Bowls: Dumbarton and District Indoor Bowling Club resumes play

Jan 8 2010 by Andy Galloway, Lennox Herald (main ed)

DUMBARTON and District Indoor Bowling Club re-opened for business on Monday, with the commencement of the spring session of leagues.

The club is still looking for teams in several of the leagues, which at the moment have odd numbers.

Having received a bye in the preliminary round of the national team championship, the club will play against Whiteinch IBC at Clydebank IBC on Sunday, starting at 1pm.

In the inter-club leagues, the senior gents and the ladies are both in action next Saturday, with the senior gents playing Cowal IBC at home and the ladies playing Lanarkshire at home.

The gents’ under-25 international series takes place this weekend at Provincial Towns IBC in Northern Ireland. Graeme Sloan, from Dumbarton and District IBC, will be playing for Scotland.

Dumbarton and District IBC is holding its Burns supper on Saturday, January 30, with Rev Ian Miller and company as artistes. Tickets are available at the reception area of the club and are priced at £10 each.

Meanwhile, the world bowls championship starts this week at Potters Leisure Resort in Norfolk, and in a change to the previous format, the pairs take centre stage this week, while the first-round singles matches are also played.

Scotland has some strong representation in both events, with Elgin qualifiers Andy Barker and Mike Stepney first in pairs action, against the reigning champions, Englishman Mervyn King and Aussie Kevin Kerkow.

Glasgow’s David Gourlay teams up with Billy Jackson, of Leicester, a partnership that won the title in 2007, while Alex Marshall and Paul Foster team up for the first time.

Also this week, bowling legend Willie Wood, now 71, gets his singles challenge under way.