RESERVES (in alphabetical order):  WILLIAM BRYDSON, GAVIN GREEN, GEORGE HILL, JOHN MACFARLANE, RALPH RICHARDSON, STEWART RICHARDSON.

STEWARTRY v AYRSHIRE

12/05/2012 – KIRKCUDBRIGHT

Well a new season starts as always full of hope and expectation and Saturday was no exception. Kirkcudbright was bright with only a small shower expected during the afternoon and that is the way it turned out. The pace of the green was good for this time of year and all credit to Willie Thomson for having the green as well prepared and playing as it did.

The game itself was actually well contested although the final score may not reflect that. On speaking to a few of the Ayrshire lads after the game they were really surprised at how the score changed since all through Stewartry kept the game tight and it was only in last few ends that the gap appeared.

After 10 ends it was 54 – 57, at 15 ends, 76 – 95 and Ayrshire looked to be pulling away. However at 18 ends across the green it was 91 – 106 and Stewartry were digging in to try and reduce this deficit. Unfortunately it was Ayrshire that found the finishing burst to take Ayrshire safely home 100 – 132.

Although Stewartry only had one winning rink with Captain Keith Richardson winning, Stevie Richardson was very unlucky at peels playing the last and trying to convert a head lost a 4. I have to commend Stevie for resisting the temptation on his 3^rd last end not to try an ambitious take out for a 6 and settle for drawing a second, with the overall score down to just 11 at that point. Putting the big board first meant the team was only single figures behind, unfortunately we couldn’t sustain it. Graeme Maxwell only lost by one in a great game against Graeme Campbell and that could have gone either way. Alan Davies on the show rink just couldn’t get his rink to relax and play their normal games and as a result was always chasing the game. This will be a good learning experience for him for the future. Geordie Brown who over the past couple of seasons has been very effective also found his all Kirkcudbright rink struggling on their home green and were never able to get in front. Finally Scott Davies also had a difficult time against Colin smith and his rink were always chasing the game.

Plus points for the team and manager the debut of James Cruikshank was really good and hopefully James can build on that. Also Gary Davies possibly the forgotten Davies boy finally produced a really good performance and needs to build on that for the rest of the season. Also a quick mention and thanks to Stewart Tait for making his debut and hopefully may be available in the weeks to come.

I have made some positional changes for this coming week and also brought a couple of players, so hopefully we can use Saturdays experience to help us at West End next Saturday. Again if anyone is unavailable please contact Hugh Robertson on 07425622104.

RESERVES : WILLIAM BRYDSON, STEWART GILMOUR, GAVIN GREEN, GEORGE HILL. ROBERT MONTEITH, RALPH RICHARDSON & STEWART RICHARDSON.

As you can see there is a good squad of players who have made themselves available for this season. Some players have already indicated their unavailability for certain games and I will take that into account when selecting teams. I hope everyone will give 100% in attempt to qualify for the first time from these group stagesand that reserves will make it to as many home games as possible to ensure we built a strong squad support. I will also be trying to make home advantage count so as you can see from this first team all Kirkcudbright players are selected and their “local” knowledge will hopwfully be passed around rinks.

Looking forward to a good season and lets kick off with a good performance against one of the “favourites” – CMON STEWARTRY

Anyone not AVAILABLE phone HUGH on 07425622104

President for 2012 is Jim Maginess from Creetown and his Vice is Murray Cairney from Kirkcudbright.

Graeme Maxwell is still Secretary/Treasurer.

The Hamilton Trophy fixture for 2012 are as follows

12th May - Ayrshire @ Kirkcudbright

19th May - Wigtownshire away

26th May - Lanarkshire @ Dalbeattie

2nd June - Renfrewshire @ New Abbey

9th June - Glasgow away

16th June - Dumbartonshire @ Castle Douglas

23rd June - Dumfriesshire @ Lockerbie

Hugh Robertson is once again team manager and he is looking for EVERY player in the Stewartry willing to play to put their name forward for consideration. Forms will be passed to every Club for this purpose.  If you are willing to play please ensure your name is on the list!!

KBA Cup

Following a good discussion the meeting agreed to try a different format for the Cup next year.  The format will involve an eleven man team in fours, triples, 4-bowl pairs and 2-bowl pairs.  Matches will be decided on overall shots. 

The format will allow smaller clubs, who have struggled to find sixteen players in recent years, to field a team.  Larger clubs will be allowed to field more than one team.  This will hopefully get more players involved from all clubs.