We’re ready for a blockbuster weekend of bowls here at the National Centre for Bowling, Ayr. Over this weekend we are hosting three major events with the greens here at Northfield set to be filled with some great games of bowls.
On Saturday & Sunday we will host the BIWBC Women’s Junior International series with the opening ceremony taking place at 9am on Saturday morning. Scotland will then get their series under way by taking on Ireland at 9.30am and they will then face England in their second match at 2.30pm on Saturday afternoon. They will then round off their series by playing against Wales at 9am on Sunday morning.
Once the series has been completed, the BIWBC Women’s Junior Championships will then commence on Sunday afternoon at 2pm with the semi-finals of the Under 25 Singles and U25 Pairs. Rachel Sinclair is Scotland’s representative in the singles and she will take on Ireland’s Shauna O’Neill for a place in the final. In the pairs, Scotland are represented by Kimberley Dodds and Carla Banks and they will play Devon Cooper and Rachel Tremlett from England in their semi-final. Scotland are the defending champions in both of these events after winning both titles at Royal Leamington Spa last year.
Also, on Saturday afternoon the biggest game on the men’s cities & counties bowls calendar will take place when West Lothian take on Lanarkshire South in the 2019 Andrew Hamilton Trophy final at 2pm. Both teams are filled with former & current internationalists along with Commonwealth Games gold medallists. West Lothian are the defending champions from last year whilst Lanarkshire South have been the dominant force in the AHT in recent times with their last triumph coming in 2017. This will no doubt be a closely contested final with some exciting pairings on every rink following on from our live rink draw yesterday afternoon.
Sunday will see the beginning of our showpiece event with the 2019 National Championships getting underway with two sessions of Mixed Pairs at 10am & 2pm. The Championships will run until Saturday 27th July here at Northfield with 15 National Titles being won over the week. The para-bowls National Finals will also be played over Friday 26th & Saturday 27th July with some exciting games being played in both the Visually Impaired and Physically Disabled categories. We will also host the SYBA National Finals here in Ayr on Sunday 28th July with the countries top youngsters competing to become National Champions at Under 17 level in singles, pairs & triples.
We hope to see plenty of people here over the next week for what is set to be an unbelievable week of bowls. Good luck to all players in all of the different competitions!
