Today saw the final stages in this years championships being played at North Kessock.  The club was represented in the rinks and pairs.  Unfortunately the rink, skipped by Charlie, lost out at the semi-final stage but the pair, Eddie & Duncan, got through to the final where unfortunately they lost out.

The club did well in the championships for their first year back to the NCBA after a long absence and congratulations must go to those who competed this season and a special well done to those who progressed to the final stages.

A VERY HEARTY THANKS TO ALL FOR YOUR EFFORTS IN PROMOTING THE CLUB IN THE CHAMPIONSHIPS.

It has been confirmed that the Club are champions this year of the above League.

Presentation to take place on Wednesday 27th August at 2 p.m..

In atrocious weather the finals were held at Bainfield Bowling Club on Saturday 9th, Sunday 10th August.  Moira, Judi and Yvonne won through their first game, although soaked, and before the second round of games could be played the greens flooded so badly that play had to be suspended for approx an hour and a half.

Again in their second round match they won through, but again later in the day play had to be suspended for a time.  Sunday posed what looked like a very hard game against a triple skipped by Margaret Letham, a player well known in SWBA circles.

Sunday dawned with a serious complication as far as Invergordon was concerned as Yvonne suffered a severe nosebleed which threatened to force withdrawal from the competition.  Despite being advised that it would be better that she withdrew, Yvonnes decided that she was going to play and did so holding a towel to her nose throughout.  This being the case it makes their win over their quarter-final opponents all the better.

At the semi-final stage SWBA officials decided that medical guidance was necessary and an ambulance was sent for and despite protestations it was decided that a visit to the hospital was required.  Yvonne was not happy that the team would have to withdraw from the competition if a substitute could not be found and fortunately Ella had travelled down to show some support and was asked to cover for Yvonne, to which she reluctantly agreed.  There was then a rush to find kit for her so she appeared on the green with clothing and shoes supplied by numerous people and played with Yvonne's bowls.  Despite there being a tremendous amount of support from those in the clubhouse for Invergordon because of the circumstances, the story did not have a fairytale ending and we had to bow out at this stage.  The semi-finals carried on where the competition had finished with rinks being swept with squeegees to remove surface water and then the games being switched on to different rinks to try to help the situation.  Unfortunately the final could not be played on Sunday and so Orbiston and Queens Park will have to meet sometime in the future to decide who the champions will be.

As our girls were leaving the green Yvonne arrived back from the hospital looking a bit more like herself.  As they had a long drive back home the presentation of their medals took place at this time and a medal was awarded to Ella in in thanks for stepping in and allowing the competition to carry on as normal.  When receiving their medals those present expressed their appreciation to both Yvonne and Ella for their efforts to keep the competition going in the quarter-final and semi-final stages.

WELL DONE GIRLS THE CLUB IS PROUD OF YOU, ESPECIALLY  YVONNE

The Hawkins Pairs competition was held as a round robin competition with a total of 25 members competing.  The weather was good for the event with the rain coming in shortly after everyone had gone home.

The final was contested between Cath/Grace and Duncan/Terry with Cath and Grace emerging victorious.

Well done Cath & Grace and commiserations to Duncan & Terry.

This took place to-day in almost ideal conditions with sunny spells from time to time and high temperatures.  On the day 26 entries took to the greens at Alness and Invergordon to do battle for the trophy.

At the quarter-final stage there were four clubs represented, Cromarty, Avoch, Alness (two triples) and the home club with four triples still involved.  At this stage the home triples of Mary Mac, Angus and John F. and Alison, Nan and Douglas lost out, but the end of the day must belong to the first mentioned triple who scored nine shots on an end earlier in the day.

In the semi-finals Grace, Judi and Moira and Terry, Eddie and Duncan had to bow out leaving the final to be contested by the Alness and Cromarty clubs.

In the final the Cromarty triple skipped by A. Munro had to concede to the Brett family, Ross, Elspeth and Colin, from Alness who went home with the spoils.

Hard luck to Hugh in the quarter finals of the above when he had to bow out at the quarter-final stage, but well done you did the Club proud.

Congratulations to our pairs and rinks who got through the quarter-final stage and look forward to the semi-finals and finals which will take place at North Kessock green.

After a closely contested match this afternoon against the team from planefield our ladies in the SWBA 2-bowl triples competition are going through to the final stages of the competition at Bainfield Bowling Club in Edinburgh representing their district.

As mentioned above the game was closely contested all through with both teams winning one set each thus heading into a three end tie-break.  After two ends both teams had one shot and with 11 of the 12 bowls played Planefield had a winning lie, with the head not looking favourable for Invergordon but with the last bowl Moira managed to disturb the head and ended up with the winning shot.  Well done Yvonne, Judi and Moira.

GO FOR IT GIRLS THE CLUB IS BEHIND YOU

SWBA Two Bowl Triples

Our team of ladies march on in this competition after a good win to-night at Dingwall.  Keep up the good work girls and go for it.

NCBA

More good news for the Club after to-nights round of the above competition, all of the teams still in the championships got through to the next round. Well done lads, keep up the good work.

The second leg of the top ten tie between NCLBA and Morayshire took place on our green to-day in brilliant weather.  The result of the first game in Morayshire meant that a single win today would put NCLBA through to the next round of the competition.  This was accomplished by a win in the singles to take some of the pressure off the other three games, but all credit to Morayshire they kept the pressure up and this resulted in the tie today having two wins for both sides with a very small difference in the shots difference. Well done to both teams today for their efforts and every best wish to NCLBA in their next match.

After the match the teams and supporters sat down to a lovely tea provided by the efforts of the ladies of the Club.  Well done ladies for all of your efforts.

This competition took place on the Fortrose/Rosemarkie green today with members of the Club taking part in two of the SWRI teams taking part, Saltburn and Invergordon.  This competition takes the form of a round robin keeping the interest alive throughout the day for all of the teams taking part.

The winners this year were the local Invergordon SWRI team who will now go forward to represent the North at the National Finals to be held in Dunfermline in August.  Well done and good luck to Moira, Yvonne, Helen and Barbara.

The final stages of the inaugral competition for the above trophy took place this evening on the Ardross/Alness green.

The competition got under way with play taking place on both the Invergordon and Ardross/Alness greens to reach the semi-final stage. Coming through at Invergordon were the triple from Dingwall, skipped by Fiona, and that of Invergordon skipped by Kay to join the two Invergordon triples skipped by Terry and Moira.  Quite an achievement for the any club to have three teams at the semi-final of a competition.

Fiona's triple, unfortunately, proved to be a game too far for Mary C., Yvonne and Kay as did Moira's triple for Evelyn, Janette and Terry but congratulations to both of these teams for reaching the semi-final stage.

The final was a keenly contested affair, played in good spirit with Fiona and her team having to concede to Grace, Judi and Moira. Congratulations for ensuring that Invergordon will be the first name on the trophy.

The first of an annual contest between ourselves and St. Duthus B.C. for the above trophy was held this evening on the St. Duthus green.  The weather held up well with only the occasional spot of rain during the course of the game, but not heavy enough to require the need of wet gear.  The game was a closely fought affair with only six shots difference overall, 86 - 80, seperating the teams with ourselves picking up the trophy.   The result was of secondary importance compared to the friendship and camaraderie experienced during the game.  This annual game was set up to cement the relationships at various levels throughout the clubs after the green sharing which took place in season 2007 and as such must be seen as a great success.

After the game we all sat down to a much appreciated barbacue supper, compliments to the chef, well done Morris.

This was followed by the presentation of the trophy and distribution of raffle prizes.  All the proceeds from the evening going to local charity.

Roll on 2009 and the return match at Invergordon.

The rinks selected for Friday's game at Tain are as follows:-

Charlie, Kay, Ella & David.       Bill, Cath, Richard  & Mary C.   Alistair, Meg, Wattie & Yvonne   Judi, John C., Evelyn & Mary M.   Moira, Nan, Alexa & Eddie   Terry, Janette, John F. & Grace.

Today saw the ties involving the Four Bowl Pairs and Senior Fours taking place at Planefield and Fortrose greens.  Unfortunately Moira & Judi lost out to Thurso in the pairs but the Senior Fours took a bit of revenge by knocking out the Thurso ladies.  The Senior Fours will now move on to the semi-final stages.

Best of luck to Terry, Ella, Evelyn and Mary Mac, carry on the good work.

The annual competition for the Mackay Pairs Trophy took place to-day with an entry of 33.  The entrants started off their quest to win the trophy on the Ardross/Alness and Invergordon greens at 9 a.m. on a beautiful warm and sunny day.

At the semi-final stage the home club had two representatives, J. Clarke/W. MacLean and J.Sinclair/M. MacLeod, but unfortunately for both of them their journey ended at this point leaving the Fortrose/Rosemarkie pair of I.Whyte/D. Chalmers to do battle in the final with the Ardross/Alness pair of K.Macdonald/W. Kinghorn.  The final, surprisingly, turned into a one horse race with  the Ardross/Alness pair running out easy winners.

Thanks to the Ardross/Alness club for the use of their green for the early stages of the competition and also to the input of our own members in numerous ways to make the day a success.

Today, in glorious weather the start of the above competition took place on the Invergordon and Brora greens.  The semi-finals and final will be held on our green next Saturday 14th June but unfortunately we will have no representation at this stage as both of our entries were eliminated today.  There is always next year girls.

This weekend the green will be busy with the ladies taking over the green on Saturday for the start of the SWBA Triples competition, with our own Mackay Pairs competition following up on Sunday.

Best of luck to all taking part in these competitions and hopefully the weather will be kind to us.