Welcome to the home page of Campbeltown Bowling Club, one of two clubs in the "Wee Toon" at the southern end of the Kintyre Peninsula where you can still enjoy a game of bowls for £1.00 and a pint for just over £2.00. To get there, turn left off Main Street into Argyll Street at the White Hart Hotel for 200 yards and there we are hidden behind the beautiful sycamore. We are renowned throughout Scotland for our friendship and hospitality. If we don't know you, please come in and introduce yourself.
The Club is now in its 105th year, having celebrated its Centenary in grand style in 2006. For the last few years the membership has been at its maximum level of 205 making us the largest club in Argyll & Bute and we also have a very healthy number of juniors in our coaching system. The Club is fully inclusive and adopted equal rights some years ago.
The Club is committed to Campbeltown and Kintyre and makes the clubhouse freely available to the local community and regularly makes donations to local charities with the most recent beneficiary the RNLI. In the past year or so, we have also intoduced our own cabaret nights during the winter.
Club President for 2011 is George McLellan and his Vice President is Simon X Rochford and the President of the Ladies' section is Moira Wareham.
We got underway for the 2011 season on a gloriously sunny day on Saturday 9th April and right from the first bowl, that drew at least three feet of grass, it was obvious that the green had suffered little from the ice assault in December and January. Considering the weather, it was quite disappointing to find that only 52 players contested the opening match that was won by a delighted Vice President Simon
George's wife Joy, who has never thrown a bowl, delivered a perfect 3/4 length jack to get the season underway before being presented with a bouquet by Louise Brown, daughter of David, a member of this parish. The whole ceremony was witnessed with great interest by a party of golfers and indoor bowlers from Sweden who thoroughly enjoyed the occasion and the club's renowned hospitality.
On Saturday 30th April Campbeltown Bowling Club's competitive season got in to gear when the Stronvaar club held its Robert Leishman Memorial Rinks on a green that is already at mid-summer pace thanks to the recent, prolonged dry spell of weather. With an £800 prize fund on offer, it was disappointing that ten less than the expected twenty four entrants appeared possibly explained by the protracted holiday weekends. The round robin stage produced two closely contested semi-finals from which emerged the holders, Gavin McLachlan, Alan Sinclair, Jim Morrison and Kenny Kerr and Bobby Dalziel, Archie Johnston, Gary Anderson and Bobby Dalziel Snr. With both teams having contingents from the two local clubs, they could be looked upon as representing either Argvaar or Strongyll, apart from themselves! The final was a credit to both sets of players and was enjoyed by a large crowd who saw the Dalziel four triumph when Gavin failed to remove their winning shot bowl with the final bowl of the match. President George McLellan, sponsor Brian Leishman and Mrs Jessie Leishman presented the trophy and cheques to the prize winners.
The first of the club’s holiday pairs, the Derek Goode Memorial, was held on 2nd May and attracted a very good entry and another day of warm sunshine that was greatly appreciated by the players. An overly strong pairing of John McLean and Jim Dickson (Cardross BC) saw off the challenge of sibling Steven Dickson and Maureen MacInnes in a see-saw final.
Hot on the heels of this, we held the Archie & May Graham Memorial Pairs on Sunday 8th May.
The Graham Pairs, as always, attracted an excellent entry and the usual teams of skips playing as partners. A day that threatened postponement gradually improved in to sunshine accompanied by a wind that blew many a bowl off course. The final between John McLean, nursing a bad back not caused by his partner Alec Black, against Steven Dickson and John McCormick, proved that bad backs can be overcome as John an Alec cruised to an emphatic win. As befits a family competition, President George McLellan was accompanied by the Graham family at the presentation of the prizes.
On Saturday and Sunday, 14th & 15th May, we played host to two large parties of the bowling fraternity with the visits of Glasgow West in the Scottish Counties Championship for their match with Argyll & Bute and Pathhead BC, Midlothian, for their national Top Ten match with Stronvaar. The majority of the visitors were paying their first visits to the town and many have promised to return in the hope that the impressive scenery that they enjoyed can be improved with some sunshine. It really was a dreich weekend of weather but the Stronvaar green, as always, performed well and was praised by both sets of visitors and spectators who were greatly impressed by the surroundings and hospitality of the club. The county match on Saturday saw a Cowal-centric team with only seven west Argyll players lose a turgid, four hour marathon by one shot, almost on the last bowl. The top ten match on Sunday was much more interesting affair supported by a large crowd, mostly sheltered within the clubhouse, who saw the home club win by ten shots thanks to excellent performances from Archie Johnston who won by six shots in the singles and Jimmy Anderson and John McLean who destroyed their feted Pathhead opponents with a fifteen shot win. The club now plays host to Paisley Victoria this Sunday in the second round, hopefully in more pleasant conditions for players and spectators alike.
On Sunday 22nd we played host to the Victoria club from Paisley in the first round proper of the national Top Ten competition, a fixture that merited a paragraph in a national Sunday newspaper following last week's win against Pathhead. A scourging wind across the green played havoc with many a bowl and certainly blew Archie Johnston well off course in the singles as he lost heavily to John Adam in the singles. This was compensated for by the pair and triple, skipped by Jimmy Anderson and Gavin McLachlan respectively, and the whole match hung on the result of Bobby Dalziel's four who had a great come back form eight shots down to win the tie by a shot. The team now travels on Sunday to unfamiliar territory in Kirkliston, Lothian, to face a team reputedly loaded with current and former Scottish internationalists.
According to the bowls reporter of a national Sunday newspaper, 'Kirkliston BC are on course for a record third Scottish Top Ten win following their win over West Barns BC'. Should Kirkliston eventually do as predicted, they can look back on a Titanic win over Campbeltown BC as the foundation stone of their win. On Sunday 29th the club made the long journey to the village just outside Edinburgh hoping that they too could progress to the semi-finals in Hamilton on 12th June only to lose the match by a single shot. The game was tied on two games each with wins for Bobby Dalziel's four and Gavin McLachlan's triple but losses in the pairs and singles meant that the West Lothian club had accumulated one more shot overall to take the victory. The Campbeltown players can take pride in their performance against a team full of current and past Scottish title winners and internationalists and consider themselves very unlucky not to have qualified
On Saturday 11th June, after all the frenetic activity at the club involving inter-county, Top Ten and Scottish Championship matches, it was back to home business at the Stronvaar club last Saturday when the open pairs was held. Once again generously sponsored by the Ardshiel Hotel, the players enjoyed a warm, sunny day as they strove to win the 'Aquila' trophy. Four hotly contested round robin sections produced semi-finals between Jessie Andrew and Lorraine Brodie and Jimmy and Gary Anderson and Catherine McEachran and Ria Johnston and Steven Dickson and Robert Hendrie, all from the host club. The resultant final was between hot favourites Jimmy and Gary and Steven and Robert who rose to the occasion and caught the run of the rink better to run out comfortable winners. President George McLellan and sponsors Flora Grant and Marion MacKinnon presented the trophy and prizes.
Last Saturday and Sunday, Campbeltown Bowling Club played host to the Kingston club from the south side of Glasgow and almost below the bridge of the same name. Like many clubs in the central belt, Kingston, who were founded in 1849, have been unable to sustain a good level of members and will sadly close their doors for the last time at the end of the season when, it is believed, their excellent facilities will be converted to a car park for an indoor market. This annual friendly match has been running home and away since 1976 and it is hoped that at least some of the former Kingston members will make the journey here annually in future years. The result of the matches was two home wins that will see the Tomlinson trophies retained in the club's trophy cabinet for posterity.
On a happier note, it is pleasing to report that Catherine McEachran and Marion Reid have qualified for the National finals at Ayr Northfield at the end of July following their District final win against Dalmuir at Vale of Leven last week. Their success and that of the Argyll club's ladies' four is all the more meritorious when the are handicapped by having to travel to various greens, some barely fit for purpose, in the West Dunbartonshire area and often having to play two matches in one day against opponents who live within five minutes walk of the venues. The new national governing body for the game, BowlsScotland, has set out its stall by preaching equality within the sport; it is high time that they looked at this biased qualification process.
On 6th July we had a return visit from Mick McDermott and his 3 other Clydebank bandits, sorry superstars, looking to give our senior citizens another skelping. Dropped from the 2010 friendly were Hugh Neewlands and Reggie McManus who were replaced by Big Jimmy Anderson, as opposed to Wee Jimmy Anderson, and George Allan. Big deal, nae difference, same result, another gubbing. Mick is now enjoying this so much, he is threatening to take our whole club to Clydebank in 2012 so that all his members can get a wee shot!
On Saturday 9th July the ladies' Argyll & Bute Bowling Associationfinals were held in Dunoon at the Bogleha' and Kirn and Hunter's Quay clubs. Northfield bound Catherine and Marion (above) came home with the pairs title as did Shona Anderson, Lorraine Brodie, Mairi MacDonald and Susan Gilchrist in the fours.
The next day the home green was in full swing for the Catherine Bannatyne Memorial Triples that saw a repeat of the 2009 final with an opposite result for the winners Bobby Dalziel, Archie Johnston and Gary Anderson against John McNaughton, Geoff Dunn and John Shaw.
The summer fete was held on Saturday 16th July and attracted a good crowd of supporters to the club despite various other attractions in the town. A sum of around 1220.00 was raised.
In to August and from Monday 1st until Friday 5th we held the Jim Stewart Memorial triples in conjunction with the Argyll club and with the final played on our green. This was between Jimmy Anderson, Neil Maguire and George Allan against Gary Anderson, Gavin Muir and Margaret Moran ABC and resulted in a good win for Jimmy's threesome.
On Sunday 7th it was on to the 2-bowl pairs and this time Jimmy's wife Shona was to the fore partnered with Dugald Graham as a late substitute and lo and behold the made up pair won the trophy from Steven Dickson and Gavin McLachlan.
On Wednesday 24th August we welcomed the Greenock-Argyll touring party for the 97th year in succession and the two matches played on Wednesday afternoon and Friday evening resulted in a win for the Greenock squad mainly caused by a huge loss in the mixed game on Wednesday when the home club failed to win one rubber.
On Sunday it was on to the Peninver Sands sponsored singles that needed 42 ends in the round robin sections just to qualify for the last four. With the green playing east to west, it was a major test for all the players to combat a gusting wind that added to or subtracted two yards weight dependant on which direction was played. The qualifiers were the progressively senior George Reid, John Scott and Ian McConnachie from the ultra competitive Saturday morning league and the much younger Bobby Dalziel of the Top Ten and they contested two excellent semi-finals that saw George and Bobby emerge to contest an even better final that George won by one shot in an extra end. President George McLellan, ably assisted by Liam MacCallum, on behalf of the sponsors, presented the prizes.
On Sunday 2nd September the club's ladies and mens Top Ten teams contested their county finals with the ladies playing Oban on the Ardrishaig green and the men playing Upper Cowal in Oban. The ladies were unable to capitalise on Shirley Bannatyne's excellent win in the singles over Helen McLean and ended by losing the match convincingly. The men however, were determined to retain the John McCormick shield that they won in 2010 and took three of the four rubbers to record a deserved 6 - 2 victory. They now face the daunting prospect of an away match against Dumfries-shire winners, Annan BC, in the national competition in May 2012.
Saturday 24th September saw 28 members turn out for the closing of the green on what turned out to be one of the best days in the month. Being in Turkey at the time, I was unable to get the result of the match but I am sure that either the President or Vice President won.
These seasons seem to get shorter and shorter, so here's to a longer one in 2012!
Page Last Updated - 29/09/2011
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