How the west of edinburgh bowling Association was started

1957 – 2007

A Wee Bit About Us

In 1955, whilst the rest of the world was concerning itself with a crisis looming in Suez, where two thirds of Europe’s oil passed along the canal, men from the west of Edinburgh with foresight and open minds were discussing the formation of a bowling league for their side of the city. Possibly influenced by the Water of Leith Bowling Association, who were celebrating their 50th Anniversary that year, meetings took place and clubs were canvassed to assess interest and support. The seeds were sown.

Through 1956 Britain was warring in Egypt and laying plans to control the Suez Canal, Edinburgh was running its last tram and, the future WEBA back-room boys were busy. Plans took shape, a league format was agreed and some trial matches took place. But it was not until 1957, as recorded in the minutes of the first AGM in March 1958, that the first official league competition was played and the WEBA was formally launched.

The minute book records the founder member bowling clubs of the Association as –

Bainfield
Carrick Knowe
Fountain Brewery
Gorgie Mills
Lorimer & Clark Brewery
North British Distillery

Although Gorgie Mills is mentioned as a founder member there is no mention of the club being Part of the Association until it was accepted into the WEBA in 1991. It is assumed it dropped out between 1955 and the official launch in 1957.

 The first recorded President was G Deans of Bainfield who handed over at the 1958 AGM to A Paul of the West End and became the first Secretary – a post he held until 1962. West End BC won the 1957 League. A trophy had been purchased for K20 and was presented to A McPhail of the West End Bowling Club. The meeting agreed an annual subscription of&1 from each club.

1959 saw the first singles competition which proved to be very popular and was expanded over the years to become our annual Knockout Competition for singles, pairs, triples and fours. The finals of this competition now forms the basis of our ever popular Finals Day when the competition is fierce, prizes for the season’s competitions are presented and the banter is second to none.

Prize giving on Finals Day is a fairly new concept. At the 1959 AGM a proposal to run a Dinner Dance, at which prizes could be presented, was accepted and arrangements were made to hold the function in the hall at North Briish Distillery. Unfortunately the date clashed with other functions, not enough tickets were sold and it had to be cancelled. (Sound familiar?) For a few years after that the league winners hosted a game and the presentation of prizes. Later many highly successful Dinner Dances were held, in the Westfield Halls, which ultimately became too expensive, and the venue moved to clubs who had the facilities. Eventually the dances became less popular and Finals Day took over the prize giving.

The WEBA has seen many changes in its 50 years. Clubs have come and gone and come back again. Competition formats have changed and re-changed. Members of this Association do not lack the spirit of adventure. The Committee constantly attracts men who think ‘out the box and are prepared to break the trends. Always willing to try new ways to make the competitions more interesting. If it fails we can at least say ‘we tried’.

We started with a league of 8 clubs in 1957. By 1961 we were joined by Caledonian, Bertrams Ltd. And Longstone Transport Welfare. Bainfield and Carrick Knowe offered a second team and a 2^nd XVI league competition got underway with a pennant for the winners. The first inter association friendly game was held, with the Northern Association, and played at Carrick Knowe and the first Pairs KO competition was held. There was a definite buzz about the area. The following year Corstorphine joined with two XVIs and Fountain, Sighthill and Longstone each added a second XVI and the leagues changed to ‘one league of all clubs, playing one game against each other’, and an ‘Alliance League’ for clubs entering a second XVI. Ardmillan enquired about membership but eventually joined the Northern and a ‘Champion of Champions’ was set up tor league winners to compete against the league winners of other Associations called The Edinburgh & District Leagues Association.’ Without doubt, a hectic first five years.

1963 saw the first club to leave the WEBA when West End, who had won the league three years in succession, announced they were leaving to concentrate their efforts in the Southern Association of which they were also a member. Coltbridge was accepted into the WEBA. As we moved through the sixties we saw both Bertrams and Longstone expelled, Corstorphine resigned to join the North west and Caledonian and NBD entered a 2^nd XVI but NBD struggled to find players and reverted to one team. A WEBA team was invited to play at Hillside under their new floodlights and WEBA lapel badges were finally produced.

At the start of the seventies Carrick Knowe left to join the Water of Leith and the league games were played on a set night instead of randomly by mutual agreement. Tuesday night was first chosen but was not universally popular, especially with the works clubs whose players often worked overtime on Tuesdays, and was moved to a Friday. Colinton was accepted into WEBA, in 1973, with two XVIs. Members were informed that the lapel badges cast in 1965 were no longer available and a new die would need to be cast. A new design was agreed for the badge in 1973. Coltbridge left to join the Northern League in 1974, Gorgie Mills was invited to Join WEBA and Lorimer and Clark entered a 2^nd XVI.

In the early eighties we started planning for our 25^th Anniversary. The clubs were Levied £30 each and a plaque was designed for commemorative gifts.

A Seniors league was formed for afternoon competitions and they soon found their feet and decided to run their own affairs independent of WEBA but reporting progress to our AGM. As we played our way through the eighties we welcomed Slateford and Currie (with its new Scapa Green) into the Association. Lorimer and Clark after the brewery changed hands became a private club then soon closed when the lease on the green was refused. Stenhouse joined in 1987 and the August trophy competition was started in 1988 to fill the time between the end of the leagues and the end of the season.

The nineties brought a lot of adventurism in the changes to our competition format. A lot of trial and error took place. Some only to be reversed the following year but a lot was learned and we moved on, all the stronger. Colinton Mains joined us along with Longstone who was re-admitted. Currie’s Scapa green was closed and they withdrew their 2^nd XVI in 1995. A results phone-in system was started which allowed member clubs to get the results posted to them each week. This was later taken over by Stewart Peacock of Sighthill who put the results onto his website and informed the newspapers until he sadly died in the early years of the millennium.

A new millennium brought flags for the league winners and a WEBA tie of which we are very proud. Both were designed by Danny Fair of Currie. The Edinburgh & District Leagues Association disbanded through lack of support and Carrick Knowe joined us for a second time.

And so we have spent a fair bit of time in recent years planning our celebrations and hoping we have got it right and everyone who is a member of our association or associated with us has a really good time during our year of celebrations.

We have briefly mentioned our Association Games (the Friendly) but we could not close this note on who we are without a bit more information about games that have played such a big part of shaping the West Edinburgh Bowling Association. We started with Northern then quickly added others to play on an annual basis over our whole history. We currently play with- the Esk, the South, the East, the Water of Leith, Edinburgh & Leith, Edinburgh & Leith Secretaries, the Maule, the Scottish Civil Service and WEBA Seniors. Each one of these games is special and brings its own characters and ‘weel kent’ faces along with some new blood to keep the banter fresh. WEBA members love to win but only if that can go hand in hand with pleasure and friendship. That is the main platform on which we take great pride and we thank all our friends and associates who have helped us develop over the last fifty years as we look forward to the next fifty.