors. The scoring system used in the Championships is tough to follow, even with all the numbers written down in front of you, and because I was involved in matches throughout both days, I was focused on those far more than anything else. I have used the Championship's terminology for teams, so we have a Premier team and an A team (not A & B). Confused? Don't worry, it's taken me a couple of days following the weekend to get my head around it all! Huge thanks to Sue Lawley for her help with recording scores, and of course for her tireless support throughout the whole weekend.

The bowls venue (Belfast Indoor Bowls Club) was magnificent. We used their lower rink and had enough room to move around quite comfortably. Bar and food facilities were available pretty much throughout the two days. Everything seemed to be tasty and very reasonably priced. (I say "seemed to be" because, no, I didn't sample everything!)

Day 1 got off to a promising start with three of our Premier Team individual title contenders winning early matches: Robert Lenza defeated his English opponent 16-4, our triples defeated the English 23-9, and our Stranraer fours impressively defeated their Irish opponents 18-7. Sadly, the closest any of them came to winning a second match during the day was the Stranraer boys’ 9-11 loss to England. The Premier rinks managed two wins: Alec Higgins’ rink defeating the Welsh 13-8 and Rab McNeil’s rink defeating the English 10-6.

In the A Team individual title matches, the best of the results went to Geoff Harrington’s triple, though unfortunately even that was a 14-15 loss to the Irish. The Rinks fared better:Chris Mackinnon’s rink starting with a 10-10 draw against the English and finishing with a 12-6 win over Wales. Debbie Cochrane’s rink pulled out an impressive 12-4 win over the English, and Paul Walker’s rink managed a 7-7 draw with the English. However, some heavy defeats meant that total scores (which is what counts) looked less impressive.

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Day 2 saw fewer successes for the Premier Team with Sandy’s rink defeating their Welsh opponents 9-5 and Jimmy Broatch’s rink managing an 8-8 draw with the Irish. The A Team rinks managed marginally better with Debbie’s rink drawing 8-8 with England, and Chris’s rink drawing 9-9 with the Irish but then taking an enthralling 12-7 win over the Welsh in what turned out to be the last match in the entire Championship to be completed.

As far as I have been able to figure it out, here is a full list of our results (Scottish scores shown first). Wins and draws are highlighted. One or two team reshuffles for the second day have been ignored for simplicity:

 

Premier Team

Singles - R Lenza

16-4 (England), 10-20 (Ireland), 12-20 (Wales)

Pairs    - G Riley, M Patterson

9-28 (England), 8-27 (Wales), 4-25 (Ireland)

Triples  - K Murray, S McCubbin, S McDonald

23-9 (England), 8-21 (Ireland), 3-19 (Wales)

Fours   - S Anderson, D McColm, A Higgins, D Kelly

18-7 (Ireland), 9-11 (England), 2-24 (Wales)

Rink1 - A Mason, S McCubbin, S Hiddleston, S McDonald(S)

Day 1: 7-11 (Ireland), 5-12 (Wales), 7-15 (England)

Day 2: 6-12 (Ireland), 9-5 (Wales), 12-13 (England)

Rink2 - R Lenza, K Murray, D McColm, A Higgins(S)

Day 1: 5-11 (Ireland), 13-8 (Wales), 7-8 (England)

Day 2: 5-10 (Ireland), 8-14 (Wales), 5-14 (England)

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Rink3 - W Fraser, S Anderson, D Kelly, J Broatch(S)

Day 1: 1-19 (Ireland), 2-22 (Wales), 7-16 (England)

Day 2: 8-8 (Ireland), 9-12 (Wales), 6-10 (England)

Rink4 - J Mackinnon, K Peacock, G Stewart, R McNeil(S)

Day 1: 10-11 (Ireland), 6-11 (Wales), 10-6 (England)

Day 2: 4-11 (Ireland), 7-9 (Wales), 12-13 (England)

A Team

Singles - C Mackinnon

6-25 (Ireland), 12-22 (Wales), 7-25 (England)

Pairs    - A Eddie, D Eddie

13-27 (England), 7-18 (Ireland), 7-27 (Wales)

Triples  - K Riley, J Marchbank, G Harrington

14-15 (Ireland), 5-26 (England), 8-16 (Wales)

Fours   - C McMath, R Finnie, M Marshal, C Cummings

1-23 (Ireland), 5-25 (Wales), 8-16 (Wales)

Rink1 - S Dew, D McHutchison, K Lawley, C Mackinnon(S)

Day 1: 10-10 (England), 5-10 (Ireland), 12-6 (Wales)

Day 2: 9-12 (England), 9-9 (Ireland), 12-7 (Wales)

Rink2 - E McCubbin, D Broatch, W Mair, D Cochrane(S)

Day 1: 12-4 (England), 5-9 (Ireland), 3-15 (Wales)

Day 2: 8-8 (England), 2-13 (Ireland), 3-11 (Wales)

Rink3 - S Stephen, S Walker, F Wyness, P Walker(S)

Day 1: 7-7 (England), 5-9 (Ireland), 3-19 (Wales)

Day 2: 9-10 (England), 4-12 (Ireland), 8-12 (Wales)

Rink4 - Y Hiddleston, A McCubbin, C Cummings, R Gillies(S)

Day 1: 2-22 (England), 5-9 (Ireland), 6-12 (Wales)

Day 2: 1-18 (England), 9-10 (Ireland), 3-12 (Wales)

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My overall impression from the weekend is that, yes, the other nations' teams are good, very good in fact, and rarely does anyone play a really poor shot. However, they ARE beatable, and what's more, they can be rattled, as we found out when our Irish opponents, who must have felt in total control of the match at 7-0 up after 4 ends, lost a 5 to us in the 5th and then made uncharacteristic mistakes in the following three ends. All credit to them, they rallied and took a couple of singles in each of the last two ends to get a draw, but we would expect them to fight hard!

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The other teams showed considerable exuberance (to put it politely). Okay, they were LOUD! However, individually the vast majority of players were polite and respectful, and matches were played in a really good spirit, win, lose, or draw. Most gathered around any matches that were longer in finishing and cheered on their own players, something that the Scottish contingent could maybe learn from, though in fairness our matches were usually played at a quicker pace and over before there was room to gather around. Some matches involving the English and Welsh, though, were ridiculously slow. I heard of one "deliberation" over a shot that went on for so long that players on the adjacent carpet complete two ends before a decision was made and the shot was played. Perhaps some sort of time limit needs to be considered.

I found umpires were friendly almost to the point of being "chatty" on occasion, which helped to create a pleasant atmosphere. I did hear just one player complain about something he felt an umpire had done poorly but we had no issues whatsoever with any covering our games.

Finally, full marks to our Team Captain, Anne Motroni, who always seemed to be nearby with supportive comments every time we played. I presume Duncan did much the same for the Premier Team players.

In spite of returning home with no successes, it was still a good weekend with positives of several kinds to bring back from it.

David.

First, a big thank you to Roddy Gillies and all at Kintail for managing to rearrange the Cathy B at the last minute from its usual rinks format to triples. Sadly there were not many able to get a "four" together but triples proved a bit easier. I'm sure Roddy could well have done without the extra organising in the days leading up to the British Isles Championships in Ireland where he'll be part of the Scottish Team. 

We had a good day of bowls, eventually coming down to a final with an in-form Ian Grimmer triple up against the wily Dave Harrigan skipping his team. With 6 of the 8 ends played, the writing was on the wall for Dave's triple at 9-4 down, but a magnificent end of bowls followed by a single in the 8th end saw them level the score against all the odds. 

The extra end was a tense affair but the late momentum just stayed with Heather, Geoff, and Dave. I suppose we could say that Dave had a great pacemaker on his side. Commiserations to Ann, Berta, and Ian after getting off to such a great start in the final, but congratulations to Heather, Geoff, and Dave for an inspired comeback to win the title. 

I dropped in to visit Dave Harrigan yesterday. For anyone who doesn't know, Dave got home after last week's Visitors Comp to a letter from Raigmore calling him in to have a pacemaker fitted on Tuesday.

Dave was all prepped and ready at Raigmore on Tuesday but then Raigmore cancelled at the last moment due to an emergency of some kind, so he ended up going back on Friday. He's home again now and recuperating, but won' be bowling for a week or two.

I'm sure everyone will join me in wishing Dave well and in hoping that we see him back at the club, performing as well as ever, very soon indeed.

David.
 

Once every 2 years our Visitors Comp comes around, and this year it was very well attended by players from around Scotland. New to our event - and in fact new to short-mat - were two triples from the St Duthus Bowling Club. They are used to a different set of rules and much wider carpets at their club in Tain so the 6ft carpets and short-mat rules posed a bit of a challenge.

With 20 triples in 4 groups of 5, and each match being 8 ends, it was a full-on day for everyone, even our own John Stuart who, when receiving an early morning pleading phone call, kindly dragged himself out of a cosy bed to come along and fill a vacancy for a team that was one short!

Competition was strong with many Scottish Internationalists present. Eight triples qualified from the round robin group stages to reach the knockout rounds, among them one of the Tain triples who, to their great credit, didn't just make their way through to the final but won it! Our hearty congratulations to Sharon Cameron, Duncan Farmer, and Andrew Adamson for their consistently strong performances throughout the day and well deserved victory. We very much look forward to seeing you dipping your toes into short mat again before too long.

More details and photos from the day will follow soon.

Guess who won our opening Monthly Medal of the season. No, really go on, bet you can't.... Oh okay then, maybe you can.Once again, Chris was just that bit more consistent than everyone else on the night, winning his group and then his semi and final to take the first medal of the new season. That's it then, the cards are on the table, the gauntlet has well and truly been thrown, now it's up to us to show Chris who's boss next month!!!  

Seriously though, well done Chris, well deserved!

Please note our AGM will begin at 7pm on Tuesday 12th September 2017.

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Venue: Kyleakin Community Hall (in one of the meeting rooms).