TOURNAMENT HISTORY

HISTORY OF THE DUNOON OPEN BOWLING TOURNAMENT

The Dunoon Bowling Tournament has been running since 1948 when a men’s singles tournament was held for the ‘Harry Gordon Trophy’. The tournament week is now affectionately known as the ‘Harry Gordon Week’ even though it’s merely the name of the gent’s singles trophy.

In 1950 a gent’s pairs was added to the week playing for the McPherson Trophy. In 1969, the tournament expanded to allow ladies to compete for the Marshall Cup (singles) and Milanda Trophy (pairs). Further expansion in the 1980s saw the addition of two consolation trophies, for those already eliminated from the ‘blue riband’ events, in the form of the McColl’s Hotel Trophy (mixed pairs) and Cowal Cottage Bakery Trophy (mixed triples). In 1986 a juvenile tournament was introduced for under 16s with a shield donated by Jimmy Riddell of Renfrewshire. There are also many social bowling events taking place at the greens, now, during the course of the week to keep visitors entertained.

Clippings from years gone by…..
Below are a number of newspaper clippings which you can click to see in full view, the first two of which were extracted from The Glasgow Herald, August 11th 1956 and August 18th 1959. The third and forth clippings were taken from the Glasgow Herald August 16th 1955 and August 13th 1963.

  • Herald Newspaper Clipping
  • Herald Newspaper Clipping
  • Herald Newspaper Clipping
  • Herald Newspaper Clipping

Over the years the tournament has attracted many of the nation’s top bowlers as well as competitors from across the United Kingdom and beyond, indeed, in 1989, the gent’s singles was won by a competitor from Australia! This year sees the 68th annual tournament take place from Monday 3rd August to Saturday 8th August on the bowling greens of the Cowal Bowling Association (Bogleha’, Dunoon Argyll, Innellan, Kirn and Hunter’s Quay and Upper Cowal). All the greens will be busy over the course of the week, with the finals of the main events (gent’s singles and pairs, ladies’ singles and pairs and juvenile singles) this year taking place at Kirn and Hunter’s Quay on Saturday.

All visitors will be given a warm welcome.