BLUE CRAGS PROMOTIONS

The Open Pairs competition this year is sponsored by Blue Crags Promotions Ltd, Strathmiglo, who is the main supplier for bowls and bowling equipment in the Fife area, after the Bowls shop in Markinch closed. As well as supplying bowling clothes and equipment the owner, Ian Pearson is well known and respected throughout the bowling fraternity, as he represents Cupar Area as a Senior Councilor on the Fife Bowling Association Committee. He is also a bowling member of Strathmiglo Bowling Club where his prowess on the green is well known. He has also passed his skills on to his son Alan, who has already won numerous trophies and is a current member of the Fife County team. The company also uniforms, industrial clothing and will embroider Club crests, names, in fact whatever a customer wants on shirts, blazers, headgear etc and everyone is guaranteed a quick and efficient response.

The shop is well worth a visit and is located at 90, High Street, Strathmiglo, Fife, KY14 7PT  Tel 01337 860205.

The e-mail address is blue.crags@virgin.net and you can visit the web site at www.bluecrags.co.uk

The Open Pairs competition is open to all bowlers from near and far. The competition is a 5 ends/4 bowls knockout competition starting at 11am, with re-entries allowed up to 1pm. The entry fee is £5.00 per pair (re-entries £2.00) and the winners each receive £75 plus a litre of spirits The runners up each receive £50 plus a bottle of spirits, while the losing semi finalists each receive £25 plus a ½ bottle of spirits.

"Blue Crags Promotions" Open Pairs

Sunday 6th July, 2008

There was a high calibre of bowlers who turned up to play in the Open Pairs this year as it included local hero, Wayne Hogg who won the Triples gold medal this year playing for Scotland at The World Championships in New Zealand. There were also Scottish lady internationalists Lynn Stein, who also played in the ladies team in New Zealand and Julie Sword. The number of Fife County players were too numerous to mention, but several members of the Strathmiglo Fours team, who had been crowned Fife Champions the previous day turned up to show off their winners medals. It was ironic that they had defeated the Fours team from Markinch to win the trophy, so there was possibly going to be a little added incentive for the Markinch members to look for revenge if they were drawn against any players from Strath.

The competition started in what can only be described as "dreich" weather although the forecast was that the afternoon should be drier. In the second session of games there was the first opportunity for revenge when Markinch pair, J.Davies/B.Bell met B.Doig/A.Pearson, but as on Saturday, Alan, whose dad, Ian is the sponsor of the competition held the upper hand and it was the Markinch pair who had to pay for a re-entry. It was good to see such an excellent support of five pairs from Strathmiglo and four of them had progressed to the knockout stages after re-entries had been closed, so it was possible that they could be drawn against each other at some stage. This proved the case and it was B.Doig/A.Pearson who triumphed over their compatriots B.Walker/M.Dalrymple and in their next game B.Doig/ A.Pearson put paid to the Lochgelly pair J.McCauley/T.Muir to progress into the quarter finals. The Markinch pair of S.Young/C.Sword knocked out D.Selkirk/A.Black of Strath. to move into the quarter finals and they were joined by Thornton pair of J.Forbes/Poser, who put paid to the other Strath. pair, A.Black/T.Black. The remaining quarter final places were Lochgelly pair T.Reynolds/A.Greenhorn, Methilhill pair G.Cardle/D.Graham and three Markinch pairs J.Boyle/A.Jones, J.Munro/S.Holland and T.Young/W.Hogg. The draw paired two of the Markinch pairs together, however, with four pairs through this was always going to be a strong possibility to happen. All four games were very closely contested and it was a pleasure to see such excellent bowling from the players, which was to be expected and to help the weather had also improved. The draw for the semi finals managed to keep the Markinch pairs apart and paired Methihill against T.Young/W.Hogg, who went on to secure their place in the final with a nerve jangling 4-3 win. In the other semi it was Lochgelly against Mrs.J.Boyle/A.Jones and with the Lochgelly pair leading 3-1 going into the last end, it looked like the other Markinch team were heading out. It was therefore no surprise that A.Jones hugged his partner after she had managed to secure their place in the final, when she drew three winning bowls which the Lochgelly pair could not beat. The final was a see saw affair as Young/Hogg turned a 0-2 deficit into 5-2 lead after the third end. On the fourth end Boyle/Jones set up an exciting climax when they picked up three shots to level the game 5-5 with one end to play. The head of bowls on the last end was very close, but with shot down it was left to A.Jones to move something and hope the jack went back to one of his own team's bowls. He certainly hit the target, but unfortunately did not move the shot bowl and this left a repeat of last year's winner T.Young and W.Hogg.

The prize money and bottles of spirits were presented to the winners by Alan Pearson, Strathmiglo and a vote of thanks to Blue Crags for sponsoring the competition was given by Bill Bell, Match Secretary. The bowlers who turned up to take part, especially the numbers from Strathmiglo were also thanked and hopefully the competition will be run again next season. It was reiterated by winner, T.Young that without the sponsorship most of these competitions would not take place and he thanked the sponsors again as well as the organizers, ladies, who provided all the food and bar staff.

 

CROSBIE MATTHEW

There is also another competition sponsored by local Funeral Directors, Crosbie Matthew, who has offices in Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy.

This competition involves seven visiting teams of four players (at least one lady player in each team), invited from seven local clubs, usually who Markinch play during the season. The seven teams from Markinch, which also must include at least one lady player per team, play all of the visiting teams once, in various formats e.g. single hand, pairs, rinks etc. and points are scored for each win. The teams with the highest number of points then collect the prize money. The winning team receive £160, second place team receives £100, third place team receives £60 and fourth place team receives £40. This has proved to be a very popular format and has been copied by several other clubs in Fife.

Anyone interested in obtaining details on funeral costs or information on the Golden Charter Funeral Plans can contact Crosbie Matthew on 01592 751997 or 01592 640644

or visit their website at www.crosbiematthewfuneraldirectors.co.uk

 

Crosbie Matthew's Competition

Sunday 27th June, 2010

A HOME WIN IN CROSBIE MATTHEW’S COMPETITION

The annual Crosbie Matthew’s competition was played in glorious sunshine and with a slick green this proved to be one of the best days of the season so far. The seven home teams were faced with opposition from Kennoway, Duffus Park, Kirkcaldy, Balgonie, Rosyth, Methilhill and CISWO, Glenrothes in the format which has made this competition one of the most popular in Fife. The competition started off with a Fours game and ended up with only five of the fourteen teams picking up the two points on offer. This was reduced to two teams on maximum points, Methihill (Jean Marshall, S.Simpson, A.Floyd and D.Graham) and Markinch No.6 (Catriona Sword, S.Bremner Snr, Sc.Bremner and T.Young) after playing the 2-bowl Pairs game. The same two teams led the competition on 6 points after the 4-bowl Pairs game was completed and they were closely followed by Kirkcaldy (Rita Milne, B.Bain, I.Law and T.Law) on 5 points. The next game was another Fours game with all players on the green, but Methilhill and Markinch No.6 still maintained their winning ways with another win to lead with 8 points each. The remaining teams had fallen further back with Markinch No.7 (Anne Blackadder, A.Dera, J.Cameron and L.McAllister) joining Kirkcaldy on 5 points. The Single Hand game proved to be the turning point of the competition for Methilhill, with D.Graham losing 7-4 to P.McTavish from Markinch No.5 and Catriona Sword (Markinch No.6) winning against W.Little from Kennoway, who along with Norma Watson, N.Smith and H.Torrance were surprisingly sitting at the bottom of the table with no points. This is a team which are used to picking up some of the prize money, but this was not going to be their year. The other surprise package were last year’s winners Duffus Park (Belle Thomson, Isa Findlay, C.Mackie and A.Meekison) who were also near the bottom, with only 3 points. This showed how competitive all the teams were treating the competition, as it entered the last two games. The penultimate game was a Triples game with Markinch No.6 leading on maximum 10 points, Methilhill (8 points) facing Markinch No.7 (7 points) and Markinch No. 3 (Maureen Shaw, Laura Marshall, G.Shaw and J.Marshall) along with Balgonie (Elsie Watson, Marlene Clunie, T.Clunie and J.Watson) still in contention with 6 points. The result in the Methilhill/Markinch No.7 game ended in a 7-7 draw, leaving them on 9 and 8 points respectively, which suited Markinch No.6, who recorded another win to make them uncatchable on 12 points. In the challenge for the remaining places were Markinch No.2 (Ann Cowan, Christine Telford, W.Cowan and B.Bell), who had 7 points The other results saw CISWO (Louise Matthewson, G.Gibson, A.Prentice and A.Comrie), who had strung three wins together, to come through to challenge and they were joined on 6 points by Rosyth (Irene Armit, W.Hawthorn, R.Kerr and A.Armit), Balgonie, Markinch No.3 and Markinch No.1 (Jennifer Boyle, Sharon Clark, J.Davies Snr and S.McFarlane). The final Fours game saw Markinch No.6 drop their first point with a draw against Methilhill and with Markinch No.7 winning their last game, both teams finished level on 10 points. The runners up spot went to Methilhill, who had a shot difference of +12 compared to +8 of Markinch No.7. The fourth place on 8 points had also to be decided on shot difference with CISWO (+4), just pipping Rosyth (+3) and Markinch No.3(-1). The competition was again a great success and the presentation of prize money was carried out by Alan Morrison from Crosbie Matthew, who has already pledged his support for the competition again next year. This news was greeted by a loud applause and already visiting teams were asking to be invited back again next year to play in what has turned out to be possibly the most enjoyable competition played now in several clubs in Fife. A presentation of a bouquet and wine were made to the sponsors, who again were thanked for their financial involvement as this played a vital part in attracting high quality bowlers to participate in the competition.

 

 

CO-OPERATIVE FUNERALCARE

There is a Triples competition, sponsored by Co-operative Funeralcare, played during the season and invites are sent out to numerous Clubs throughout Fife to enter a triple at the cost of £6 per triple. The prize money is £225 to the winning triple, £150 for the runners up triple and £75 for each semi finalist triple. The competition is played in qualifying group stages in the morning with the knockout stages played in the afternoon.

The Cooperative Funeralcare has an office at Cos Lane, Glenrothes (Tel. no. 01592 752392), as well as other offices throughout Fife. The contact telephone number for information is a call free number on 0800 44 66 96.

Co-operative Funeralcare Triples

Sunday 9th August,2009

NO HOME COMFORT FOR MARKINCH TRIPLES

On Sunday, the Co-operative Funeralcare Triples was played at Markinch, with 20 triples drawn into four groups of five, to play a “round robin” format. There was an excellent response from clubs throughout Fife, along with an entry from Tipperlinn B.C., Edinburgh. There was also an entry from Scottish Internationalist, Wayne Hogg, plus other entries containing Fife County players. The group games started at 10.00.am and with Wayne's triple containing the youngest player, Havanah Clark, playing lead and C.Singer sandwiched in between, this triple was the centre of attention. The watching spectators, as well as other players, had to be impressed with Havanah's delivery and accuracy, as they notched up an 8-2 win in their first game. Their next game was against another Markinch triple, P.McTavish, L.McAllister and F.Campbell (skip), which finished in a 5-5 draw. These two triples qualified for the knockout stages with F.Campbell in first place with 7 points and Wayne with 5 points. In group B, it was A.Stein (Kennoway), who finished in first place with 6 points (+15 shots), thanks to a 10-0 win in his last game, with Markinch triple, J.Cameron, J.Cameron and S.McFarlane (skip) taking second place with 6 points (+9 shots). In Group C, it was another Markinch triple, W.Fearns, J.Davies Snr and B.Bell (skip) who topped their group with 7 points, followed by D.Graham (Methilhill) with 5 points. In Group D, the visitors from across the Forth, Tiperlinn B.C. showed they were not only visiting Fife for the beer, as they notched up a 100% success to win all four games and top their group with 8 points. The runners up position in Group D, was decided on the last game when Violet Johnston (Newburgh) beat J.Fernie (Cupar) by 10-6 to finish level on 6 points each, but with a shot count of +5 against J.Fernie's -4. The quarter final draw amazingly kept all four Markinch triples separate, so hopefully there would be home interest in the final stages. The game involving Wayne Hogg against D.Stein (Kennoway) was very closely contested, but the loss of two shots on the last end resulted in a narrow 4-3 defeat and a disappointed home crowd, who hoped to see Havanah Clark in the semi finals. The next Markinch triple to be eliminated was F.Campbell, who lost 10-0 to D.Graham (Methihill), who are regular visitors to Markinch for these competitions. The team from Tipperlinn faced another Markinch triple, skipped by B.Bell and in a closely fought game the score was 2-1 to Tiperrlinn after 3 ends On the 4th end, B.Bell trailed the jack back for a count of 3 shots, before skip I.Walker played a fantastic drawing shot to a hidden jack, to go into the last end leading 3-1. The Markinch triple had a chance to take the game to an extra end by removing the shot bowl to lie 2 shots, but B.Bell narrowly missed and another Markinch triple bit the dust. In the remaining quarter final Markinch triple, J.Cameron, J.Cameron and S.MrFarlane (skip) got off to a flying start when they picked up 5 shots on the first end against Leslie Gordon and Jim Gordon (both Strathmiglo) and skip, A.Stein (Kennoway). They then suffered an incredible loss of 7 shots on the 3rd end to trail 6-7 and then lost the game 7-8 on the last end, leaving all four Markinch triples sitting watching the semi-finals. The semi-finals were both closely contested battles with Kennoway picking up 3 shots on the 3rd end to level their game 3-3 against Tipperlinn, but the Edinburgh triple won the last 2 ends to march into the final with a 6-3 victory. In the other semi-final Newburgh led 5-2 playing the last end, but Methilhill picked up 3 shots, (measuring for a fourth shot), which took the game into an extra end. The drama continued to the very last bowl, when Violet Johnston drew the winning shot to take Newburgh into the final. In the final, Tipperlinn were quickly out of the traps to pick up 4 shots on the 1st end. and although the Newburgh triple played some exceptionally good bowls, they were thwarted each time by a better bowl from the Tipperlinn triple. The 10-0 winning margin for Tipperlinn certainly didn't do justice to the performance of the Newburgh triple. The beaten semi-finalists Leslie Gordon, Jim Gordon and Alan Stein (Kennoway) along with Ross Thomson, Alex Floyd and David Graham (Methilhill) were presented with their prize money. The runners-up from Newburgh, Glynis Johnstone, Stuart Cochrane and Violet Johnsone were given a rapturous applause as they received their prize money, but it was Tipperlinn with Alex Hall, Donald Brown and Ian Walker, who returned across the bridge to Edinburgh with the winning prize money on their pockets. The sponsors Co-operative Funeralcare were thanked for their involvement in putting up the prize money and hopefully they will continue to support the competition next year. 

J.P.GILMOUR TRIPLES

This competition is sponsored by Markinch members, Laura and John Marshall, who donated a silver cup, along with £200 in sponsorship money, for a competition involving junior players in bowls. The triple has a gentleman playing lead, a lady playing second and a junior playing as skip and invitations are sent out to numerous clubs in Fife, who want to promote junior activity in the game of bowls. The response is always excellent, but to ensure a good competition, it is usually restricted to 20 entries.

John has passed over the reins of his successful joinery business, which he ran with Laura, to his son Graham, who trade under J.P.Gilmour, Joiners at 16, Argyle Street, St.Andrews (Tel 01334 472975).

J.P.Gilmour Trophy

Sunday 26th August, 2007

There were 18 entries for this year's competition with nine entries from Markinch, four from Buckhaven, two from Headwell and one each from Leven, Methil and Newburgh. The teams were drawn into two groups of five and two groups of four, with a "round robin" format in each group, so everybody played each other for 5 ends. The draw ensured that the multiple entries from clubs were distributed as much as possible and the top two from each group qualified for the quarter final knockout stage. The high standard of bowling from the juniors was a treat to watch and especially Amanda Barry from Buckhaven, who was the youngest and smallest competitor, but still managed to finish top of her group with two wins and a draw. The Markinch triples didn't fare too well in the group stages, with all except Christine Telford, Bill Bell and Ryan Watson (skip) being eliminated. The eight qualifiers for the quarter finals were the four entries from Buckhaven, along with Leven, Headwell, Newburgh and Markinch. The draw paired Amanda Barry against another Buckhaven triple skipped by Calum Little, but also included her dad, David. It was Calum, who progressed to the semi final and David was left to console his daughter who was hoping her dad would let her win. The other quarter finals saw Alan Beveridge (Leven) eliminate Alex Strachan (Newburgh), David Duncan (Headwell) eliminate Stewart Hainey (Buckhaven) and in the closest game Gary Ballantyne eliminated the Markinch triple skipped by Ryan Watson. This game was decided on the last end with the score 2-2, Markinch were lying 2 shots when Irene Guild played a running shot which was missing the target, but fortuitously deflected back into the head to lie shot. However, Ryan played a magnificent shot to remove the shot bowl and knock the jack into the ditch to lie three shots. The luck was still with Buckhaven, when Gary hit one of the short Buckhaven bowls knocking it in for the shot and Ryan narrowly missed removing the shot, which sent Buckhaven through to the semi final. The semi finals were closely contested with Bill Chapman, Betty Scott and Alan Beveridge (Leven) defeating Harriet Nicol, Chris Duncan and David Duncan (Headwell) by 5-4 and Colin Ballantyne, Irene Guild and Gary Ballantyne (Buckhaven) winning 7-3 against David Duffy, Betty Mitchell and Calum Little (Buckhaven). The high standard of bowls, especially from the juniors, continued and in the final Alan Beveridge looked to be in control when he led 5-1, but lost a count of 5 shots to go in to the last end trailing 5-6. He then failed to get the 1 shot required to take the game into an extra end and the first prize went to Gary Ballantyne (Buckhaven). In the 3rd/4th play off it was David Duncan (Headwell) who won 6-0 against Calum Little  (Buckhaven) to finish in 3rd place. The presentation of the trophy and sponsorship money was carried out by Graham Marshall and a vote of thanks to the sponsors for their support and sponsorship money came from Bill Bell, Match Secretary.