Local bowlers reach finals

THREE bowling clubs from the Cumbernauld area were represented in the Dunbartonshire Bowling Association’s Inter District finals on the evening of Tuesday, June 7.

This final encompasses all of the clubs from Clydebank to Cumbernauld in the east of the county and was held at Singer 1980 Bowling Club in Clydebank.

Cumbernauld Bowling Club was represented by Frank Hillis in the singles and Robert Currie, Jim McAllister and Willie McKinnon, in the triples.

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Condorrat had David Cowie, Tom Smith, John Cowie and Willie Sommerville, in the gent’s rinks and John Allan, Billy Connelly, Tommy McGlinchey and Bob Black in the senior rinks, whilst Greenfaulds had Stephen Potts and Hugh McAvoy in the pairs.

Prior to to finals commencing a heavy downpour had meant the green had to be squeegeed and, as all bowlers know, this can make a huge difference to the way the green would normally play, for the first hour at least.

This was obvious in the singles where Frank Hillis raced into a commanding lead of some nine shots over the much-fancied Tom McCartney from Yoker.

However, as the green dried out, McCartney came back strongly to lead 19 to 17, but Hillis scored a great three and then a single to win the match. Cumbernauld’s triple, on the other hand, was never in any difficulty and they won their match against Westerton with ease.

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Condorrat seniors rink did not fair so well against the Singer 1980 seniors, who knew their green’s little subtleties so well. The Condorrat rink just couldn’t get any sort of rhythm going and in the end they lost quite heavily to the local team.

The Condorrat gents rink, like the Cumbernauld triple, went into a strong lead against Milngavie, which they never relinquished and in the end they ran out easy winners.

The last tie to finish after three hours play, was the pairs. This was hardly surprising as the skip of the Yoker pair, Alan McDade, is infamous for going to the head after every bowl he plays, thus making his games very protracted affairs. The match itself was quite enthralling with low scoring at each end and there never being any more than one or two shots difference in the score. However, in the third-last end, with the scores tied, Yoker went into a three-shot lead which the Greenfaulds pair could not overcome.

The County Finals, where Tuesday’s winners will face the Inter-District winners from the west of the county, will be held on Sunday, June 26, at 2pm, on Yoker’s green. All the finalists from the Cumbernauld area are wished the very best of luck in bringing county honours to their respective clubs.