Balgownie Bowling Club

Day 2 of Finals Weekend saw the remaining two finals of the season contested in front of a sizeable crowd. The green was again cut before play and the conditions were a few degrees colder than yesterday with a gusty South Westerly wind helping to keep the rain at bay.

In the Club Pairs Final Karen Buchanan was playing with her father in law John Buchanan, his first club final for many a year, apparently his first this millennium! They were up against Kenny Gray and Bob Sturton who had knocked out a few big names on route to the final. The early stages were fairly even with Kenny and Bob holding a slender advantage at around halfway. Karen and John however had edged 11-9 ahead with three ends to play. End 13 proved crucial with the Buchanan's picking up a count of 4 to lead 15-9 and although Kenny and Bob picked up singles on the last two ends the final score was 15-11 to Karen and John. 👏

In the Handicap Singles Final it was Steve Buchanan versus Les Donald and there was nothing in the match early with the score tied at 4-4. Steve then shortened the jack to close to minimum length and quickly established a 10-4 lead. As he does, Les battled back and reduced the deficit to 10-8.
The back story to the match was Steve playing minimum jack lengths and Les countering with full length jacks but it was at the next full length end where the game swung in Steve's favour. With Les lying 2 but Steve holding 3 x thirds, Steve played a running shot and removed both Les's bowls from the head to score a 3 and extend his lead to 13-8. A couple of ends later Steve was forced to play another running shot which was on target but got the maximum result by moving the jack to his 3 back bowls.
At this stage the score was 16-9 to Steve and he picked up a full house of 4 on the next end to lead 20-9 with Les coming up a couple of feet short with his last bowl.
A single for Les on the penultimate end made the score 20-10, but on a day where Steve's conversion shots were all paying off (doesn't happen often trust me 😆), he converted a 3 down head with his last bowl to secure the one shot he needed after Les had widened the target sufficiently.

Many thanks to Charlie for marking again, to Brian for doing the big board and to Jim for umpiring, the big tape had a busy day on the minimum jack lengths!

Finals Saturday saw a gorgeous sunny day, albeit a bit windy, with a decent turnout of members and a few visitors treated to a couple of really close matches.

First off at 12.30 was the Senior Singles Final between Steve Buchanan and current club champion Craig Stephenson. Craig started faster and built up a lead of 7-3, then 12-5 and then at 16-11 came a big turning point. With Craig lying a close 3 shots and Steve with one bowl left and facing a 19-11 deficit, he managed to trail the jack back for a 2. Now the score was 16-13 for Craig but Steve pulled the mat up close to the 25 metre marker and began to put Craig under pressure by landing his first two bowls on top of the jack for the next few ends. With Steve managing to sneak in front 19-18 he gained the two shots he needed on end 24 to record a 21-18 victory.

Onto the Nominated Mixed Pairs Final where Karen and Steve Buchanan were facing recent Scottish Mixed Pairs Silver medalists Aileen and Les Donald. This match kept the crowd entertained for almost 3 hours with the lead changing hands several times. After 15 ends Karen and Steve had edged ahead 15-13 but end 16 proved pivotal. Aileen and Les played a great end and scored a count of 5 to lead 18-15 going into the last end. Not to be denied, Karen drew a couple of good bowls to hold 2 shots with the skips to play. Steve managed to add a third and when Les failed to change anything with his last bowl, Steve had an opportunity to add a fourth shot for the win but was slightly wide, so an extra end it was! Aileen won the toss and her and Les chose to have the last bowl. After Karen's 4 bowls she was lying right on top of the jack with another toucher a few inches away, however Aileen played a superb last bowl to edge the shot bowl, and slightly open the head. Les then sprung the jack to the ditch with his first bowl and followed through close to the ditch. With the Donald's now holding shot, Steve had a chance to push one of Karen's touchers into the ditch but despite coming close with his last bowl, it stayed a bowl wide and it was game over. Huge congratulations to Aileen and Les on yet another Mixed Pairs victory, three in a row and I think seven or eight in total 👏

So it's onto tomorrow now with the last two Finals being played at 2pm. Steve v Les in the Handicap Singles and Karen & John Buchanan v Bob Sturton and Kenny Gray in the Club Pairs.

Thank you to everyone who came down to support today and add to the atmosphere. Thanks to Charlie Milne for marking the Singles, Brian for doing the scoring on the big board for the Singles and Charlie for the big board in the Mixed Pairs. Finally thanks to Aileen and Annie for providing the teas, coffees and Bacon rolls.

Back at my happy place 😍. All set for Finals weekend, kicks off at 12.30. Even though crowd favourite Davie 'Hollywood' Mainzer isn't on the card, I'm sure there will be plenty of good bowls on show 😆

Congratulations to Gordon Dickie and Tony Alexander who defeated Jim Fowlie and Graham Bruce in tonight's Nominated Gents Pairs Final. 👏 It's now onto the weekend for the remaining finals as below...

Green cut and ready for today's Semi Finals of the Senior Singles and Handicap Singles.
Greening up nicely after an application of Consolidate Plus, Fielder Green and Aquashield on Monday.

Not to be for our Gents in the Crowmallie Cup Final today. Balgownie hosted both the Ladies and Gents Finals with Ellon defeating Harlaw 35-15 and Pitmedden defeating Balgownie 33-22 respectively.

Jim Fowlie winner of the signed Aberdeen FC football at our 50th Anniversary Fun Day.
All proceeds to Balgownie B.C Charity fund which includes McMillan.

A couple of updates from today...

Earlier this morning the Final of the 2026 Senior Top 9 took place with Balgownie playing Woodend.

In what proved to be a great final for both the players and spectators, it came down to virtually the last bowl. Balgownie won the Triples by 5 shots, Woodend won the Fours by 4 shots and with the Pairs sitting at 13-14 to Woodend going into the last end, the match was on a knife edge.
Alec and Rory from Woodend played a great last end to win and it wasn't to be for the Balgownie lads. Huge congratulations to Woodend BC on a fantastic win, thoroughly deserved. 👏

Onto this afternoon and Steve had to hot foot it across the city to Whitehall BC to play the Final of the Bon Accord Senior Singles versus Charlie Jarvis of Northern BC at 1pm.

Steve got off to a flyer winning the first set 12-0 in 6 ends and although Charlie battled away in set two, Steve went onto win it 7-2 to become the first Balgownie name on the trophy.

Many thanks to the Bon Accord Vice-President Phil Anderson for conducting the trophy presentation, to Match Secretary Cameron Millar for scheduling the event to avoid clashing with Balgownie's Top 9 Final and to the Whitehall BC members who marked all the singles ties throughout the week.

Three updates for you today...

This afternoon saw the Quarter Finals and Semi Finals of the Bon Accord Senior Singles at Whitehall.
Unfortunately Gordon Dickie was beaten 2-0 by Les Coutts of Kittybrewster in the Quarter Final but Steve Buchanan won his Quarter Final 2-0 against Nicol Brown of Newhills, then played the defending champion Ken Reid of Kittybrewster in the Semi Final. Steve won the first set 8-7 and drew the second set to progress 1.5 - 0.5 to tomorrow's Final.
Good luck to Steve tomorrow, he faces Northern's Charlie Jarvis in the Final at 1pm, again at Whitehall.

Tonight at Polmuir we played the home side in the Bon Accord Top 5 Singles. Unfortunately despite a fantastic effort we lost narrowly 3-2, coming very close to causing an upset. The scores were as follows (Polmuir first):

Mark Smith 8 Gordon Dickie 21
Mark Burnett 21 Davie Main 14
Graeme Snape 15 Steve Buchanan 21
Martyn Orchard 21 Craig Stephenson 18
Callum Work 21 Martin Donald 15

Finally, tomorrow sees the final of our Senior Top 9 kindly sponsored by William Gilchrist Funeral Care at 10am, where Balgownie face Woodend.
Good luck lads.

Today saw the first two rounds of the Bon Accord Senior Singles at Whitehall and we had three sprightly seniors competing over two sets of 8 ends with a 3 end tie break.

Unfortunately Craig Stephenson lost out 2-0 to Northern's Jim Shea in Round 1.

However both Gordon Dickie and Steve Buchanan won both their respective matches and have progressed through to tomorrow's Quarter Finals.

Gordon beat Woodend's Paul Drew 2-0 in Round 1 and held his nerve in Round 2 to dispatch Ian Thomson of Seafeld 2-1 in a tie-break.

Steve faced Woodend's Brian Race in Round 1 and won 2-0 and then faced Abergeldie's Andy Dingwall in Round 2. Despite losing the first set, Steve managed to sneak set two and went on to win the tie-break 2-1.

Best of luck to both Gordon and Steve in tomorrow's Quarter Finals.