Hi I thought it worthwhile pointing out that Carpet Bowls is a totally different sport to Indoor Bowls, which has gained in popularity over the last 20 years. Carpet Bowls have no bias and are played on long boards with rules very similar to curling. For many years a Scotland-England international match was played annually, alternatively at Dumfries and Bolton. England never won a match and the games were abandoned in the 1950s. I still have my grandfathers bowls, which he played with in these international matches on several occasions. He won them in a tournament at Borgue in 1920 and they have a silver engraved medal attached. Best wishes Ian A McClumpha Need help with your Scottish Family History research? Let Imchad Ancestry assist you. Please look at our website: www.imchad.freeola.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mary Forsyth Sent: 16 December 2010 23:12 To: Ken Parker Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIG LIST] carpet bools Hi Ken   That was quite a cycle from Elrig to Kirkcowan. As you say nearly all the villages had their carpet bowling clubs. I can remember the name Cronie from New Luce.  My husbands parents were from there.   When you mentioned the bowling club in Elrig being in the school I wondered if your dad remembered a family called Stewart who lived opposite the school.  My grandfather (Samuel) was a blacksmith.  My mum would have been 84 this year.   Mary Forsyth --- On Thu, 16/12/10, Ken Parker <[email protected]> wrote: From: Ken Parker <[email protected]> Subject: [WIG LIST] carpet bools To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, 16 December, 2010, 5:19 Hello all,              My dad David Birch Parker, who will be 80 in January, was telling me yesterday of an occasion when he and his father cycled from Elrig in Mochrum Parish to Kirkcowan for an indoor bools competition. This was on the 2nd January and they arrived back home at 2 am on the 3rd. He also mentioned a time when there was a competition at Glenluce, which was won by a man named A. Cronie. This man was from New Luce and won many carpet bool competitions. To get back to Elrig that night, a McLean's taxi was hired from Port William, driven by a chap called Rafferty. My Dad sat on his fathers knee in the front passenger seat and in the back were eight or so Merry Boolers. The driver had been a truck driver in the WW2 desert campaign and my dad says he drove like he was in the desert, at great speed and all over the place. My dad and grandad were let out at the foot of the Sheugh and walked home to Elrig from there. There were Carpet Bowl Clubs in many villages, Elrig, Mochrum, Port William all had one. The one at Elrig was in the School. At one time a house a few doors up from the school house was used. Ken Parker ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

I can't resist adding to the complications here. I think I have found on the web that there are Indoor Bowls, Short-Mat or English Short-Mat Bowls and Carpet Bowls, and as far as I can see the tendency is to divergence. Carpet Bowls appear to have bias, and to have no bias, and maybe some of the web sources are biased in this matter. Certainly a set of biased carpet bowls is presently for sale on e-Bay and the set that we own here is very biased. Indoor Bowls seem to have taken over New Zealand, while the Short-Mat etc. differences are much too complicated for me. My own experience is all with outdoor bowls, of the rink, or lawn, or crown-green persuasions. Rink or lawn bowls are played here in the state of Delaware, while I have seen them also in England in Lancashire near Blackpool, in the north of Yorkshire, in New Zealand near Rotorua, and on the Clyde coast where my aunt was an avid player in Ardrossan. However, I will claim that none of these varieties holds a candle to crown-green bowls, played in a swath of England roughly from Chester to south Yorkshire, and up and down a bit. No lines are required on the green, no lanes exist, no direction is specified for play, and games cross and intercross. Collisions do occur, but are managed. Also the jack is smaller, but brown and biased. No white jacks!! The big square green has a rise in the middle (the crown), maybe as much as a foot, and one can play square-peg (the wood's bias counteracting the crown bias) or round-peg (where the biases aid). There is a ditch, known as the "hoggin". When I lived in Cheshire, we (the social club of the plant where I worked) played in a league, and as I remember, all the other clubs were pub-based. The standards, both for beer and for bowling, were high, very high. I wonder which of these varieties is alive and well in Galloway today. Crown green I'd hope. :-) Crawford.