Halfway and District

It has been an incredibly busy week at the Whitefield with many players out representing the club at Scottish, Lanarkshire and Rutherglen District levels.

In the LBA Champion of Champions tournament, Mark O’Hagan narrowly lost a hotly contested quarter final against his opponent from Wrangholm Hall. The club would like to say well done to Mark for reaching this stage of the tournament.

In the Scottish ties, it started off with the singles where Michael Morris lost out to his opponent from Douglas Victoria. Elsewhere, the pairs of Andy O’Hagan and Ian McShane Snr progress with two solid victories against Halfway and Quarter. The triples of Andy Stewart, Michael O’Hagan and Michael Docherty also had good wins against teams from Halfway and Hamilton. The fours, Mark Law, Jim Molloy, Jim Hefferland and Tam Devenny recorded a victory against Raploch but their journey ended with defeat to Hamilton Caledonian in the closest of ties. This match ended on the final bowl of the last end which required a measure. In the juniors, Alasdair Paton Jr won his tie against Stonehouse but then lost his following tie to another player from the same club. Mark O’Hagan continues his campaign with wins against Eddlewood and also survived a cliffhanger of a tie against Red Deer.

In the LBA ties, Michael O’Hagan defeated Uddingston to reach the District final. He will be joined by the triples team of Mark Law, Alasdair Paton Jr and Michael Docherty. Both District finals will be played at Foxley on Wednesday.

Meanwhile in the LBA Millennium Trophy, the Whitefield team of Andy Stewart, Alasdair Paton Jr, Mark Law, Michael O’Hagan and Tam Devenny continued their defence of the trophy won last year with a victory against Dunbeth Park.

The RDBA semi finals were held at Cambuslang on Tuesday evening. Chris Knape won his semi final over his opponent from Kingswood but has subsequently been eliminated following an eligibility dispute. The club are extremely disappointed for Chris as his victory on the green was well deserved. Unfortunately, the triples of Jim McGuire, David Kelly and Eddie McCormack lost out in a humdinger of a match against Cambuslang. The match was concluded on an extra end after the Whitefield team picked up two shots on the last end. Congratulations to Whitefield’s juniors representative, Alex Hart , who beat his opponent from Croftfoot in the semi final in a re-run of last year’s final.

Back at the Whitefield, the Ladies Invitation Pairs final was contested on Sunday by two home teams with Heather Blair, Carol Ann Nolan and Mary Smith emerging victorious against Kate Francis, Isobel McGuire and Margaret Fellows.

Finally, the Gents aggregate was won by David Canavan and Jim Hefferland. Last week saw the completion of the first club tournament of the year with the victors winning this title in some style with a team skipped by PC Monachan followed by Jack McCutcheon, Jack Connolly with YFT MacIntosh skipping at the back. Yan made an emotional winning speech after receiving the silverware reflecting on the long road to this hard fought title which he will cherish.

It was a great weekend for Yan who once again captained the Burnside team who travelled on Sunday to near neighbours Rutherglen Bowling Club to take part in the away match in this year’s Ryder Cup.

A great day was had by all and Burnside would like to thank Barra Douglas and team for their hospitality and comradarie once again. Burnside unsurprisingly came out on top on and this is now five consecutive wins for Burnside BC since the inaugural game in this fixture and they look forward to welcoming Rutherglen to Burnside BC later in the season for yet another chance for the visitors to get their hands on the trophy.

It was a mixed bag in external competitions with some knockout blows along the way.

In the Charity Cup held on Sunday, the Burnside four travelled to Stamperland to play Castlemilk. On the hottest day of the year so far, Burnside turned up the heat and managed to win by 22 shots securing an excellent result. Burnside now await the overall results but may be in the running for top spot. The team was led by Chris Allen, Kenny Stirratt, Andrew Haxton with Walter Matthews coming in at the rear.

In Bowls Scotland, Burnside had two senior teams battle through to the next round however the club’s mixed pairs failed at this hurdle. In Rutherglen and District they managed to secure victory in the Gilliland League.

Pride of place goes to the GBA under 45 team who travelled to Kingswood to face Stamperland BC in the semi final of the competition. Burnside managed a handsome victory and the team of Jack Connolly, Chris Allan, Andrew Haxton and Marc Stirratt will now play in the District finals, to be held on home soil, this coming Friday and it is hoped a good crowd will be present to add to the occasion.

This Saturday Burnside have an early start as they play host to their invitation triples and groups which will be drawn this week. Traditionally this is a great event and hopefully this season will be no different.

Finally, the Monday night aggregate game was won by a trio consisting of Arthur McKell, Jim Gibson with Walter Matthews who once again delivered the goods as skip. Raffle on the night was £45 which will go to good causes. Last Saturday saw the Clyde Refrigeration Invitation Rinks take place at Halfway and District. Twenty teams participated and the greens were running well thanks to the warm weather. Eventual winners were ex Halfway president Gordon Shanks of the Uddingston rink. They defeated John Murray, Benny Painter, Robert Thompson and Alan Lorimer in the final. This Saturday afternoon sees the Fergus trophy being played for against Condorrat.

The gents are at home and the ladies are away. The following weekend sees the Joe Nelson Cup (ladies pairs) take place on the Saturday and the Gents Invitation Pairs take place on the Sunday. Any members wishing to play in these games should append their names on the relevant sheets.

Halfway have still got four disciplines in the hunt for qualifiying for the national finals at Northfield in July. Flora Thomson and Mary McIntyre won their pairs semi final at Bothwell on Saturday and will now play in the finals at Uddingston next Sunday afternoon with a place in the national finals at stake.

Fiona Firth (singles) and Taylor Gray (junior singles) were also in action in the semi finals at Blackwood on Saturday but they came up against international opponents and lost out in tough games.

The ladies senior fours, Josie McGeough, Rena Duncan, Janet Potter and Maureen Lewis, were very unlucky not to make it through to the semi finals after losing by a single shot on Friday afternoon.

On the gents side, three semi finals took place on Tuesday with places in Friday’s finals at stake. In the senior singles Jacky Fergus played Larkhall and the senior four of Iain Firth, John Kerr, George Thomson and Charlie McIntyre play Blantyre.

The finals take place at Raploch on Friday afternoon. The gents rink of Alan Lorimer, Alan Barr, Martin McIlree and Tommy Allison played Eddlewood on Tuesday night, a victory will see them play at Dalserf in the final on Friday night.

In the LBA ties the gents pairs and triples lost their district semi finals at Shettleston last week. David Fergus lost 21-17 in the Champion of Champions quarter finals at Newmains on Sunday night against Motherwell’s David Anderson.

The under 45 rink of Brian McLeod, Campbell McNaughtan, John Sheppard and Stephen McIntyre made it through to the semi finals with a last end victory over Foxley. The semi finals will take place this Sunday night at Springwells in Airdrie. The top five lost their second round game away to Uddingston on Sunday afternoon.

In the ladies WOSWBA singles Helen Torrance will play her district semi final at Bothwell on Monday. The LWBA ties start this week with Fiona Firth playing in the singles at East Kilbride on Thursday. Mary McIntyre plays in the pairs at St Leonards today, Wednesday, and Flo Thomson, Sandra Hughes and May Fergus play in the triples at Red Deer on Thursday. If the pairs win they will play on Thursday at Whitemoss in the next round.

David Fergus was unlucky not to be picked for the Scotland team after performing well in the trial but he kept up his 100 per cent record with the county team after a victory over Wigtownshire at Stranraer last Saturday. This Saturday’s opponents are Dumfriesshire at Lesmahagow.

In the RDBA ties last Tuesday the pairs and fours both lost out in the semi finals. The Gilliland League time finished with a walkover against Templeton. The triples league started this week with Halfway up against Rutherglen in Tuesday night’s opener. Next week’s opponents are St Leonards.

The seniors teams both had one win apiece in their league games on Monday morning against East Kilbride and Bothwell. The knockout ties and top 10 start this week, results to follow next week.