CLYDEBANK AND DISTRICT BOWLING ASSOCIATION Congratulations to Clydebank B.C. on winning the CDBA Seniors Top 10 competition. The final between Clydebank and Albion was played at Yarrow B.C. on Sunday, August 3. The final score was 6-2 and the results of the individual games were as follows (Clydebank scores first): Singles – George Bruce 21 Hugh Nelson 5, Pairs – Gordon Phillips and Tommy Murray 23 Ricky Moonan and Dennis Morris 17, Triples – Jim Mitchell/Jim Frew/Jim Russell 16 Martin Bradley/Bert Dobinson/Alex Pritchard 12, Fours - Gordon Laird/Blair Graham/Stuart Riddell/Jim McGinley 11 Willie Cross/Jim Griffiths/Ian Campbell/Tam NcNaught 15. The semi-finals of the competition had been held on Monday, July 28 with Clydebank beating Dalmuir at Old Kilpatrick and Albion defeating Singer at Yoker.

The CDBA Senior League was due to recommence on Monday, August 4 with the week 13 games. The week 14 fixtures of the David Syme League will be played on Monday, August 11 and are as follows: Radnor Park v Albion, Dalmuir v Yarrow, Victoria Park v Singer, Scotstounhill v Old Kilpatrick and Yoker v Clydebank.

The CDBA Seniors Top Three competition was due to start on Tuesday, August 5 with the preliminary round ties. The draw for the quarter final games due to be played on Tuesday, August 12 is as follows: Victoria Park or Scotstounhill v Old Kilpatrick or Albion at Singer, Yoker v Radnor Park at Dalmuir, Singer v Yarrow at Scotstounhill and Dalmuir v Clydebank at Radnor Park.

The CDBA League Cup commenced on Friday, August 1. In Section A league winners Clydebank got off to an excellent start by beating Albion 12-2. Singer also won their first game against fellow contenders Radnor Park. In Section B favourites Old Kilpatrick beat Dalmuir by virtue of the bonus points and Yarrow defeated Yoker. The full results were: Section A – Clydebank 12 Albion 2, Singer 10 Radnor Park 4, Scotstounhill no game, Section B – Old Kilpatrick 8 Dalmuir 6, Yarrow 10 Yoker 4, Victoria Park no game. The fixtures for League Cup Week 2 to be held on Friday, August 8 are as follows: Section A – Clydebank v Singer, Radnor Park v Scotstounhill, Albion no game, Section B – Old Kilpatrick v Victoria Park, Yarrow v Dalmuir, Yoker no game.

DISTRICT CLUB NEWS Singer B.C held the popular Five End Fred Pairs on Saturday, July 26. The winners of the competition were Fraser Rawls and Allan Milne who beat Graham Ward and Andy Summers in the final. The losing semi-finalists were Tommy Blair and Andy Smith and Fred Reid and Eric Milne. The winners were presented with the Trophy by sponsor Fred Reid. Clydebank held their annual Bowls and Pakora match on the same day. The winners this year were Joe Kerrigan, Bill Blane and Tommy Wyper. However, the biggest prize of the day went to Tracy Clark who won the wooden spoon.

The Kelso Family Tournament was held at Old Kilpatrick on Saturday, July 26. The competition was won by May and Jim Nicholson and the runners-up were Marion and Raymond Black.

Some of the internal knockout competitions in the district clubs have reached the semi-final stages. If any CDBA Club is interested in having the results of their semi-finals (and indeed finals) included in this column please let me know.

Clydebank host their Friendship Rinks on Saturday, August 9 starting at 10am. Each team will consist of two Clydebank members plus two members or guests from other bowling clubs. Dalmuir are holding their annual Invitation Triples on Saturday, August 9 and this year the competition is sponsored by Tennents Caledonian Brewery.

The Alex Wilson Pairs will be held at Radnor Park B.C. on Saturday and Scotstounhill have a mixed pairs competition being played. Victoria Park are hosting the McKendrick Trophy and Yarrow are holding their annual Balloted Pairs, both competitions being held this Saturday.

DUMBARTONSHIRE BOWLING ASSOCIATION The DBA Top 10 Final on Sunday, August 3 between Rock B.C. and Westerton B.C. was called off due to flooded conditions at Dumbarton B.C. It is hoped the weather will be more favourable next weekend when the match is rescheduled for Sunday, August 10 at 2pm. The DBA Under-45’s Final was held at Campsie B.C on Wednesday, July 30 and Westermains were the victors over Eastfield.

GLASGOW 2014 COMMONWEALTH GAMES The elite bowlers of Team Scotland did themselves and their country proud at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

After a nail-biting semi-final win over England in the men’s pairs, Paul Foster and Alex Marshall went on to play the Malaysian Pair in the Final at Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre. The Scottish pair got off to a flyer and managed to outclass their unfortunate opponents by a 20-3 scoreline. This was the first gold medal which added to the silver medal won earlier by Scotland’s para-sport mixed pairs. Foster and Marshall teamed up with the front end of David Peacock and Neil Speirs in the men’s fours. After winning all four of their group games they went on to defeat South Africa in the quarter final (15-7) and Australia (15-10) in the semi-final. It was close at the start of the match against the Auld Enemy in the final but with all four Scots playing near-perfect bowls they went on to record a comfortable 16-8 victory and Scotland’s second bowls gold. Darren Burnett from Arbroath did not let Team Scotland down. After winning his section, Darren had an extremely tight quarter final game against Martin McHugh of Northern Ireland but squeezed through 21-20. Burnett went on to defeat Arun Sherriff of Australia (21-16) in the semi-final and powered past Ryan Bester of Canada by 21-9 in the final to win gold. In the para-sport open triples, Scotland narrowly lost out on the bronze medal by losing their semi-final 12-16 to England. Although the Scottish ladies’ bowlers just missed out on medals this time round their contribution and support was extremely valuable to the team as a whole.

BOWLS SCOTLAND The Bowls Scotland National Championships were scheduled to start at Northfield, Ayr on Tuesday, August 5 and the results of selected competitions will be reported in next week’s column. On Monday, August 4 the Scottish Young Bowlers Association hold their competitions at the same location and Dumbarton were due to play in the under-16 singles, pairs and triples.