Spalding beat Dalbeattie 4/23 - 2/16.

This leaves Spalding v Castle Douglas still to play. If either team wins 6-0 they will win the section, share the points and New Abbey wins.

The Top Five Final was played tonight at Kirkcudbright, home green of County Vice President Murray Cairnie.

Castle Douglas retained their title, with a 3-2 win over Auchencairn. John Crawford beat Stuart Crossan, Graeme Maxwell beat Derek Rogerson & Scott Davies beat Laurie Little; Garry Davies lost to Scott McCubbin & David Green lost to John McGarrie. The trophy was presented to Castle Douglas President Norman Davies by Stewartry  Vice President Murray Cairnie. Thanks to Kirkcudbright for the use of their green and the ‘ Goodies ‘ after the game.

The County Junior Singles playdown was held at Dalbeattie on Sunday 5th August. In the semi-finals Jack Cobban (Dalbeattie) beat Robert Newlands (Spalding) and Ewan McMinn (Kirkcudbright) beat Callum McCleary (Castle Douglas).

The Stewartry Top Five semi final between Spalding and Auchencairn will be played at Kirkcudbright Bowling Club on Tuesday 31st August.  The winners will meet holders Castle Douglas, who overcame Gatehouse in the semi final, on Tuesday 7th August, again at Kirkcudbright. Result- Auchencairn 3 - Spalding 2

Castle Douglas represent the Stewartry in the National Top Five competition this year, and will host Bonnyrigg on Saturday 18th August.  The winners will secure a berth at finals day at Sighthill in Edinburgh on 9th September.

The Stewartry Top Ten final between holders Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright was played on Friday night at Creetown.  In the singles Graeme Maxwell (CD) an early 9-3 lead but Kirkcudbright’s George Brown fought back to level at 9-9.  Graeme got in front again and led 16-13 but again George levelled at 16-16. Graeme took a 2 on the next end followed by a 3 on the next to wrap up the two points for Castle Douglas 21-16. 

In the pairs Robert and Brian McClune (Kbt) took a 9-3 lead against Billy Brydson and Alan Davis of CD.  The CD pair fought back by scoring on the next 7 ends to lead 12-9.  However Robert and Brian scored on the last two ends to level the match 12-12 and share the points.

The CD triple of Gary Davies, John Crawford and Scott Davies got off to a great start, leading 11-1 after six ends.  The Kirkcudbright triple of Tommy Docherty, Colin Campbell and David Gourlay took the next two ends but CD kept control of the game to run out 16-6 winners.

The fours game was close early on with CD’s Stewart Gilmour, Gavin Green, Will Green and Allan Green taking a narrow 7-6 lead over Kbt’s Jim Lawrie, Tam McKeand, Wig True and Steven Johnstone.  The Castle Douglas four took control by winning the next seven ends and took a 12 shot lead 18-6.  Kirkcudbright narrowd the gap over the last three ends but Castle Douglas won the game comfortably 19-10.

Stewartry President Jim Maginnes presented the Top Ten shield to Castle Douglas President Norman Davies.  Jim congratulated the Club on their 7 points to 1 win and hoped the Club could go further in the National Competition in 2013, having lost in the semi final in 2012.

On Friday Castle Douglas hosted Lockerbie in the District 17 league play off which is contested by the league winners from Stewartry and Dumfriesshire.

Lockerbie led early in the game, going ahead on three out of the four rinks.  At half way they still led but over the next four ends Castle Douglas came back strongly to lead in three of the games.  With a couple of ends to go Castle Douglas went comfortably ahead, going on to win by 10 points to 2.  Results - Rink 1 - A Green 20, N Shearer 13. Rink 2 - G Maxwell 12, R Thomson 17. Rink 3 - S Davies 20, W Linton 11. Rink 4 - A Davies 27, R Graham 15.  Former District 17 Councillor Jim Stewart, who inaugurated the annual play off match, presented the winners and runners up with their trophies, and congratulated both teams on an excellent game played in good spirit.

Kirkcudbright now meet holders Castle Douglas in the rescheduled final on Friday 27th July at Creetown.

Message from Bob Dalziel, umpire co-ordinator for District 17 & 18.

He intends to run umpire classes this winter to try and help the shortage of umpires. The classes will run for 10 weeks in October/November, each session will be about 2 hours. They will probably be held at Marchmount, but if there is enough interest in the west of the region they may also be at Newton Stewart.

Contact Bob Dalziel on 01576 202596 to book your place and put something back into bowling.

Kirkcudbright hosted Dalbeattie on Friday night in the semi final of the Stewartry Top Ten.  A close battle ended up with the match tied on four points each, but Kirkcudbright secured the victory by 70 shots to 61, thanks in the main to a convincing win in the fours.  Kirkcudbright now meet holders Castle Douglas in the rescheduled final on Friday 27th July at Creetown.

The Top Ten first round match between Creetown and Dalbeattie was played at the third attempt on Friday night, and resulted in a win for Dalbeattie by one shot following a very tight game that ended four points each.  Dalbeattie now visit Kirkcudbright for the semi final on Friday 13th July.