Ding ding – bowling along in round one
Lochgilphead Bowling Club’s 2021 season got under way when the first club competition was played on a fine dry night on Thursday April 29.
The Harvey Pairs will be played as round-robin matches in two leagues over several weeks.
With the fine conditions, it was decided to extend the matches to 10 ends. This decision, however, was to prove costly for the senior pair of Ian Guy and Neil Ward who, having had their younger opponents on toast for most of the game, crumbled like one of Mary Berry’s cakes in the final two ends to hand victory to Alan Guy and Craig Bruce 9-7.
The senior heavyweight battles continued with Michael Heafey and Colin MacInnes slugging it out with Archie MacVicar and Donald Crawford. Despite some hefty blows being landed by each pair, they could not be separated and peels prevailed at 6-6, though MacVicar looked the freshest after this 10-rounder.
Rink one was not quite living up to its billing. To use a golfing term there were quite a lot of ‘shanks’ about, with Scott ‘Lefty’ Gargan and Fiona McLeod locked in battle with their mates John Kennedy and Dorothy Clark, who had a vice-like grip on the match, whipping ahead 9-7. In the league cross-over game, dark horses Mark Harkness and Richard Dewar were put to the sword by the evergreen Sandy Crawford and young Murray MacDonald.
Neither of the two to-guns were wearing a mask on the green, but they ought to have as they robbed the dark horses at the last post to ride into the sunset with and 8-6 victory.
The week’s star pair were Anne Moore and Libby McGuinness, who were in cruise control for most of their match against Roddy MacDonald and Jamie MacLean.
The Penelope Pitstop and Dick Dastardly of this whacky race left only scorched tyre tracks as they sped to an impressive 11-6 victory, despite Libby’s concern that the Arkansas Chuggabugs had a secret weapon, to pull out six shots in the last end.
As the next round approaches, Guy and Ward will return to the gym; the undertaker will need to resurrect his form, the postman will need to deliver and the tea table out at Lingerton will be divided, with some cups tasting just that bit sweeter.
With the Portavadie Cup, for the season’s most consistent player, well under way, a few players have posted notable wins with Liz Long notching her first three pointer and Colin ‘Last Bowl’ MacInnes remaining unbeaten.
Submitted.