Around the greens
Kirkhill members are excited as finals week and finals day loom ever closer. The committee will soon have all arrangements in place for final’s day on Saturday, August 27.
All members or guests and neighbours are welcome to come along on Saturday and watch the finalists who get to play on the day.
Gents players will be in full regalia with collar shirt and tie and hopefully no need for waterproofs.
In finals week on most days there are important games being played so good luck to all participants whether they are players, markers, umpires, score board markers or spectators.
Earlier in finals week Dougie Wilson has a postponed semi-final singles tie at Springboig in the North Eastern League Top Ten and Ronnie Wilson and Roy Linder have the pairs equivalent at Sandy hills BC.
Recently ,it was a super Tuesday for the Seniors who did well at Halfway in the Gemmill Trophy winning six games to zero. The salt was really rubbed in to the Halfway wounds when the two Kirkhill teams also won on Tuesday night in the RDBA.
The Gents parish game with Templeton was a no scoring draw after rain flooded the Templeton greens before play could begin. Alan Jackson, the Templeton president, was very generous host to the visiting Kikhilll lads providing refreshments which was a great consolation for not being able to play. The Kirkhill team members seemed to enjoy themselves very well.
Some competitions do not finish till later in the playing season and the club will remain open for play until early October. In the Rutherglen District Bowling Association section, the Triples League season ended on Tuesday, August 16 and Cambuslang drew with Kingswood BC at home and won the away game. This ensured the club took third place overall in the league and a bronze medal.
The winning bowling club was Croftfoot who finished the league in style, winning home and away to Rutherglen BC.
Cambuslang would like to wish their sincere thanks to RDBA secretary Morris Smith for all the work he does in running this tournament.
In the Cambuslang District Seniors Rinks League, Cambuslang had two rinks at home against Rutherglen BC on Wednesday, August 17.
Today, Wednesday, is the last game of the seniors season and Cambuslang are away against Mount Vernon BC, 10:30am.
On Saturday, the club hosted their sponsored Birrell Corrance Mixed 2+1 Tournament where they had 20 teams competing.
Sadly due to bad weather conditions, only three games went ahead and the club had to cancel the tournament. Mr. Birrell, who was in attendance, gave a short speech to the players prior to the game and also donated over £500 sponsorship to the tournament.
It has been decided that the tournament will be carried over to next year where the same players will be invited back. However, those that stayed had a great afternoon and disco in the evening. Rutherglen shared the points with Overtoun in the last game of the R and D Triples League.
In the Cambuslang and District League last Wednesday morning, the club won both games against Cambuslang and this week play Overtoun.
The George Fraser Two Bowl Pairs was abandoned last Saturday due to the weather and has been rescheduled for Sunday, September 4 .
The club holds its finals this Saturday and Sunday when a large crowd is expected to support the competitors.
The Two Bowl Triples tournament is to be played on Saturday, September 3, followed by a home friendly against Croftfoot on September 10 and a visit to East Kilbride on September 17.
The Monday evening aggregate game was won by Murray Yule and Brian Connolly. This Saturday will see finals day take place at Halfway and District. For the first time ever all finals will be played on the front green.
The ladies and gents championship games will take place at 1pm along with two or three other finals.
The next set of finals will start at 3pm in what will hopefully be a busy day at the club.
There are still some semi - finals to be played this week, the full finals day program will be posted on the noticeboards, club Facebook page and website on Thursday night.
A second finals day will take place on Sunday, September 4 at 2pm with any remaining finals being played on Sunday, September 18.
A list of finals are as follows. Gents Championship: Stewart Conway v Martin McIlree or Tommy Allison.
Ladies Championship: Mary McIntyre v Sandra Keary or Fiona Firth.
Gents Presidents: John Smith or Martin Wilson v John Kerr or Tommy Allison.
Ladies Presidents: Mary McIntyre v Sandra Keary.
Gents VP’s: Charlie McIntyre v Tommy Allison or Martin McIlree.
Ladies Nessie MacFarlane Trophy: Taylor Gray v Ailsa Barr.
Gents John Docherty Cup: Watty Islip v Alister Thomson.
SBA Pairs: Stephen McIntyre and John Sheppard or Jim Stoddart and Jim Torrance v John Smith and Charlie McIntyre.
LBA Pairs: Bryan McAllister & Stewart Conway v Alan Barr & Martin McIlree. Presidents Pairs: Maureen Lewis and Patricia Logan v Sandra Hughes and Flo Thomson.
VP Pairs: Sandra Keary and Mary McIntyre v Maureen Burnett & Fiona Firth.
Gents Senior Singles: John Smith or Charlie McIntyre v Jacky Fergus or Jim McManus.
Ladies Senior Singles: Maureen Burnett v Helen Torrance or Maureen Lewis.
Gents Senior Pairs: John Smith and Alex Duncan v Iain Firth and Jim Lynn v Watty Islip or George Thomson.
Ladies Senior Pairs: Sandra Hughes and Maureen Lewis v May Fergus and Mary McIntyre or Rena Duncan and Helen Torrance.
Halfway had three gents and three ladies pairs taking part in the Super Series qualifiers last weekend. Kirsty Wilson and Taylor Gray, Audrey Stoddart and Fiona Firth and Josie McGeough and Patricia Logan all fell at the first hurdle. Alan Lorimer and Stewart Conway were pipped by a shot in their second round game and Martin McIlree and Drew Mitchell and Brian McLeod and Tommy Allison both lost their first games.
Both Lanarkshire League games were washed out again on Friday night. The Division 3 played their game on Monday night at home to Wishaw South and won 4-2. The Division 10 team played away to Gartcosh last night, Tuesday.
The RDBA Triples team finished up with two defeats against Kirkhill and the seniors lost 6-0 to Kirkhill in the Gemmell Trophy last week.
September is a busy month as usual with tournaments on every weekend. The Newton Cup 2+2 rinks(Saturday, September 3), the Dalton Trophy(Sunday, September 11), the Newton Arms Mixed rinks ( Saturday, September 17) and the George Mair Triples takes place on Saturday, September 24.
The club will also host the usual charity coffee morning on Friday, September 23 at 11am. Tickets cost £3 and are available from behind the bar. Any funds raised will be split between the Beatson and McMillan Cancer charities. The first of the club championship finals were played at the weekend. Saturday’s finals fell victim to the weather with the green under water. However, play was resumed on Sunday with a number of high quality finals being played.
Michael Docherty is the club’s new Gents Singles champion, winning his match against Mark Law. Joyce Kelly emerged victorious in the Ladies Singles with a win against Barbara Morris.
The Vice President’s Trophy winner was Andy Stewart who won his tussle with Jim Hefferland. The Ladies Nominated Pairs was won by Ruth Corrigan and Andrea Russell against Heather Blair and Carolanne Nolan. The Junior Singles champion is Aiden Friel who won an epic encounter of the highest standard against Alex Hart.
There are more finals to be played over the weekend and the club invite friends and family to see their heroes in action.
The honours keep rolling in for the club. Last week, the Division 8 Lanarkshire League team had a chance of promotion but it was a big ask. The team rose to the challenge and clinched the league total by winning their three matches against Foxley. Whitefield would like to wish a well done to all their players who have “really done the club proud”.
The Division 18 team match against Greengairs was postponed due to flooding on the green. The game will not be replayed as neither club were in contention for the title.
Away from the club, Mark and Michael O’Hagan made a strong start in the Bowls Scotland Super Series Pairs Championship, but lost out narrowly in the final qualifying game.
Finally, Monday night’s aggregate was won by Gerry Boyd and Tam McLinden who were 17 shots up. Going into the final fixture this week Burnside are still in with a fighting chance of winning the Glasgow League division.
Last week, they played joint table toppers Hillington Park and managed a home win with the away team going down.
The final fixture will see Burnside travel to Milton of Campsie with Burnside’s home team hosting. Dependent upon the mix of results Burnside could find themselves as divisional champions but their fate is not entirely in their own hands.
On Wednesday in The GBA Top Five, Burnside had an excellent 4-1 victory at Clarkston against Mount Florida.
They now travel to Eaglesham this week to face Croftfoot BC who managed to narrowly defeat Rutherglen BC on Burnside last week.
In the Rutherglen and District Triples and Seniors Fours Burnside had similar results with home team winning and away squad losing.
The first semi-finals of the major club competitions have been played with Stevie Leonard getting over the line against Walter Matthews to reach his first club championship final.
He will now meet the winner of the other semi- final between the highly experienced John Sinclair and Peter Horne, both of whom have held this title on a number of previous occasions. In the Presidents Prize, reigning club champion Steve Jackson lost out to Jack Connolly in an excellent match played in front of a large short sleeved crowd.
The club was encouraged to see another major competition finalist coming from their junior ranks and Jack will play the winner of Robert Whiteside and another ex-junior and former club champion Andy Haxton.
This forthcoming week is finals weekend with games commencing on Friday evening and a good turnout of members and guests are expected to enjoy the feast of bowling. One tournament was concluded last Saturday ,the Nominated Two Bowl Pairs. The afternoon kicked off in a heavy downpour however, the green stood up to the onslaught of rain and competition was completed.
Pre- tournament favourites Kenny Stirratt and YFT MacIntosh lived up to their odds and, despite carrying sporting injuries, managed to lift the silverware after a close final against Walter Matthews and club president Davie Robertson jnr.
Finally the Monday night aggregate saw Neil Sanders, Neil Coats, Eddie Stewart and Stevie Leonard taking the prizes.