Sunday 31st. The 2016 County Top Ten competition got underway with a home game against Overtown & Waterloo. The game started in ideal weather conditions but heavy rain showers badly affected the bowlers of both sides mid-way through the match. The players and spectators were on tenter-hooks as the pairs, triples and fours played out their last ends and in the end the scores were two games each with the shots tied. Caldercraig won through by virtue of Jim Purves winning his singles game against Scottish internationalist Robert Grant. Well done boys.
Monday 1st August. Have we blown our chance of being Senior's League Champions? I think so, after our beating at home to Airdrie by 4-0. They are now three points clear of us and 1 ahead of Glengowan with only one more game to play. We need Clarkston to take full points off Airdrie next Monday and ourselves to win by a similar margin against Glengowan.
Tuesday 2nd. The Monklands Championships commenced this evening and the gents Pairs and Triples were in action. The Pairs went to Glengowan but their opponents (Glenmavis) failed to send representatives. The Triples were at the same venue and their opponents were Clarkston. Our team lost a good early lead but they recovered to record a victory. All games in the ladies & gents competitions continue next Tuesday evening when we will have a full representation at various venues.
Wednesday 3rd. John Campbell was drawn against the Calderbank senior rep in the second round of the MSBL Singles championship and had a very close game against him at Victoria green this afternoon. John was trailing 20-19 and was lying game until his opponent drew first shot to record a fine win. In the evening the gents of the club played Garrowhill in the semi-final of the Laney Triples with two teams at home and two away. The result was a runaway victory for our lads at home whilst the games played at Garrowhill were closer but overall we deserved to progress to the final which will be played at Calderbank.
Thursday 4th. 23 teams of triples attended the club today for the annual Caledonian Scaffolding Invitation Mixed Triples competition run by the club's seniors section. The weather and green held up well following the very wet conditions of yesterday and everybody appeared to enjoy their days to the max. The winners of this game were the triple comprising Bert Wallace and two friends. They beat last year's winners, Glengowan, in the final.
In the evening the gents were at Newarthill for the final of the LBA Top Six Competition where our opponents were the much fancied Eddlewood Bowling Club. Following a heavy defeat by our Singles player (John McHutchison) it was left to our pairing of Ian Chisholm & Dave McIntyre and the triple of Ross Busby, Alan McGuiness and Chris McGuiness to work their magic and they all did so to the delight of the many club members who had attended to watch the game. The Pairs won by 25 - 10 and the triples by an equally impressive 18 - 6. This victory is only the third time that the gents of the club has won a major County Association tournament (the first being John McHutchison in the Champion of Champions and the second was when John, playing with Chris McGuinness, Graham Gillespie & Brian Orr, won the County Under 45's Championship). The club has been knocking at the door in recent years for major team honours (other than our great success in various league competitions) and hopefully this is the first of many. Well done to our team of champions and also to those who played their part in earlier rounds of the competition.
Friday 5th August. The division 4 team travelled to play Coatbridge BC in the Lanarkshire league and came away with a 4 - 2 victory over the league's bottom placed team. At Home the division 14 team played host to Bothwell and similarly recorded a 4 - 2 victory. These results have consolidated our places in these divisions for a second year although we still have hopes of good results which could give us further success this year.
Saturday 6th August. Eighteen pairs of club members and invited guests attended for the annual Inver House Distillers mixed pairs competition. A very enjoyable and successful day for all participants was completed with a win for Janie Kyle & Ross Busby who were awarded with a cash sum and a bottle each of the sponsors excellent products.