APRIL

05.04.05 NEW SEASON!!! - Well folks, the new outdoor bowling season is almost upon us, so it's time for the website to get back into full swing. Firstly, may I take this opportunity to welcome any new Craigie members to the fold and to wish all members a great season in 2005. I think it might be difficult to top last year's outstanding achievements in the outside competitions but let's hope for continued success on and off the green. We are hosting another City of Dundee fixture in the Andrew Hamilton Trophy on 14th May when the 'City' entertain Highland. Let's hope we can host another outstanding day's bowling.

05.04.05 WEBSITE UPDATE - I've been busy updating the website for the coming season. The drawsheets for the various club competitions have been cleared ready for this year's draws - there is now a 'Historical Competition' page, accessed through 'The Bowls Page' - all previous club competition results will be kept here, which may help resolve any debates in future years! I've also improved the movement around the site by adding navigation bars to most pages - this is an ongoing process, please bear with me... I hope to get lot's more info and an update on external fixtures from Match Secretary Jim Irving this week - I'll keep you all informed.

07.04.05 EXTERNAL COMPETITIONS - The dates for the Scottish, Angus, City of Dundee, Hunter Cup and Angus Top Ten Championships are now on the 'Fixtures Page'. Also, the fixtures for the Angus League are there, and on the 'Angus League Page' too, as are the Andrew Hamilton fixtures for the 'City' team. The sheets are up in the clubhouse for those wishing to be considered for selection for the Scottish Championships, Angus League and Hunter Cup - get your name down now! Closing dates for names are Tues 19th April for the Hunter Cup, Tues 26th April for the Angus League and Friday 29th April for the Scottish Championships.

11.04.05 OPENING DAY 2005 - It's here! The teams and draw for this year's President v Vice President match on Saturday 16th have been announced. As usual, please can all participants report to the club for 1.30pm prompt to start the festivities. Hopefully the weather will be kind and we can kick off the new season with a great day on and off the green - see you all there... mine's a vodka & diet coke, cheers!

11.04.05 DUNCAN TRIPLES 2005 - The draw for the first competition of the year has been made.

14.04.05 WEBSITE UPDATE - It's all new and improved for 2005 (I hope)!!! I thought that the website needed updating and generally spruced up a bit, so here it is. Don't worry, all the information is still here, just done in a slightly different way. It should be much easier to get around now - hope you all like it...

18.04.05 CLUB CHAMP'S, STANDING CUP & SAT TEAMS - Match Secretary Jim's been busy today, posting the Club Championship draw, the Standing Cup draw and the teams for the first Saturday friendlies of the season on the board in the club. I've been up to the club and collected all the details for you 'cyber' website folks, available for viewing now via the 'Bowls Page' - check 'em out!

18.04.05 CITY OF DUNDEE TRIALS – Six Craigie bowlers have been selected for the trials for this year’s ‘City’ team: Tony Hume, Vinnie Stewart, Scott Brown, Russell Brannan, Alistair Murray and John Wright. The 1st trial is this coming Saturday at Fairfield, starting at 10am. Good luck to all our trialists – here’s hoping all play well and are selected for the team.

18.04.05 OPENING DAY 2005 - This year's opening day was a great success... Honorary President Willie McNab raised the flag, then Ladies President Norma Husband bowled the silver jack, beat President Bill Mitchell in the ceremonial 'bowl off' (sorry for mentioning that Bill!) and declared the Craigie green open for the season. A great day was had by all.

22.04.05 HUNTER CUP - The selection committee has picked our teams for this year's Hunter Cup as follows: Craigie 1 - Jim Fernie, Russell Brannan, Tony Hume & Scott Brown; Craigie 2 - Jim Irving, Frank Moore, Alistair Murray & Vince Stewart. Team 1 plays in the first round against Newgate 2 on 26th April at Carnoustie and hopefully again in the second round where team 2 play Newgate 1 or Errol 2 on 28th April at Strathmartine. Reserve for team 1 is David Briggs and reserve for team 2 is Joe Mitchell. Good luck to both rinks for their respective matches. Hopefully we can start where we left off last season with more silverware coming to Craigie.

29.04.05 ANGUS BA UNDER 25'S - Craigie has 4 young players picked for the trials this year - David Briggs, Stephen McAulay, Craig Stewart & Vinnie Stewart. The trial is at Carnoustie West End BC on Sunday 1st May, starting at 10am - good luck to all the lads.

29.04.05 HUNTER CUP - Unfortunately our Hunter Cup aspirations for 2005 have been dashed already, with both rinks going out in the second round last night. Hard luck to both teams - let's hope this isn't a taste of things to come this year!

29.04.05 NOMINATED PAIRS - The draw for this year's premier club pairs competition has been made.

MAY

03.05.05 CITY OF DUNDEE TEAM - Only 2 of our trialists have made the 'City' team for Saturday's Andrew Hamilton opener against Aberdeen & Kincardine at Inverurie - Alistair Murray & Tony Hume. I must say that I'm slightly disappointed that we have such a small representation considering the great season that Craigie had last year - some of our other trialists had great seasons in 2004, but have been overlooked for selection (I can only assume they didn't have good games during the trials - hard luck lads!) Well done to Alistair and Tony on their selection - hopefully the team can play well, get off to a winning start and consign the memory of last year's (dreadful) campaign to the dustbin. Good luck to all involved. I'll bring you news of the result next week.

03.05.05 UNDER 26'S & UNDER 35'S - The draws have been made for both these competitions and can be viewed via the 'Bowls Page' as usual.

03.05.05 ANGUS LEAGUE - The selection committee has picked the team for our first Angus League match in Division 2 this season, away against Barnhill, as follows: RINK 1: Jim Irving, Russell Brannan, Joe Mitchell & Vince Stewart; RINK 2: Ian Ringsell, Frank Moore, Tony Hume & Scott Brown; RINK 3: Alec Sherman, Alan Brown, Alistair Murray & Jim McCartney. Reserves are Jim Simpson, Gordon Nixon & John Wright Jnr. Good luck to the team for the match - hopefully they can continue last year's excellent form which saw Craigie promoted as Champions.

09.05.05 CITY OF DUNDEE TEAM - I understand that the 'City' team was well beaten at the weekend by Aberdeen, apparently down by a massive 50 shots! The SBA website hasn't been updated yet so I can't give you all the results, but as soon as it's done I'll update our own 'City Page'. Things aren't looking good, yet again, for our Dundee team - let's hope for a better result when we host the next county match on Saturday against Highland. It will be a tough match for Dundee as Highland won the North Section last year, winning all their matches, beating Dundee 18-4 in the process. Alistair Murray and Tony Hume have been selected again this week, as has John Wright - congratulations to all three - hopefully they can participate in a City win on the Craigie green.

09.05.05 ANGUS LEAGUE - Our team has started the new season the way last year finished, with a victory in the first league match. The final score against Barnhill was 49 - 43 for the Craigie team - well done lads! Here's hoping that the good form continues against Abbey, at home, this week.

10.05.05 WEBSITE UPDATE - Apologies for the lack of updates over the last few days - I've been 'out of town' (romancing over on the west coast)! I'll be going up to the club tomorrow night though, and I'll hopefully get the site fully updated when I get back from there.

10.05.05 DUNCAN TRIPLES FINAL - Our usual start of season triples competition finished on Fri 6th May with an excellent final involving triples skipped by Walter Hume & Frank Moore. Frank's team won the final - congratulations to all the finalists.

12.05.05 WEBSITE UPDATE - All the club competitions have now been updated and viewed via 'The Bowls Page'. Also, the SBA District Championships get under way tonight. I'll bring you news of how our representatives got on tomorrow.

12.05.05 ANGUS BA UNDER 25'S - All four of your young trialists have been selected to play for the Angus team this week, namely David Briggs, Stephen McAulay, Craig Stewart and Vinnie Stewart. The match is against Grampian and is being played at Kirriemuir BC on Sunday, starting at 2pm. Good luck to the team and especially the Craigie lads.

12.05.05 ANGUS LEAGUE - The selectors have named an unchanged team for this week's home fixture against Abbey tomorrow night. Let's hope the lads can get another good result and build on last week's fine away victory at Barnhill. As usual, I encourage everyone to get along to the club and support the team - I'll see you there.

13.05.05 SBA DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS - We had a good night in the SBA's yesterday with 4 wins out of 5 in the 1st round. Our reigning Fours Champs (Jim Irving, John Wright, Russell Brannan & Tony Hume) won 14-9 against Forfar. The Triple (Alec Sherman, Alistair Murray & Jim McCartney) won 17-7 against Hillcrest, our Pairs champs Robert Walker & Vince Stewart won 20-6 against Parkview and Stephen McAulay Jnr won 21-17 against Maryfield in the Junior Singles. The only loss of the evening was in the Singles, where Scott Brown went down 21-8. Commiserations to Scott, but congratulations to all our other bowlers - well done lads - hopefully we can keep up the good results in the 2nd round next Thursday (19th).

14.05.05 ANGUS LEAGUE - Our Craigie team went down to the narrowest of defeats last night against Abbey, 39-40. The overall score was very close throughout and our visitors just held on at the finish in what was a very high quality encounter. The other 2nd Division results were helpfull to us though as several teams that lost last week won this week - it looks like it's gonna be very close all the way this season! Very unlucky last night lads - on to next week's fixture against Carnoustie West End where, hopefully, we can get back on the winning track.

25.05.05 FALCONER CUP - The draw has been made for our other major singles tournament.

25.05.05 ANGUS LEAGUE - Our team suffered a rare heavy defeat on Friday, losing 61-39 at Carnoustie West End. Not surprisingly, I've been informed that there are a few changes to the team for this week's home fixture against Muirhead on Friday. Good luck to the players for the match - hopefully the team can get back to winning ways.

25.05.05 SBA DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS - Craigie enjoyed another good night last Thursday with all but one of our matches resulting in victory. Robert Walker & Vince Stewart won 15-14 against a pair from Brechin, Alec Sherman, Alistair Murray & Jim McCartney won 19-17 against Muirhead in the Triples and our reigning Fours champs Jim Irving, John Wright, Russell Brannan & Tony Hume won 20-11 against a rink from Carnoustie West End. Our only defeat of the night came when Stephen McAulay Jnr lost out 21-14 in the Junior Singles to Brechin's young representative. Commiserations to Stephen but well done to our other teams - let's hope for more good results in the 3rd round tomorrow night.

JUNE

09.06.05 ANGUS CHAMPIONSHIPS - Our competitors for this year's competitions have been picked by the selection committee as follows: Champ of Champs - Vinnie Stewart, Singles - Vince Stewart, Junior Singles - Stephen McAulay Jnr, Pairs - Russell Brannan & Joe Mitchell, Triples - Jim Irving, John Wright & Scott Brown (Reigning Champs!), Fours - Alan Brown, Robert Walker, Frank Moore & Tony Hume, Senoir Singles - Sid Clarke, Senior Pairs - Fred Simpson & Walter Hume, Senior Triples - Ian Ringsell, Jim Murray & George Duncan, Senior Fours - Bob Murray, Willie Husband, Bert Murray & Jim Simpson. Good luck to all our bowlers for their matches next week.

09.06.05 ANGUS LEAGUE - Our team got their season back on track with two wins in the last two matches. This week sees a 'local derby' with the visit of near neighbours Baxter Park. Hopefully the team can notch up another win and keep our promotion hopes very much alive. The team for this week is RINK 1: Jim Irving, Stuart Jeans, Joe Mitchell & Vince Stewart; RINK 2: Alistair Murray, Frank Moore, Alec Swann & Stephen Swann; RINK 3: Alec Sherman, Alan Brown, John Wright & Scott Brown. Reserves for this weeks match are Ian Ringsell, David Briggs & Robert Walker. Good luck to the team for tomorrow night's game. I've updated the 'Angus League' page with recent results - check it out via 'The Bowls Page'.

09.06.05 FERGUSON SINGLES - Congratulations to Frank Moore on reaching the final of this year's Dundee 'Wednesday Section' singles. Frank won 21-12 in the semi-final yesterday. I don't know when the final is to be played but we wish Frank all the best for the match. Hopefully he can repeat his fine victory when he won this title way back in 1986.

09.06.05 SBA DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIPS - Unfortunately, our last representatives in this year's competition lost out narrowly in the semi-finals last week. Robert Walker and Vince Stewart were beaten by only one shot by the Balgay pair.

11.06.05 ANGUS LEAGUE - Our Craigie team recorded their third win on the trot last night when local rivals Baxter Park were beaten 46-42 at Craigie last night. The win consolidates fifth place in the 2nd division, keeps our promotion hopes alive and just about eliminates any threat of relegation back down to division three. Next week's home match against second placed Arbroath will be crucial in the race for promotion, although we'll need quite a lot of other results to go in our favour - let's hope the team can keep up the good run of results and record another victory.

18.06.05 ANGUS LEAGUE - Our Craigie team won last night's crucial match against Arbroath 52-37. This win moves us up to third in division 2, just 2 points off the top. The second promotion spot in within our grasp now, provided the team can win the last 2 matches and Abbey continue on their winning ways - let's hope so!

20.06.05 ANGUS CHAMPIONSHIPS - Last week saw only 3 ties with Craigie interest - Vince Stewart won 21-16 in the Singles, Russell Brannan & Joe Mitchell won 19-9 in the Pairs but, unfortunatelly our Fours rink lost out 23-14. The winners, and all our other representatives, will be in action tomorrow night in the 2nd round - good luck to all.

25.06.05 VIC CUP - The draw has been made for our 'sets' singles competition. Check out who you've been drawn against via 'The Bowls Page'.

25.06.05 FERGUSON SINGLES - Congratulations to Frank Moore for winning the Dundee & District Wednesday Section Singles Championship for the second time, his last victory being all the way back in 1986. Frank won the final 21-20 after coming from 13-1 and 20-11 down!

25.06.05 ANGUS CHAMPIONSHIPS - On Tuesday night only our reigning Triples champs won through, winning 15-7. Congrats to Jim Irving, John Wright & Scott Brown - let's hope they can keep their excellent record in this competition going when they face a triple from Newgate on Tuesday at Carnoustie WE - good luck lads!

25.06.05 ANGUS LEAGUE - Our team recorded their fifth win on the trot last night, beating Lochlands 54-38. Unfortunately Abbey and Arbroath both won as well, meaning our promotion hopes are still not in our own hands. Our lads must win the last match of the league away at Letham and hope that Abbey do us a favour by beating (or drawing with) Arbroath in their final fixture. Let's hope that there's not an 'Arbroath old pals act' going on there next Friday! Congratulations must go out to Abbey who have, barring a huge defeat for them and a massive win for us, guarateed promotion back up to the first division at the first time of asking. Elsewhere, it's very tight at the top of the first division with just one point separating the top five teams going into the final round of matches, with Monifieth still leading on shots difference. In the third division Fairfield have moved into pole position and perhaps start as slight favourites for their last match against third placed Balgay, in what could be a title decider.

JULY

25.07.05 WEBSITE UPDATES & NEWS - Firstly, please allow me to apologise for the lack of weekly updates recently - I've been very busy with other aspects of my life and not had a lot of spare time, but I can now put that right and update you with all the goings on at the club recently. The Club Championship was won by Vince Stewart, winning 21-15 over Russell Brannan in the final. Vince has now won our premier singles title 3 times and enters the 'Hall of Fame' for this, most prestigeous, competition - many congratulations to Vince on this great achievement. Turning to the Nominated Pairs, Russell Brannan made up for the disappointment of the championship final by winning the title with partner George Lowrey, beating previous 4-time winners Alec Sherman & Tony Hume in a closely contested final. Russell and George had previously been runners-up 3 times in this competition and thoroughly deserve their win at long last. In the Under 35's a fantastic final saw Craig Stewart edge out older brother (and at the time still reigning club champ) Vinnie 21-16. Both lads played excellent bowls in what was a superb match. Congratulations to young Craig on winning his first Craigie title - I'm sure there will be many more in years to come. Our Rinks competition, the Standing Cup, was won by Ian Ringsell, Kenny Robertson, Jack Reilly & Jim Irving - conratulation to all four and to the runners-up Bill Mitchell, Moss Mackie, Brian Forsyth & Jack Shepherd. Turning to outside competitions, in the Angus League our team could only manage a draw against Letham in our final league match. This, coupled with another draw between Abbey and Arbroath saw us miss out on promotion to the 1st Division on shots difference. If only we could have got just one more shot..! I've updated the 'Angus League Page' with the final results for this year. In the Angus Championships our reigning Triples champions Jim Irving, John Wright & Scott Brown made it to the final again this year but found conditions tough on a tricky green and lost out to the triple from Broughty - hard luck lads, but congratulations for almost going 'all the way' again this year. I've updated all the other internal competition drawsheets and put the draw for the Allan Pairs on the site. Phew! - I think that's it, but if I've missed anything I'm sure someone will let me know!

25.07.05 COMPETITIONS - Sheets are up in the club for the Mary Murray Mixed Triples, the Bennie Cup and the Three Counties competitions. Any members wishing to take part please put your names down. The closing dates for names for the Bennie Cup and Three Counties are Mon 1st Aug and Mon 8th Aug respectively.

AUGUST

10.08.05 CITY OF DUNDEE CHAMPIONSHIPS - Mixed results for Craigie in last night's ties. George Lowrey & Russell Brannan won in the pairs, David Briggs, yours truly & Scott Brown won in the Triples and our Senior Triple of Ian Ringsell, Jim Simpson & Joe Swan were victorious. All our other representatives were, unfortunatelly, defeated.

13.08.05 CITY OF DUNDEE CHAMPIONSHIPS - Some more good results in last night's 1/4 finals. George & Russell won again in the pairs, as did our Triples team. Unfortunatelly the Senior Triples lost so we have just two teams through to this year's semi-finals. The Pairs and Triples are both scheduled to play on Tuesday night at Strathmartine. Good luck to all involved.

17.08.05 CITY OF DUNDEE CHAMPIONSHIPS - Unfortunatelly both our Pairs and Triples teams lost heavily in the semi-finals at Strathmartine last night. This, of course, means that our last remaining hopes of external honours has gone for this year. It's been a poor season when compared to last year, although Frank Moore did win the Ferguson Singles and our Triple made the final of the Angus Champs for the second year running. Roll on 2006!!!

CLOSE SEASON

13.12.05 WEBSITE UPDATE - Just a short update for anyone who happens to come on the site during the close season. I'm very sad to report that my PC has 'blown up', hence the lack of updates, or improvements to the website for the last two months at least. Please accept my sincere apologies for this - I am currently waiting on a diagnosis of exactly what's wrong with the old chap - I hope it's not terminal and I have to send it to the big PC scrapyard in the sky :( . Anyway, the new, upgraded website should, hopefully, still be ready for the new season in April. Many thanks for your patience during this unfortunate, enforced hiatus.

30.01.06 WEBSITE UPDATE - Another update from my emergency upload site. Unfortunately my PC has indeed gone to the great techno scapyard in the sky. I don't know when the website will be back and functional again as I've no idea when I'll be in a position to purchase a replacement. Once again, apologies for this unforseen downtime. It's a pity as the new look Craigie website I'd been working on was looking better than ever...

13.02.06 WEBSITE UPDATE - Great news bowls fans - there's been a miracle of, dare I say, biblical proportions and my PC's come back from the dead!!! Obviously, this means we're back in business in time for the new season. Before the breakdown I'd started work on a new look for the website and I'm still confident that this will be online by the start of the season. I'll certainly be doing my best to make it happen but for now it's great to be back! I'll also be able to post an update on how our members have been getting on during the Indoor season - watch this space... Just before I go, I must say many, many thanks to Russell in Glasgow for performing said miracle and doing a fantastic job of restoring my PC to it's former glory - I'm sure all the Craigie website users appreciate it. Many thanks again Russell.

26.02.06 NEW WEBSITE - Work on the new look Craigie website is continuing apace. I'm still hoping to have the new improved version fully up and running by the start of the season. With all new graphics and sound I'm hoping that this will be an altogether more professional look and a great improvement on our present site. I hope you will all like it! NB.

26.02.06 SMOKING BAN - Just a quick reminder to all members that Craigie will implement a no smoking policy in the clubhouse from 1st March, this coming Wednesday. This brings the club into line with the upcoming Scottish Executive legislation to ban smoking in all enclosed public places. All members are asked to ensure that the ban is strictly adhered to as any breach can result in not only a fine for the smoker, but also a hefy fine for the club. I understand that the club will be setting up an area outside the clubhouse for smokers to 'have a puff'.

26.02.06 DISCO - This coming Friday sees what should be a good night at Craigie - there's a disco with music from the 60's right through to the present day. Also appearing will be a live band called 'The Regulations'. Entry is free to all members and guests so get along and have fun! The event runs from 7.30 'til late.

26.02.06 AGM - The date has been fixed for this year's Annual General Meeting - Tuesday 14th March. As usual the meeting will start at 7pm prompt. I urge all Craigie members to attend as this is your chance to have a say in how your club is run.