2023

Aiden and Ryan competed in the Ayr Bowling Tournament Under 16 Pairs in August as part of their development and recorded one victory in their four matches. Marilyn Carmichael sponsored a congratulatory gift in recognition of their efforts.

The Junior Championships are underway. Lewis is taking a break from bowls for the season so Luke gets a bye. On 21st June, two ties took place. Aiden triumphed over a game Harley 21-4, but many of the ends were low counts, and Harley”s day will come Chloe overcame Dylan 21 to 13. Marker John Lorimer commented “some superb bowling and plenty of touchers on both sides. Dylan shot into an 8-2 lead, Chole pulled back; Dylan then got on to and stuck on unlucky 13. Chloe then stormed ahead with some tremendous bowls. All in all a superb advert for the Howie Hedgehogs. A pleasure to mark this tie”.

The ABA Under 16 semifinals were played on the 16th June at Newton Park. It was a Howie v Midton Road showdown, with Dylan Hughes taking on Emily and Chloe Buchanan against Neave. Dylan started well getting at least one bowl close every end to limit Emily to single shots and occasionally grabbing one himself. But those ends where none of his bowls were close saw Emily take full advantage, and she opened up a commanding lead. There were some fascinating ends, like when he got a toucher but not the shot, but then played another toucher to win the end. Dylan was perhaps over aggressive and was playing weight even when holding shot and another toucher saw him give the shot away on a measure to go 20-4 down. Emily then had three bowls within inches of the jack and Dylan saw 2 efforts to knock them out sail wide and the match was lost.

Emily and Dylan shake hands after the game

Chloe had more success against Neave who played an aggressive game throughout, and although often close to converting shots, missed too many agiving away multiples to a more restrained Chloe. The last end showed what a high quality encounter it was, with both girls having touchers but Chloe ending up holding shot and then slottedin two further exquisite draws to grab a 3 and the match 21-7. Emily and Chloe will now meet in the local final to see who goes through to the all Ayrshire semifinals.

Luke and Keiran before their Gents National Singles qualifier quarter final. Luke won 21-18

Keiran Hamilton and Luke Jones have played on together as members of the Ayr / Auchinleck combined SYIBA Top Six team. But on Thursday the 16th of June they will clash in a fascinating match up to reach the semi finals of the Gents National Singles. Let battle commence!

Lewis and Aiden during their BS Triples qualifying campaign on 29th May 2023 at Northfield

Aiden and Lewis was joined by Chloe Buchanan for the BS Triples Qualifying event. Their first game in the round robin format saw them achieve a meritorious draw 4-4 against a combined Midton Road/Craigie line up containing two Scottish Youth Internationalists, with Aiden playing telling bowls early in the tie. Their second and final match against Annbank saw them go 6-0 down but battled back to get a 2 which could have been more. Chasing multiples , Chloe was lying three shots after her bowls in the next end but it was too tempting a target and inevitably they lost the end and all realistic hopes of getting the needed win. Lewis did have the last say when his penultimate bowl at the final end landed inche

Aiden and Dylan at Northfield

Aiden Johnstone and Dylan Hughes played in the Bowls Scotland Youth Singles Qualifiers at Northfield on Friday 26th May. Dylan won 2 out of his 4 round robin matches and while Aiden did not win any matches, he had the satisfaction of grabbing 2 consecutive ends against last year’s SYIBA Young Masters finalist and Scottish internationalist, Emily Houston. Well done, boys! You did the club proud!

In a high quality match, Club Champion, Luke just came up short in the final of the Ayrshire Indoors Under 25s Singles on Sunday when representing Ayr Indoor BC, losing 21-19 to George Robertson at Auchinleck Indoor BC.

George Robertson and Luke Jones before their final

Luke enjoyed his most impressive indoor bowls win yet, recording a 21-18 victory over Ardrossan’s ex Young Masters champion Ross Goldstone in the Under 25 Indoor Singles on 26th February.

Luke Jones and Lewis Glover competed for Ayr Indoor BC in the SYIBA playdowns in Ardrossan on Sunday 12th February, but came up short, losing to Ardrossan and Auchinleck.

On 22nd January, Luke was drawn against Aiden Craigens of Blantyre in the quarter finals of the SIBA Under 18 Singles, representing Ayr Indoor Bowling Club at East Kilbride IBC. Aiden is a SYIBA Scottish Internationalist and showed why with excellent drawing and conversion shots.  The turning point was the 12th end with Luke 5-11 down but lying three, when Aiden played a perfect draw with his last bowl to take the end.  Luke played well but was defeated 21-9.

2022

Luke Jones began a busy schedule on 26th May by battling bravely against a high quality experienced opponent in the National Singles at the National Centre for Bowling, holding on at 7-7 until eventually losing 21-10. Next up, an ABA Singles tie at Kincaidston on the 27th.

Both Lewis Glover and Alice Jones got walkovers in their ties in the Ayrshire Youth Singles, with Lewis going on to the semifinal against Prestwick and amazingly Alice going straight through to the final without throwing a bowl. On the 10th June, in an enthralling, high quality semi final, played in the best traditions of the sport, Lewis and Prestwick’s Emily Houston brought their “A” games to the match and it seemed inevitable that it would go to the wire. When Emily took a 20-18 lead, it looked like her greater experience would see her through. But Lewis held his nerve superbly to grab a three to take the match by the slimmest of margins. Congratulations to both players for their fortitude in playing through periods of heavy rain, and their sporting behaviour.

Lewis and Alice had their showdown at the finals night at Hawkhill on the 17th June, and it rivalled and maybe surpassed the semi final, going to an amazing 28 ends and ending up the last match on the green. The umpire was called upon to measure on at least seven occasions, and even twice to check the jack length. Lewis controlled affairs for the first half of the match although there was never much between the two. A three (after yet another measure) for Lewis at the 22nd end put him 17-11 up, but Alice dug deep and played amazing bowls, including trailing the jack for shot when 2 or possibly 3 down to take the lead for the first time in the match at 18-17. 2 touchers at the next end saw her extend her lead to 19-17. Lewis got the nod on another measure to reduce the deficit to 19-18, but two great bowls within inches of the jack sealed the deal for Alice to win 21-18.

On the same night, Luke was up against yet another older and more experienced opponent in Declan Shaw of Maybole Memorial Park in the Under 25 Final. It was all square at 8-8, when Declan stepped up a gear finding his line and length on a very tricky rink to pull away to 20-10. There was an outside chance for Luke to gamble on taking out his opponent’s bowl to get a four, but opted to draw in for shot to keep the game alive. However a close bowl from Declan proved to be the winner at the next end to record a 21-11 win.

The Bowls Scotland District Pairs Championship was held the next day (18th June) at Midton Road and Lewis and Alice were on the same team, acquitting themselves well,losing two tight games and drawing the other.

On the 15th September, Luke Jones was aiming to be the first player in the club’s history to win both the Club Championship and Junior Championships in the same year. He was up against last year’s beaten finalist, Chloe Buchanan. Chloe deservedly took an early lead, but Luke showed his class from 7-7, never losing another shot. Great credit goes to Chloe, who never let her head drop and kept all of the ends competitive, but just getting edged out.

Luke Jones added another title winning the Junior Pairs, ably assisted by Aiden Johnstone, playing in his first competition. In conditions of mixed showers and sunshine, the boys won through with a 100% record, with Orietta Pezzaioli and Dylan Hughes runners up.

Halloween saw Orietta lose her head!!!

2001/02

Lewis Glover (Triples,) Andrew Lyon and Luke Jones (Pairs) represented their new indoor club Ayr in a joint team with Auchinleck in the SYIBA Top Six at Dumbarton at the end of January. Both teams recorded big wins to see them through to the quarter finals.

Hours before the quarter final tie at Ardrossan on Friday 4th March, there was pre match drama when Andrew sustained a buckle fracture of the wrist during school PE, and Lewis was switched from the Triples team to once again renew his partnership with fellow Nominated Pairs winner, Luke. They showed they were equally adept at the indoor version.

Lewis was the star during the opening ends, playing a series of telling bowls to give them an early 3-1 lead. Luke then took charge with impressive drawing, and finished off the match with a sensational drive which sent the jack and his own bowl crashing into the ditch to get 3 shots and seal an impressive 13-4 win.

This was not enough to book the joint Ayr / Auchinleck team’s passage to the finals day at Arbroath as both the Singles and Triples teams lost. It went right to the wire though, with the Triples fighting back from 9-5 down to square the match at 9-9 going to the last end. Auchinleck’s skip Skye’s final bowl just failed to find its mark and she and fellow Auchinleck players Sam and Cara lost 11-9.

2021

           

 In a thrilling finale to the SYBA Pairs Qualifiers, Luke and Andrew were within a whisker of going through to the National Finals – 5-2 up, lying shot, all back positions covered, and with their opponents, serial qualifiers and past National Pairs Champions, Mason Carson and George Robertson (shown below) with only one bowl left. George’s drive crashed into the jack which rebounded towards three of their bowls and the delivered bowl obligingly rolled along to join them to give them the win and qualification!

Our Triples team of Andrew, Lewis and Emma were competitive in the SYBA play off match, but a disastrous loss of a six at the 5th end ultimately cost them the game.

Our Howie Hedgehogs were in action on Sunday 5th December, representing Ayr Indoor Bowling Club at the SYIBA National Fours competition in Dunfermline. They played teams from Aberdeen, Whiteinch, Dumbarton, Ardrossan and Abbeyview (Dunfermline). Although they failed to reach the knock out stage, it was a useful learning experience.

2020

2019

Farewell to Nicholas Weston and mother Louise, who are off to a new life in New Zealand.  Keep up the bowling, Nicholas, and keep in touch with the Hedgehogs via our web site!

Luke, Lewis, Andrew (Fours) and Lily and Alice (Triples) represented Prestwick Ambassador Juniors in the National SYIBA top Ten competition against Ardrossan on 31St January.  The team just failed 5-3 and so ending  their dream of repeating their finalist appearance of last year.  Here they are in happier times just before their first round tie on 13th December.

Hedgehogs Alice, Lily and Luke represented the Ambassador Juniors at the National SYIBA Fours competition in Falkirk on December 1st, supporting skip Ross Gouldstone.   Although posting an impressive 15-1 win over Aberdeen,  other results saw them just fall short of qualification from their group to the knock out stage.

Junior coaching at the Howie has now finished for the season.   Coaching continues at  the Ambassador Indoor Bowling Club each  Wednesday at 4:00 – 5:15.  You will need to join the club (£10), and pay £1 per session.

More publicity for the Hedgehogs – this time a full page spread in the Ayrshire Post!

The Hedgehogs are featured in the August issue of Bowls International.



Well done, Luke, Alice and Andrew who were runners up in the SYBA Triples National qualifiers.

In the SYBA Pairs qualifications at Craigie on 29th June, Alice Jones & Andrew Lyon gave a good account of themselves.  Although they lost 3 of the 4 games, the only heavy loss was to last year’s national champions losing  15-1.   They lost 8-4 to the Top Ten superstars Emily & Rachel Houston with a couple of unlucky ends and 6-4 to  Jamie Noon & Jack Docherty. They were unlucky as were lying in the last end when the jack was knocked out of play so it was a dead end do no score.  Their only win was 11-4 against Darcie and Amber Finney.

The SYBA Singles Championship for our area took place on Sunday 23rd June at Prestwick Bowling Club.  Three Hedgehogs took part.  Lily was in a Group of Death, against Junior internationalists Ross Gouldstone and Jamie Nooning and held Jamie to a respectable 12-7.  In the other group siblings Alice and Luke had an amazing tussle, Alice winning their head to head 8-7, before losing to Emily Houston on the final bowl to lose out against Luke in qualifying for the semis by a single shot!

The ABA Under 16 semi-final at Wattfield on the 21st June was a hard fought game that could have gone either way.  Luke played a rematch from last year against Arran Hutchison from Maybole Memorial Park. Luke raced into a 5-0 lead after the first two ends and was looking good, but Arran fought back to go 8-5 up, then 10-6 after 10 ends. Then Luke came back at him to go 14-10 up. It was nip and tuck until Luke took the lead on the penultimate end to lead 18-17. Luke had been setting a short jack when he could, but went long for the final end which seemed to suit his opponent more who bowled flawlessly to score 4 and take the match 21-18.

Final League table for selecting the ABA Howie Junior Representatives Qualifiers is:

Player    Played Won Drew Lost Points

Lewis.        5          5       0.      0.       10

Andrew.    5.         3.       1.      0.        7

Lily.            5.        3.        0.      2.        6

Alice.         5.         2.        1.      2.        5

Octave.      5.         1.        0.      4.        2

Orson.        5.         0.        0.     5.        0

Lewis qualified and played in the 2nd Under 16 spot losing to the experienced Emily Houston 21-17.  Lewis fought hard and was leading 15-14 when he dropped a four.  To his credit he got it back to 18-17 and a great  attempt to knock out his opponent’s match-lying bowl just sailed wide.

Hedgehog of the Month for May was Lewis Glover.

Lily Stewart and Alice Jones played in the Under 25s Ladies 2 Bowl Pairs UK Championship qualifiers at Northfield on the 1st June.  Although losing to much older and experienced opponents, they showed steady improvement over their three games, losing 25-3, 15-6 and finally 14-10, being 5-5 after 8 ends in match 2 and 8-8 after 10 ends in match 3.  The second game against Zoe Penman and Kathryn Fisher was the highlight – an intriguing encounter – and it could have gone either way at the end.  At the 9th end, when 3 shots down, Lily just failed with two terrific attempts to trail the jack to gain 3.  The next end Alice lay shot, the opposing skip trailed the jack, and Lily responded by hitting the shot bowl but not quite at the right angle.  At the 11th end, it was Alice’s turn to trail the jack, but the opposition skip drew shot!  It was that kind of game!  Well done, girls! You played an excellent game against the elite of the country’s young bowlers!

 Lewis has qualified in the internal club tournament to decide who represents the club in the ABA Championships.  He will play Prestwick ‘A’ at Hawkhill BC on 7th June at 6:30 pm in the Under 16 Championship. The other qualifier (for the Under 25 Championship) has still to be decided and will play Seafield at Newton Park on the 14th June at 6:30 pm.

Luke Jones was not disgraced in defeat against Scottish International,  Darren Weir in the Scottish Junior Singles, held on 19th May, going down 21-4.  Highlight in an entertaining match was four (or was it five, we lost count!) touchers in a single end, with Luke coming out on top!

You couldn’t make it up! Hedgehog falls into bowling green ditch!  Awwww!  Catch the action and what happened next on  “Catch Up” on Channel 5’s ‘Saving Britain’s Hedgehogs’! Screening date was 15th May.  There is even a hedgehog called Luke!

Luke Jones will be representing Howie as Junior Champion in the ABA under 16s this season.  There are two further places to fill – a second ABA under 16 spot, and an ABA under 25 spot.  This will be decided by way of a qualifying tournament within the club! Let battle commence!

Seven of our Juniors (Fraser , Luke, Alice, Lewis, Andrew, Lily and Orietta) have competed for the Ambassador Juniors in the national Top Ten tournament in 2019,  playing in the Fours and Triples rinks in support of Ross Gouldstone (singles) and Rebecca and Emily Houston (pairs).  The team beat  Dumbarton, Edinburgh Bainfield, Dunfermline and Turriff before coming up short against 3 time back-to-back Top Ten champions , East Lothian.

All our Hedgehogs played superbly in the semis, with Lewis and Orietta weighing in with key bowls at vital times and Lily coming so close so often, it was unreal . A brilliant bowl from Luke at the final end saw the Fours hone 10-7.  Alice was excellent in her debut in the Triples, with a brilliant draw in the 10th end the highlight.  The team came just short losing 3 at the last to finish 10-8 down.  But victory in the singles and pairs was enough to qualify for the finals.

The final was a battering, with the fours losing 28-4 despite some great bowls from debutant, Orietta and the Triples failing to trouble the scoreboard in a 26-0 whitewash.  Ross Gouldstone who had been a rock during the campaign could not cope with a brilliant opponent, losing his 100% record, with the solitary crumb of comfort being the excellent duo of Rebecca and Emily Houston winning through 14-8.

Luke Jones retained his Championship title with a 21-12 win over Sandy Fisher on 25th August.

Congratulations to Orietta Pezzaioli and Alice Jones, joint Hedgehogs of the Month for July.

What a fantastic experience for Hedgehogs Luke, Lily and Nicholas at the National SYBA Finals! The whole day, from registration, putting stickers on bowls, matches, the crowds, the lunch pass (which they were delighted about!), moving between greens, and members of the Howie coming to cheer them on was superb.

They worked well as a team and put in some good shots and most of their games were pretty close. The first match was against a team from Fife, who actually ended up coming runner up.
They played well but then the big kids got an 8 and so there was no coming back from that.

They lost the next game narrowly and the last game before lunch was very exciting as the Hedgehogs were ahead, but Cardonald threw a quick jack just on the final whistle and got two to put them one ahead.  The first game after lunch was a draw, and the final game the other team got a 5 in the final end.
All in all they did well and were a great team with good sportsmanship.

The Adult / Junior Pairs Competition will be held on 19th August.  You can choose a family member or a willing adult member of the club as a partner, or just put your name down and we will match you up.

Junior Pairs will he held the following week on the 19th August.

Congratulations to Luke Jones who beat Robert Rafferty from Girvan 21-3 in the Under 16 Ayrshire Singles at Seafield on Friday 8th June.  Luke was also  the winner of the inaugural Hedgehog of the Month Award for May.  It was a great month for Luke who showed his commitment to the club in his attendances and his spectacular performance in the SYBA singles at Northfield.

Congratulations to all of our Hedgehogs (Alice, Luke, Lucas and Nicholas ) who made their debut in the SYBA Championships at Northfield.  Typically, our Juniors were playing opponents older and more experienced, but all acquitted themselves very well.  Special congratulations to Luke who won all five games in his section, and went through to the semifinal  losing by by 9-8  against Jamie Noon playing on his home arena.

Congratulations to Arianne, Alice, Luke and Lily who were part of a ten strong team who won the Bobby Sutherland Trophy against Auchinleck Juniors at the Ambassador Indoor Bowling Club on Friday 16th of March!

Rebecca Houston and Darren Weir, fresh from their great TV performances at the Scottish Open event in Perth dropped in on our Juniors at the Ambassador. This was a great opportunity to find out what makes a champion!

Last year’s highlights

Well done to Lewis McCarrell and Lily Stewart,  winners of the Junior Pairs Cup held on Saturday 16th September. In an entertaining final with multiple “touchers”, they won through against Lucas Neil and Alice Jones by 6-2 in the five end final.

In the runners up competition for first round losers, Nicolas and Orietta beat the McRae sisters, Ruby and Anna.

Congratulations to Luke who is the new Howie Junior Champion, following a well earned win over the gallant Nicholas.  In an excellent final, the scores were tied at 9-9, when Luke scored a 4, to take a significant and as it proved, unassailable lead.  Well done to both players, for their high skill level and impeccable behaviour on and off the green

Luke’s victory in the John Prentice Triples as been recognised by his school, Kingcase, with Luke winning the award for most outstanding achievement in the school holidays. Well done, Luke!