The Stewartry got off to a winning start to the Hamilton Trophy season on Saturday when they enjoyed a convincing win over Renfrewshire East.  The game was played at Paisley Victoria.  Stewartry are top of the South section on shots difference and play Glasgow South at Castle Douglas on Saturday 21st May.

Scores (Stewartry skips first) -

A Davies 33 v 12 I Broadfoot

S Richardson 16 v 17 M Deighan

S Davies 18 v 15 G Irvine

G Brown 28 v 18 J Glen

G Maxwell 26 v 10 J McNeil

K Shuttleworth 19 v 24 J O’Sullivan

Renfrewshire East 96 v 140 Stewartry.

CREETOWN played Menstrie today at Creetown in the preliminary round of the Scottish Inter County Top Ten sponsored by the Ceramic Tile Warehouse. The result was very close with both teams winning two games but Creetown won by one shot.

In the Singles Martin McClymont was beaten by Steven Allan . This game was close at times but Martin was always  trying to catch up on Steven, after 10 it was 5-9, after 20 it was 14-16, after 25 it was 16-19 then Steven got a 2 to win the game.

The Creetown triple of Jim Maginess, Charlie Wilson and Ian Carter had a good start and lead 7-4 after 6 ends but they failed to score in the next 5 ends and after 11 ends were 7-11 down. The shots were shared in the last 4 ends with Menstrie winning 9-14.

The Creetown rink of Eddie McCulloch, Eric Houston, Stuart McClymont and Alan McClymont got of to a great start in this game and lead 7-0 after 5 ends, 11-2 after 10 and 19-5 after 15 ends. Menstrie scored 5 shots in the last 2 ends for the game to finish 19-10. this made the match across the green very close with the over all result depending on the pairs.

The pairs was a very good game to watch with some Big Bowls being played. The Creetown pair of Bobby Montieth and Alistair Herries had to work hard to beat the Menstrie pair of Calum MacLeod and Colin Drummond. after 5 ends it was 4-4, after 10 ends it was 8-8, after 15 ends Creetown had managed to get in front at 13-11. A single in the 16th end meant that Menstrie had to score 2 shots to win the over all match. With 11 bowls played in the final end and Creetown lying shot Colin burnt the end. On the replay and Creetown lying shot, he burnt the end again. At the third attempt the end was completed with Menstrie getting 1 shot.

Final score Creetown 4/58  -  Menstrie 4/57

Next week Creetown are at home again against Ayrshire who are represented by Ayr Bowling Club.

Stewartry Team v Glasgow – 21/05/11

Castle Douglas 67  -  New Abbey 60

Dalbeattie  -  Kirkcudbright 58

The semi finals will be played on Friday 13th May and are:

Castle Douglas v Dalbeattie at Kirkcudbright

Auchencairn v Creetown at Gatehouse

The final will be held on Friday 20th May at Spalding, the President’s club.

Just to let members and also players know, there will be a practice match on Friday 29th April, Castle Douglas has kindly agreed to host this. The intention is that I will be able to look at some players in different positions and also as a form of team building. I am aiming to have at least 32 players there, if not more.

There was a good discussion at last executive committee meeting and this is one suggestion that we all felt could help get a real unity of purpose for this years Hamilton Trophy. Letters are in the process of being issued to all players for selection and I will finalise rinks for practice match as soon as I can. Please note positions and rinks for practice match may not be positions or rinks for first game, it is for practice and I will be changing things throughout game. Weather permitting we will try and get 12-14 ends played, starting at 6.30pm.

I will contact club reps with full details nearer time to ensure all players are notified.  

Message from Hughie Robertson

After discussions with President Arthur McFegan and secretary Graeme Maxwell, I have agreed to continue for another year as team manager.
My intention is to issue letters to club reps at our next meeting in March, they will contain a stamped addressed envelope to return to myself by 31/03/11.
I will then arrange to select squad for coming season. Once again I will also be engaging some of our experienced ex players to assist on HT games. Looking forward to building on what we started last season.