(Thanks to Frank Heron)

This is the story of two clubs, affectionately known as The Monday Club and The Wednesday Club where, way back in 1975, Erskine locals met to play dominoes, darts and chat about life's great wonders and woes. The members started to go to Robertson Park in Renfrew to play bowls!

They were approached by Brown's Bowling Club and asked if they would like to join and without thinking they respectfully declined and announced that they were going to build their own club in Erskine! So the seed was sown. At the next meeting of the two local clubs, the subject was high on the agenda and it was agreed by both that they must try to achieve this.

The first task was to canvass for prospective members for the new bowling club and in no time they achieved close to 100 names of ladies and gents eager to get on board.

Having no premises, they played at Robertson Park. Soon they started to get invitations from other clubs, inviting them to play bowls at their clubs. The men would go and play during the day and the ladies would join them in the evening for a wee dance. They had many good nights, met many new friends and in Frank's words, "the fun then was fantastic".

However, they still wanted a club and a green of their own. They formed a building committee Frank (Heron), Tommy Smith and A. Weir (both now deceased), and D. Sey, now no longer a member.

The first task was to lease a piece of land and it took lots of meetings and three years of toil to get the land which they still occupy. Next, backing was required to actually build a club. They obtained an estimate from a builder for a club house. £75,000 was quoted!

They contacted the Duke of Edinburgh awards, Sports Councils and anyone and everyone who would offer grants. No joy! Next they contacted Dryburghs Brewery. It took 3 or 4 meetings before they agreed to fund the building, but only on condition that they signed up for membership, the 100 "names" that first showed interest in forming the club. This was achieved. The funding came from Dryburghs Bank, Co-op and themselves.

The Clubhouse was opened in 1981 and they continued to play their bowls at Robertson Park.

They applied to Johnstone & District for membership, playing all their games as "away". This was accepted and they joined the Johnstone & District League.

After a few years of running the club, they approached the bank for funding to build a green. They had a choice though and this was put to the members.

Construct a "grass" green and wait a further 2 years for the ground and grass to be in top condition before use or, build a new artificial lawn and use it as soon as the workmen had finished. No contest! Artificial was chosen.

The Green opened for use in 1984!

Pictures of the construction can be seen here :-