I spent a lot of my childhood at a bowling green. My late father, John McAra, loved his bowling and was actually very good at it! He played both outdoor bowls and indoor bowls.
My first memories of watching him would be at Summerhill Bowling Club in Newcastle upon Tyne, where we lived from 1958-1964. While at that club, he won the club championship and in 1960 also won the Northumberland County Pairs Championship. He also represented Northumberland on numerous occasions. He also told me that he had been approached by a selector for England, who had told him if he hadn't been Scottish, he would have been picked to represent England!
While we were living in Newcastle, we did return to Scotland for our two week summer holiday. We went to Girvan every July. Why? Because they held a bowling tournament at that time. My dad would enter the singles, pairs, rinks - every event going. Some of his friends from Summerhill would even come up too, and his brother, my Uncle George would sometimes come along. So even on my holidays I spent a lot of time around the bowling green.
We moved back to Wishaw in 1964. Dad returned to playing with his old club, Wishaw South. He would attend the weekly promiscuous event on a Monday and take a part in all the competitions available. His brother-in-law, David Anderson, my mum's brother, also played there and I think it may have been David who introduced my dad to bowling, a hobby which went on to dominate his non-working life. In those early years, my mum didn't play. Like so many other wives, she took her turn baking and serving teas on match days, though she too took up bowls later on. As a child I used to be given a set of bowls and a jack and 'sent' to play on a small patch of grass next to the clubhouse so I wouldn't get bored.
While at Wishaw South, my dad won a lot. His name appears many times on the boards on the clubroom walls. Last summer I went back to this old haunt and although the clubhouse has changed and my 'bowling green' has gone, the boards, although no longer wooden, are still up on the wall. He had been the Club Champion no less than ten times. He had won the Lanarkshire Pairs with David Anderson way back in 1948! Also the District Fours in 1966, the District Singles and Pairs in 1979. Unfortunately that was the year he suffered his first heart attack.
We stopped going to Girvan on our holidays once we were living in Scotland and instead went south to Hastings - to another bigger bowling tournament. Uncle George used to come with us every year. Again my dad entered the singles, pairs, triples and rinks tournaments. A typical day on holiday involved my mum and I fitting our holiday activities around the various games Dad would be playing throughout the fortnight. We had to go shopping every day for food items to see him through those times when he would have to miss lunch or dinner because of his matches.
Back home in Lanarkshire, my dad had his most successful singles year in 1971, when he became the Scottish Singles Champion. The finals took place at Queens Park Bowling Club in Glasgow and I remember being there. Our local newspaper, The Wishaw Press, came our house to take photographs and my dad, my mum and I were on the front page!
Not only do we have lots of photos of my dad bowling, we are lucky to have lots of him in action. He had a 8mm movie camera and it shot most of its work around a bowling green.
My dad liked being outdoors. As well as all the bowling, he was an avid gardener and he used to go fishing. I think he is a fitting subject for this topic.
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