As a player in the above competition for the semi final and finals day hosted yesterday Saturday 24th August by the South district at Berwick BC and Tweedmouth BC it is difficult for me to put pen to paper and tell you how well everyone played to bring this trophy back to Aberdeen. Having looked up the records available to me it appears it last came North in 2008 when known as the Torrance Purvis trophy and our President then was Phyllis Young of Woodend and prior to that it was in 1996 & our President was Agnes Ledingham of Newhills.

What I can tell you is that we left Aberdeen at 6pm on Friday evening from the indoor and to be perfectly honest the 3 hour 40 minute journey south of the border to Berwick Upon Tweed was very shortsome. We had great music all the way, a few liquid refreshments for some more than others, a lot of fun and laughter, one player was doing press ups in the area reserved for wheelchairs & finally there was a version of the slosh in the bus aisle. The all important photographers, live scorers and celebration committee Tracy & Steve McGillivary were picked up at Laurencekirk and we thank them for everything they did during our trip and keeping so many folks back home up to date with what was happening on the greens.

The welcome received at Berwick on the Saturday morning when we arrived for breakfast rolls at 9am was greatly appreciated and very soon we were joined by our opposition from South of Scotland. Old friends renewed acquaintance with some of the more mature ladies in our team, especially Gail as she knows so many people from also living in the Stirling area. As you will have seen from all the photos the green setting was just beautiful and the area was very quiet although thankfully Sandra McLeish told me the route in passed the caravan park & golf course to avoid a low bridge however, this meant the bus driver had no chance of turning around and had to reverse all the way out & all the way back in, well done Michael.
For the game the weather was a mix of cloud, wind and sunny spells so jackets were on and off and the results of the 6-2, 72-60 shots semi final win were as follows:

Singles – 21-19 – Karen Cable
Pairs – 23-11 – Lisa Thomson & Kirsty Sinclair
Triples 12-17 – Dorothy Stephen, Gail Simpson & Anne Gauld
Fours – 16-13 – Angela Johnston, Emily Gray, Karen Taylor & Katrina Wheeler

We enjoyed a lovely soup & sandwich lunch at Berwick with light refreshments, the bar was not an option as we had a final to play shortly and a bus journey to get to the Tweedmouth green. This green is located on the picturesque south bank of the River Tweed overlooked by two magnificent Tweed bridges, the Royal Border and Royal Tweed as well as the Elizabethan Walls and Berwick town on the north bank of the river. For those of you wondering whilst the club is in England they are affiliated to Bowls Scotland and are members of the Berwickshire & Borders Bowling Associations.

Onto the final and we were certainly fired up after a magnificent victory in the morning and we were delighted to be supported by quite a few of the ladies from South of Scotland who stayed to watch despite also having a 3 hour drive ahead of them. First thing we encountered was the speed of the green compared to this morning so thankfully the 2 trial ends were welcomed and we knew we had to adjust accordingly, especially as our opposition had played on Tweedmouth in the morning for their semi final win against Stirling. Once again we had a mix of cloud, sun & wind in our 6-2, 64-47 shots final win with the scores as follows:

Singles – 21-8
Pairs – 17-13
Triples 8-17
Fours 18-9

Last off the green were the pairs although to be honest we were already celebrating & being congratulated as we knew we had this under control & with Karen Cable winning both singles games it gave the rest of us something to work towards keeping an eye on each others games knowing what we had to do, so important in this situation. Aberdeen District were runners up in this competition last year and I was honoured to be a part of that team as well & believe me it is probably up there in everything I have achieved to date. I know already I won’t be playing next year however, I hope everyone involved in our finals day next Sunday gets the opportunity next year if we overcome our opposition next season. This JWBA competition is expertly organised & run by Christine Curran who we thank very much & she was able to tell us the hosts next year will be the West section of Argyll & Bute and it will most likely be a trip to Dunoon.

Naturally we had to hang around for the trophy & medal presentation so the bar was kept busy & we also had a photo shoot to attend. Then there was a discussion about food as we had the return journey ahead so thankfully one of the local members had a contact at Coulls chipper in Berwick so an order was phoned in and we collected on route through the town centre, thanks to Amber, Gail & Karen for being the runners.
The ketchup & mayo being provided by Angela who ran to a local shop. Finally thanks to Anne Rogers & Margaret Airth from our committee for joining us for this trip, to Connor Webster for driving the future Mrs Webster, Emily down to Berwick after attending a show at TECA on Friday night, I believe you arrived around 4am. To Scott & Amber Wheeler & Alex Gray for joining us on the bus and showing your support and we were so sorry Grace had to call off due to illness, you would have enjoyed the trip so much.

As ADLBA Match Secretary I was honoured to play with this team & I know in both of our fours games our opposition in the semi and final were extremely friendly and we look forward to meeting again some day. I only wish we were making another trip next weekend to play in the Inter Association finals, hopefully next year girls!!

Regards

Karen Taylor
Match Secretary