The Club will move to winter hours from Monday 1st October 2012: These are as follows:

These hours will apply from October to March. Any exceptions / special openings will be advertised.

Well known local singer Des McFarlane will be appearing in the members’ lounge on Saturday 22nd September. There is no charge at the door but members and their guests are advised to arrive early to guarantee a seat, especially with this being the bank holiday weekend.

The Club will have entertainment in the lounge on Saturday nights regularly throughout the winter months. The dates and acts will be posted on the website soon.

The decision by the Match Committee to reschedule, rather than cancel, the Renton 5s tournament back in July paid off yesterday when 30 members took to the green in perfect, dry conditions for a fantastic day of bowls.

There was a slight delay in starting as a few members were drafted in at short notice due to call-offs. A big thanks to Andy McCallion, Paul Kane and Charlie Kane for filling in; Andy having been woken at 8am after a few hours sleep following a heavy night in Balloch!

Paul Kane Jnr (Dumbarton BC) also filled in for the first game until grandfather Charlie arrived. A huge thanks to Paul for supporting Renton once again – it was much appreciated by the organisers.

The participants were as follows, with every team due to play every other team and the two highest up qualifying for the final:

The game got underway with the Fours & Singles, with the Billy Murray(s) team (the bookies favourites for the wooden spoon beforehand) strengthened by the addition of (daddy) Paul Kane, and after game 1 they were the leaders with maximum points.

A round of Pairs & Triples followed, and then another set of Fours & Singles. At the lunch break (after 3 rounds of games) the standings were as follows:

Bookie slips were being torn up at this stage due to the pre-tournament favourites (a team of ringers hand-picked by Stevie McArdle!) languishing in 4th place, but with another 8 points available no team was fully out of the running.

The fourth round of Pairs/Triples games threw the tournament wide open with the table as follows with a game to go:

This meant that 5 of the 6 teams were still in contention for the final, highlighting the beauty of the 5s format, which tends to even out results over the day.

In fact, with the Cassidy team due to play Gillies, and the Murrays playing Connell, there was a scenario where it was possible for three or four teams to tie on 11 points with identical shots, leading to Stevie McArdle and John Murphy searching frantically for the numerous scorecards in case a count back of ends was required.

However, the Gillies four took the 2 points required to guarantee their place in the final and pre-tournament favourites team Daly took the maximum 4 points to leapfrog the Murrays, who had lost both their games to team Connell. The final table after five rounds of games was therefore as follows:

The final was contested between John Gillies (s)/Billy Hogg and Stevie McArdle (s)/John Holland in the Pairs and Andy McCallion, Peter Donnelly & Frank McCarry (s) versus Brian McNeil, Drew Atkinson & Jim Daly (s) in the Triples.

A. McCallion, J. Gillies, P. Donnelly, B. Hogg, F. McCarry, S. McArdle, J. Daly, D. Atkinson, J. Holland & B. McNeil

In a tight final which at one point was finely balanced 9-9 across the two games, Gillies/Hogg won the Pairs 8-3 and the Triples finished 6-6 handing victory to Honorary President McCarry and Honorary Vice-President Gillies, showing that there’s still life in the old dogs.

The winners and runners-up were presented their prizes by VP Billy Murray Snr and John Murphy.

Renton 5s Winners 2012

John Gillies thanked Stevie, Billy & John for organising the day and gave a special thanks to Billy for the excellent food.

Highlights of the day…

• In his singles match against Billy Murray Jnr, Denis McLaughlin throwing his first bowl before he had thrown the jack, and watching it earnestly all the way up the green to see if it might be a toucher. Of course, Billy let this pass quietly and didn’t draw the whole green’s attention to this unique act…Aye, right!

• Paul Kane Jnr showing his class at the first end of his fours match. Playing second to John Murphy, and sharing John’s size 2 aces (two sizes smaller than Paul’s own bowls), he ignored the forehand road (almost) shown to him by his lead and drew the shot stone dead on the backhand!

• The excellent soup, pies, bridies and sandwiches provided by Vice-President Billy Murray Snr.

• Frank McCarry announcing before the final that anyone needing the toilet should go before the game started. He didn’t want a repeat of the infamous ‘Jobbygate’ incident from last year!

• Andy McCallion ending up a winner after filling in at short notice with a hangover.

• Peter Donnelly collecting his first piece of silverware after 13 years in the Village…

Peter Donnelly with the Trophy

So, with five new names on the Renton 5s trophy, and with it being another huge success, everyone looks forward to competing for this cup again next season.

Thursday night saw the Handicap final take place, contested between good friends Paul Kane and Michael Keenan, marked by John Murphy.

Paul Kane & Michael Keenan

This was always likely to be an ‘El Classico’ given their fantastic match in the Presidents final last year, which was nip and tuck throughout, finishing in a 21-18 victory for Michael on that occasion.

They were also the two in-form Renton players of 2012, appearing in three of this year’s single-handed finals each, Paul having already won the Presidents and Michael having won the Past-Presidents.

Paul was playing off -2 and Michael off -3.

It was a match played in an excellent atmosphere, with some fine heads and exceptional conversions throughout. This was quite a feat considering the deteriorating weather conditions and a tricky rink.

Paul took an early 5-1 lead but Michael soon pegged him back to 6-6.  Paul took the initiative once again to lead 9-6 but six ends later they were level once more at 11-11. The scorecard also showed 13-13 and 14-14, highlighting what an even game this was.

After 27 ends, including a no-shot and a remarkable 19 singles, Michael led 17-15 but darkness had truly descended.  As a result, both players were relying on instinct and playing from memory, but their quality shone through with one end in particular where both players had a dead draw toucher each with the first two bowls. Given the darkness and the horrible wind and rain both players were contemplating calling it a night and coming back for a rematch but they initially opted to carry on.

The 28th end saw Michael lying 3 close shots with Paul due to play the final bowl. Paul had the chance to drive into the head but risked removing his fourth shot if it went wrong, which would have handed Michael the game. However, by this stage it was simply impossible to see the head from the mat. After a brief discussion Michael, in an act of outstanding sportsmanship, offered to scrub this final end and call it a night without the final bowl being played. This typified the spirit in which the match was played by both finalists.

Paul and Michael will return on Friday 14th September at 2pm for a re-match, to be kindly marked at relatively short notice by John Taylor. They have elected to start from scratch.

If it were possible, justice would be served by declaring them as joint winners!