2018 Inter Area Bowls Test Match

The 2018 Inter Area Bowls Test Match was held in Glasgow on Friday 29th June, seeing bowlers with a learning disability from the West of Scotland going head to head with the visiting team from Fife.

The event, which is coordinated and organised by Scottish Disability Sport, was re-introduced to the national events calendar in 2015 to provide bowlers with a learning disability another competitive opportunity in the sport, supplementing the other national bowls events.  The event invites SDS member branches to submit a team of 12 bowlers (6 male and 6 female) who then play singles, pairs and triple matches against their peers from other parts of the country, aiming to accumulate enough points to be crowned team champions.

The 2018 event was scheduled to be hosted by Lothian Disability Sport, however the East of Scotland side were unable to field a full quota of players and were forced to withdraw from the event and subsequently postpone the hosting duties for another year.  This turn of events then led to the West of Scotland stepping in and volunteering to host the event, with Glasgow Disability Sport’s Liz Boyd instrumental in making this happen.  Liz’s home bowling club, Fairfield, was selected as the venue and must be commended on the welcoming, supportive and friendly environment created for all bowlers, team managers, coaches and volunteers who attended this year’s event.  The club were also kind enough to provide volunteer officials who stepped in to mark ties throughout the day.

The approach by the club, coupled with the extraordinary sunshine, provided the ideal platform for some excellent bowls to be played throughout the day.  In all, there were 24 ties played across two sessions with the visiting Fife team dominating from the offset as they raced into 19 – 5 lead as the event stopped for lunch.  This run of form continued in the second session with the Fifers claiming an 18 – 6 lead, resulting in a convincing win overall (37 – 11).  This victory was the fourth time the bowlers from Fife had claimed the trophy outright and highlights the strength of the bowls programme across the area.  Despite the result, there were some very close run matches and the players from West of Scotland can count themselves unfortunate on many occasions.

Thanks are extended to all team managers /coaches, volunteers, officials and of course the players for making the event a success and producing a great day of bowls.