​Kyleakin Indoor Bowling  Club

Apologies for the long delay in posting a write-up for this. The past few weeks have been particularly busy for me and I have simply been unable to devote the time it takes to put these reports together. Consequently, I've probably forgotten many of the details by now!

The entry was again good, with 24 pairs divided into 4 groups of 6. With just winners and runners-up going through to the knockout stages, competition for each group's top two spots would be fierce and some fancied pairs would inevitably fall by the wayside. Group 1 saw pairs skipped by Chris Mackinnon and Ian Sikorski qualifying 1st & 2nd respectively. In group 2 it was Roddy Gillies and John Finlayson, group 3 Rose Mary Finnie and Dave Harrigan, and in group 4 Dennis Eddie and Geoff Harrington. Group 4 was incredibly close, three of the pairs having lost only to one of the other two. One of these pairs had to be the unfortunate ones to win 4 out of 5 matches but still not make it through, and on this occasion it was Bart who lost out on shot difference.

The quarter-final draw put group winners Chris & Rose Mary together, with Chris coming out on top. Oddly enough, the other two group winners were drawn together, this time with Roddy being victorious over Dennis. The other two quarter-finals, therefore, were between group runners-up, with Ian defeating Dave H, and Geoff overcoming John F.

This set up semi-finals between Chris and Roddy, and Ian & Geoff. Chris & Jill continued their unbeaten run on the day to progress to the final, while Geoff & David played a stormer to win their semi, setting up an intriguing final.

Sometimes finals can be a bit of an anti-climax, with one side or the other having played well all day, only to run out of steam. This was not one of those! All four players were on song, though it was Geoff & David who nicked the odd shots to slowly build a bit of a lead. However, one or two devastating running bowls from Jill, and an absolutely stunning draw from Chris with his final bowl of the last end brought the scores level. It was probably fitting that this would be decided by an extra end, and the drama wasn't finished. Once again, Chris delivered an incredible draw with his final bowl to lie shot by the narrowest of margins. Indeed, there were 3 bowls within an inch of the jack, but it was Chris's that counted and ultimately won the match and SLLBA Pairs Title for 2019. Congratulations to Jill & Chris, but also to everyone who took part and made this a very successful day.

David McH.

We can safely say that the inaugural match between Scotland and England ladies, held at the Loreburn Hall, Dumfries, was enthusiastically seen by all involved as a resounding success. The format of matches was loosely based on the British Isles Championships.

The SLLBA was well represented by Jill Mackinnon, Sandra Dew, Rose-mary Finnie, Ann Lloyd, and Cathie O’Kane. Many of you will have heard that Ann, once back home, slipped on ice and broke her hip. We understand she had an operation to fix this within a day or two and hopefully she is already back home recovering. It absolutely goes without saying that we all wish her a full and quick recovery, and want to see her back bowling again once she’s fit enough. At least she got to play her match for Scotland before this unfortunate accident!

To start the day’s bowling, the ladies played Rinks matches on 5 carpets in 3 “International” rounds: each round had 5 Scottish “fours” matched against 5 English “fours”. The result of each round was determined by the combined score from all 5 matches. With Scotland having 20 players (5 “fours”), each of our representatives was guaranteed 3 matches.

The first round of matches was closely fought, with the overall difference being just a single shot, but first blood went to England. The second round was again closely fought, this time finishing with a 3 shot difference, but again in England’s favour. That’s still remarkably close given it was the total from 5 matches. The 3rd and final “International” round ended in a much more decisive 10 shot winning margin, and this time in Scotland’s favour. With 2 points for a winning “International” round, this gave England a 4-2 lead. However, it is worth pointing out that the Scottish ladies won 8 of the 15 matches. Whichever way we look at it, this was close and both national teams can take pride from their players’ fighting performances.

The second part of the day’s play was in the form of “individual” matches, including one “singles”, one “pairs”, two “triples”, and a “fours”, involving 13 players chosen by the team Captains, though for Scotland this was the selection committee’s recommendation. Unfortunately, although everyone played well, from the Scottish point of view almost all games were lost. The notable exception was our “fours” team of Jill (lead), Sandra (second), Rose-mary (third), and Scotland debutant Donalda (skip) who won their match very convincingly, 16-5.

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With all points decided, we had an overall result of England 10, Scotland 4. However, as you can see from the scoring throughout the day, it was a far more closely fought match than the final result suggests.

This was a very well organised event and everyone left having made new friends and looking forward to meeting up for future battles.

This year’s SLLBA Singles, our first competition of 2019, had 38 eager participants. As it happens, that’s exactly the same number as last year’s good turnout, and again we had one or two more who were absent for one good reason or another. It’s great to see continued strong support for the various SLLBA events.

This year we had 5 groups of 6 and one of 8, as it turns out that groups of 7 cannot give all players in the group an appropriate and equal number of games. Few of us realise all that our organisers have to take into account when putting on these events! Our thanks to Kintail for providing an additional carpet, scoreboards, sticks, and a jack to give us 6 fully equipped carpets on the day.

As ever, the group stage produced many hard fought matches – nobody ever gets an easy group nowadays! One match that superbly demonstrated this (and I hope he’ll forgive me for "grassing" on him!) was regular Scottish Team player Dennis Eddie losing to SLLBA Singles debutant, Mary Sikorski, in their first game of the day. Mary is fast gaining a reputation as a bit of a dark horse! Both, as it turned out, still managed to qualify from their group in spite of losses to the unbeatable form of group winner, Ian Grimmer.

The evergreen Dave Harrigan wasn’t in top form early in the day but managed to improve during his group games to get through along with Alan Stuart, who definitely was showing some good form and scaring most players in his group. Chris Mackinnon, who was recovering from a pretty bad cold, also wasn’t playing at his best but his fighting spirit rarely lets him down and once again it was enough to see him through to success in his group along with Angie Beaton. David McH won his group undefeated, but with a couple of narrow squeaks along the way, and his Kyleakin club-mate Ian Sikorski joined him in the knockout stage.

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So, after 5 games each in the group stage, we had our winners and runners-up, plus 4 of the best third placed players to make our first knockout round of 16. Sadly some of the Mallaig boys who had made it through were unable to stay for fear of a very long drive home if they missed their last ferry, but well done to them for getting that far anyway. As well as those mentioned already, also through to the knockout stages were Ann Lloyd, Roddy Gillies, Jess Donaldson, Maureen Webster, Angie Beaton, Simon Mackenzie, Winkie, and Slippy. Well done all!

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Only after fighting through some tough matches - which is to be expected when we reach the knockout stages - were players whittled down to the semi-finalists. Dave Harrigan, whose form was improving with each match, defeated the always hard-to-beat Roddy Gillies. The other semi-final, a repeat of one of last year's, brought together Chris and David McH. This time around it was David who narrowly won their very hard fought and extremely close match, with the tiniest of margins coming into play in several ends.

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The resulting final was a repeat of two years ago, meaning we again have the confusion of reporting on two "Davids", sorry! This time it was a closer affair, with very tight heads almost all the way through. Most ends were won with just a single shot, including the 5th in which David McH tried for a 2nd shot with his last bowl, but it failed to slip past Dave H’s, instead pushing that bowl closest to the jack. This, along with his earlier double and single, meant Dave H now held a 4-2 lead. However, a 3-shot swing in the 6th narrowly nudged David into the lead, though it was short-lived. Another single shot for Dave H in the penultimate end brought scores level, so this one was going to the wire! Having last bowl advantage, David was able to put Dave under pressure and, in fact, ultimately declined to use that final bowl, leaving himself with the narrow winning lie he needed. It had been a match which could so easily have turned either way had one player lost nerve for a moment.

As I was still a bit in shock, very much not used to having to give any kind of victory speech, and definitely emotionally drained by the end of the day, I must apologise for neglecting to thank Chris for his kind words of praise, and to express everyone’s thanks to the organisers and all who helped to run a very successful day. These must, as ever, go to Jill & Chris who shoulder the brunt of the organising for all the SLLBA events, and of course to everyone who helped out with preparing and delivering tasty and very much appreciated food and refreshments throughout the day, but also not forgetting the Kyleakin club members, plus any others who pitch in, who set up and put away all the equipment so we can all enjoy each of these days.

The usual photo gallery will be uploaded some time after I’ve recovered and had time to work through the photos.

David McH.

With very welcome extra support from Donalda, Roddy Gillies, and one of last year's winners, Slippy, we had 14 players for our Christmas Pairs, meaning 7 teams, to give us a big “round robin” event that lasted the whole evening. Three carpets meant each “round” had one pair sitting out, so we all eventually had a little time to tuck into the tasty food and drink, as well as catching the odd nibble or slurp during games.

I was too busy playing my own games and nibbling and slurping to keep track of what was going on in other games, but I do know that our most “senior” random pairing of the evening, Simon MacKenzie & Dave Harrigan, got through their first 5 games undefeated, and needed only to avoid a loss to Rosemary & Joanna to win. One end in and they were a shot down! However, all those years of experience kicked in and from that point on they dominated to win their last game with an end to spare.

So, it’s congratulations to our Christmas Pairs and December Monthly Medal winners, Simon & Dave, and a big thanks to everyone who organised and helped with the food and the running of the evening. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves and got home safely!

“Monthly” medals are arriving like the proverbial buses now after we found ourselves unable to fit them in early in the season! We had 12 players competing, so 3 groups of 4. We were also very happy to see two of our primary school lads dragging their mum & dad along to the club for the evening! Rather than drop them in at the deep end of a monthly medal, we set up a carpet for them to play, with members dropping by between their own games to give a little friendly guidance.

As you will see, there was a strong element of "girl power" happening tonight. A tight group 1 saw Jill and Dave H finish tied on 4 points ahead of Geoff & Simon on 2 points. Remarkably, each game of Dave's finished with a single shot difference. However, by virtue of two rather more emphatic wins and a narrow defeat, Jill squeezed through as group winner ahead of Dave.

Group 2 turned into a battle between Chris and Sandra for the top spot, though each match in the group was a battle, with Mary causing frights all over the place! She ran Sandra very close, finishing just a single shot back, and the look on Chris’s face when Mary took 3 shots off him in their first end was a picture. And, try as I might, I could not deprive Mary of a victory over yours truly! As Chris, who had umpired, said to me right after, “You didn’t play at all badly”, and he was right. Mary won purely on merit. Nevertheless, it was Chris who ultimately took the group victory, dropping only the one point from his first match draw.

The remaining group also saw a mixture of results, with nobody able to win all 3 of their games. John G won 2, as did Joanna but she managed a draw against John B in her other game to take the top spot. Even had she lost that one, her shots count would surely have seen her safely through. I’d love to know what Ian said to Joanna before their match because she gave him the thrashing of his life!

The fourth player to join the 3 group winners, the best of the rest in effect, was John G, who drew Chris for his semi-final. This left Jill playing Joanna in the other, guaranteeing a “boy versus girl” final – but what combination? It turned out to be John and Jill who focused more quickly and fought their way to the final. In that final, John found the pace on the fast carpet with an accurate first bowl, despite having played on slower carpets all evening, but Jill’s consistency saw her forge head, leaving John too much to claw back in the final end. Congratulations to Jill in what, very surprisingly to us all, turns out to be her first ever monthly medal victory! 

David McH

Over the past few weeks we have had two classes from our local primary school spend part of their Wednesday afternoons having a go at playing bowls. We've been struck by how much they've enjoyed themselves, and how competitive they can get! The children have looked forward to their weekly visits, and the teachers have even had a wee go when they've had a chance. From the moment the children have bounced through the door on arrival until they've shouted their bye-byes and thank yous on their way out, they've been great fun. We don't know how many will want to play bowls again immediately but we hope, if nothing else, we've sown a seed or two of enthusiasm for our game and maybe they'll come back to it later in life. However, we do know that a couple of the boys are very keen and will be bringing their parents along to our club first chance they get!

Thank you to all the girls and boys and their teachers. It's been great fun having you along!

For more photos from earlier today, please check out our photo gallery.

We divided ourselves into two groups of 5: the group of death, ...and the group of certain death! With so many players to fear in the club, there will never be an "easy" group. Carpet 1, laid a bit closer to the door, played brilliantly: fast and true with a decent bias on both hands, leading to some very skillful drawing games. Carpet 2, for some reason, had developed a huge bias on both hands, leading to some very scrappy games and pretty wild scores.

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In group 1, Roddy and Geoff finished with 6 points apiece (3 wins from 4) with Roddy's higher number of ends won giving him top spot. Group 2 had a clear winner in John G, 3 wins from 4 for 6 points, but second spot was extremely tight. David and Ian edged out Chris on ends won and it had to go to shot difference for David to squeak through over Ian.

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Semi-final 1 (carpet 1) looked like it was going David's way until Roddy put him under pressure and took 3 shots on the 5th end to level it. In the extra end, however, Roddy was unable to keep the momentum going, David squeaking through again.

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In semi-final 2, Geoff adapted quickly to John G's "home" carpet 2, taking two singles in the first two ends. John rallied with 3 shots to take a brief lead but Geoff then fought back strongly to grab victory.

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The final was on carpet 1 which suited a good, tactical drawing game, running shots being awkward to deliver on such a fast carpet. Geoff got off to a good start by taking 1 shot in the first end, but a surprise 4 shot score to David in the second end put Geoff under early pressure. This allowed David freedom to pile on more pressure, forcing Geoff into running shots that sometimes missed their target by a whisker, or that sometimes caught the target but never quite pushed anything in his favour. Mind you, a risky drawing shot from David in the 3rd end gently jiggled bowl and jack and almost gave the shot way, but he got lucky and didn't. By the 4th end Geoff found himself trailing by those shots given away in the 2nd end but he was looking favourite to get some of them back ...until, that is, David's final bowl trailed the jack through to his own two back bowls to take an unassailable lead and win the match. It was a long evening - probably well past Geoff's bedtime to be fair!

We were pleased to see 15 triples entered again this year, with a growing representation from "up north". The Minginish players are not just growing in number in our local competitions but also in experience. Anyone who underestimates them, beware! I can say from personal experience that Roddy Morrison's trio counted themselves extremely lucky to have scraped a single shot win over some of the Minginish contingent, ably helped by Bob Burt.

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I must apologise for not knowing all the triples who progressed from the group stages as I had to dash off on a drive down to Ayrshire as soon as I'd been knocked out. What I do know is that the triples were eventually whittled down to an enthralling final between Kyleakin players Chris, Jill, and Geoff, and a strong trio from Mallaig, Dennis & Alan Eddie, and Alan Stuart. A very strong start from the Mallaig players could have been enough to win against many players, but Chris's trio showed grit and determination to turn an early 7 shot deficit into a 1 shot lead. However, the Mallaig boys weren't finished either, scoring a couple more late shots to run out 10-9 winners. Congratulations lads!

Pictures for the photo gallery from this event can now be seen in our photo gallery.

David McH.

Nine SLLBA players travelled to Wales to represent Scotland in the British Isles Championships this year, meeting up at Inverness airport with several more from Tain and the Aberdeen area. We must thank Roddy Gillies for sorting out all our flight details as well as stepping in to organise the team accommodation in Wales. Although he was unable to arrange a hotel close to the bowls venue in Carmarthen, the Stradey Park Hotel & Spa in Llenelli turned out to be a lovely choice. Food, service and accommodation were all brilliant, far out-shining our experiences last year in Belfast. I believe he has also already booked next year's team hotel for the BIC in Aberdeen!!! 

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We would love to be able to report on some outstanding successes in the bowling but sadly we can't! That said, there were some good wins throughout the team, and as many more hard-fought games that didn't quite go our way. Considering that Scotland has only 117 registered players to choose from, and Ireland has anything between 7,000 and 30,000 depending on who you talk to, we didn't do too badly. I don't know how many players England has but from the 24 various match-ups between Scotland and England, we had 9 wins and a draw. (Happily, Sandra, David, Kevin, and Chris managed to help with that!)

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Overall it was an enjoyable trip with much hilarity (at appropriate times!) and many of us have come back inspired to improve our game.

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You can click on the photo in this news item to see the photo gallery of SLLBA players in Wales, or find it in our site's "Photos" menu. 

With just 8 teams entered, we played in two groups of four, the winners and runners- up progressing to semi-finals. In group 1, Dave Harrigan's rink squeaked through their first two games and then won comprehensibly in their third to progress as winners, Roddy Morrison's rink taking second. Everyone in the group, without fail, showed some moments of great skill.

Group 2 saw Roddy Gillies's rink take top spot with an unblemished record, and Ian Sikorski's take the runners-up spot. Again, the established, more experienced players found they had to fight hard to win games, sometimes coming off second best!  No game can be looked at as an "easy win" any more. Far from it. Do so at your peril!

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For once, both semi-finals went to form on the day, with the two group winners progressing to the final. In that, Kintail's four were consistently just too good for Kyleakin's remaining players, keeping the pressure on and running out 9-3 winners (or something near to that), though the match was harder fought than the scoreline might suggested. Congratulations go to Winkie, DeeDee, Craig, and Roddy for a well-deserved victory.

Outside it may have been stormy and wintry but inside the Kyleakin Hall all was warm and calm for our first monthly medal of the season, though nobody was entirely sure if it was the September or October medal! ***

With just 8 of us participating, we split nicely into two groups of 4. One group saw Ian and Mary joined by John Booth and Geoff while the other, a veritable “group of death”, saw Chris, Roddy, Sandra, and David McH drawn together. With relatively few games to play we were able to have 5 ends instead of the more usual “quickfire” 4 end games, which can see the game all but lost before players have got into their stride.

Ian was dominating his group until Mary saw fit to put him in his place. Or maybe Ian just knows which side his bread is buttered… However, he did enough to win his group, with Geoff giving another of his usual solid performances to take the runner-up spot.

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In the other group David got off to a flying start against Chris and then continued with a vein of good form that he would desperately like to reproduce in Wales next month. With the carpet running particularly well, every game in the group was hard fought and high quality, and in the end Chris did enough to recover from his poor start to take the runner-up spot, in spite of a steward's enquiry almost being called for some shenanigans in his match with Roddy!

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The semi-final draw appropriately saw the winners of both groups playing the runners-up of the other. While David was able to overcome Geoff’s challenge (not without a struggle mind you), Chris managed to turn over group-winner Ian to set up a chance of revenge for his earlier defeat at David’s hands.

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The final got off to a tight start with single shots exchanged. In one end Chris was forced into an aggressive shot that went wrong and left only David’s bowls on the carpet. Lying three, with a bowl each to play, David made what transpired to be a tactical error, attempting to trail the jack rather than leave Chris with that option, but missing by a fraction. This left Chris with an opportunity to use his strong drawing game to turn 3-down into 1-up, which he eagerly grabbed with both hands. Going into the last end 3 shots ahead put Chris in a very strong position, too strong as it turned out for David to claw back in the final end, no matter what he tried.

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And so this season has carried on where last year left off, with Chris being the player to beat. Congratulations go once again to Chris and his indomitable fighting spirit!

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*** Note that we didn’t manage to play a medal in September, for various reasons. If this was the delayed September medal then October's medal will also end up being delayed as we have no bowls next Friday due to most players being away at Inverurie.

In the first competition of the season, Kintail's Arthur Smith Quaich, Kyleakin certainly had a great showing. Three of the four group qualifiers were Kyleakin's, though one got through only by the skin of their teeth.

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In the first group the Kyleakin triples of Sandra, Roddy M, and Chris, and John G, John B, and skip Ian were undeafeted, with Chris's team edging out Ian's for the top spot..

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The other group was won easily by Winkie & Bart, skipped by Roddy Gillies, who breezed through their group with comprehensive victories in each of their matches. Three of the remaining four triples were tied on points, and it fell to the shot scores to separate them. Triples skipped by John Bird and David Webster put on a great show, John's trio losing by just a single shot to Dave H's triple after going into the final end tied. David Webster's trio bettered that by converting their "all-square with one end to go" into a single-shot win that oh-so-nearly toppled our struggling Kyleakin triple. To their great credit, Minginish players, all relatively new to the game, are certainly putting the wind up some of the old stalwarts! However, on a minus 1 shot difference - surely one of the worst r/u scores in recent times - Dave H's triple, to their astonishment, stumbled through.

The two undefeated triples were drawn against each other so something had to give, and it was Chris's trio who held on to their winning run. In the other semi, Dave H's somewhat shell-shocked trio got off to a surprisingly good start against Korky, in spite of John G's continuously accurate lead bowls. This successful beginning to their semi-final was almost entirely due to a series of brilliant running bowls from skip Dave H that turned lost causes into one or two shot wins. In the end it was too much for Korky's trio to recover and Dave H advanced to the final.

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In the final a buoyant Chris and his merry crew got off to a pretty solid start and then continued to press home their advantage, leading 9-3 after 5 ends with just 3 ends remaining. Losing a single shot and a two for their lead to be cut to 9-6 should not have phased them, but when they surprisingly found themselves lying 3 shots down in the final end with just a bowl each to come, it was sweaty palm time! Dave H's final delivery looked like it was going to work against him, removing one of his side's 3 scoring bowls ...but good fortune continued to shine on this trio and his bowl took the place of the one it had removed to maintain a 3-shot lie. This left Chris little choice except an awkward draw to within about 9 inches or less to claim victory. However, his bowl came in short and narrow and so, to everyone's surprise, we had a final that went into an extra end. A bigger surprise was to follow though, with Dave's triple winning that extra end and the title. As Roddy Gillies and Bart put it, "Never say die!"

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Having talked through our performance with Dave the following day, I can honestly say that neither of us can believe what happened. I think Heather may have been the only one who just took it all in her stride!

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David McH.

The SLLBA AGM will be held at 7pm in the Kyleakin Community Hall on 21st September 2018.

Our AGM will be held at 7pm on Tuesday 11th September 2018 at the Kyleakin Community Hall. All club members welcome!