At County level, we have two squads competing in national competitions. Our Senior squad take part in the prestigious SCCBA Andrew Hamilton Trophy and our Under 25s take part in three national events – League Trophy, Scottish Cup and Top 10.

Starting with our Under 25s, we do not have the biggest pool of players to select from and often we have players as young as 10 or 11 playing to ensure we can fulfil our fixtures…..but what we do have in abundance amongst our juniors is enthusiasm and no fear!

All the Under 25 events are regionalised for the first stage and this sees us competing with Angus/Dundee, Grampian and Perthshire. More often than not in recent years it has been Grampian and Angus/Dundee who have dominated the events as they have a higher average age and greater experience.

The League Trophy was the first event to take place in May and this year Bon Accord had two home matches with the first one v Grampian. This was a memorable day for our youngsters as they produced a stunning comeback from 19 shots down with 48 ends left to win by 2 shots 113-111.

Two weeks later our team faced Angus/Dundee at Abergeldie knowing that victory would secure qualification to the national semi-finals! This time it was Bon Accord who lead early on by 14 shots at the end of the first quarter however by halfway Angus/Dundee had fought back to lead by 2 shots. However our battling youngsters showed tremendous skill, passion and effort to go back in front by 13 shots with 36 ends left. The gap of 13 was maintained with 18 ends left. With only 1 end left Bon Accord led by only 3 shots ….but managed to score a single to win by 4 and qualify for the semi-finals!!

In the semi-finals we faced Ayrshire who were another more experienced squad and for many of our team the match represented another fantastic opportunity to gain experience. At halfway we were only 5 shots down but then fell 26 shots behind by three quarters and with the rain falling the team didn’t let this dampen their enthusiasm, however it was Ayrshire who prevailed by 48 shots in the end.

The next competition was the Scottish Cup where we faced Grampian with matches played over 17 ends. At just past halfway Grampian led by 2 shots and then 8 shots with 2 ends to go which unfortunately we were not able to recover from…however another excellent effort from our youngsters.

The final event was the Top 10, where we were drawn against Grampian again! Unfortunately we lost all four matches!

However, although the season ended with a defeat, there was a massive amount of positives over the whole season especially the performances in the league matches and having another tight match in the Scottish Cup. Therefore there is plenty to look forward to as the bulk of our squad have a good number of years ahead of them at this age group and will only get better from the experiences gained this season. A huge thank you goes to Derek Adie, Lenny Mackay and David Leslie for their work with the squad and also to Alan Petrie who helps those under 17 with his regular ‘Hats’. Also thanks to all the players who played and were in the squads and also to the parents, family and supporters who have supported our talented youngsters!

Onto the Gents County squad who in the Andrew Hamilton Trophy were seeking to in the North Section for a 6th successive competition, but more importantly aiming to progress in the second stage knockout to hopefully reach the final which was played this year at Newhills BC.

Our season opened with an away fixture v Highland where a dominant 2nd half saw us posting a win by 126-102. Our first home match at Kittybrewster was against our neighbours Aberdeen & Kincardine with another win being recorded 136 – 117. Round 3 saw another home match v last season’s North Section runners-up Perthshire and another strong performance saw a convincing 124-92 win being posted.

Round 4 was delayed for us with rain washing out the scheduled date for our match v City of Dundee at Lochee, which resulted in us playing our home match v Buchan before the rescheduled date. The Buchan match was played at Balgownie and again the team was too strong as we ran out winners 140-108 to record our 4th successive win. The following week we travelled to Lochee to play City of Dundee where we secured another win this time by 127-110.

Round 6 saw us travel to Inverness to play Northern Counties and this match had caused us difficulties in recent seasons. Once we got our noses in front we were able to control the match and secured a 10 shot win by 119-109. It was in this match that a milestone was achieved – Roy Henry earning his 200th cap – the first player to do so for the Bon Accord, therefore the win made it a sweeter occasion for Roy and his team mates!! Congratulations again Roy!!

We finished off the section with another convincing win away v Angus by 121-92 to make it 7 wins out of 7 and secure a 6th successive North Section title!!

However, we wanted to go further and the quarter final saw us face the East Section runners-up East Lothian at Arbroath BC. When the day came, the weather was horrible – wind, rain and freezing cold temperatures on the East Coast!! For the first half of the match we held our own with a deficit of only 5 shots, however as the weather got worse, the deficit increased with the end result seeing defeat by 90-120.

A disappointing end to another AHT season however within the North Section we continued our success with an undefeated North Section campaign. A huge amount of thanks to Team Manager John Miller, Selectors Mike Reid and Alex Gauld, to all the players in the squad and to our supporters who came along to all the matches to encourage the team! Thanks to Stuart Robison for manging the finances at the matches.

Our final thanks for the Gents County campaign goes to our Match Secretary Cameron, who deals with all the arrangements with each of our opponents pre-match and then ensures all is in order for match day including shirts, stickers, scorecards, result sheets and when not playing… also provides live scoring!

We hope that you have all enjoyed our 3 part review of yet another busy and successful season for our Clubs and our Association.

We look forward to another successful season in 2026!