Dumbarton regained the Brownlie Shield with a 16-14 victory against Cardross at Greenacres Curling Rink on Friday 13 March.

One of the Dumbarton rinks consisted of David Shanks (Skip), David Campbell (Third), Darren Campbell (Second), and Karen Haggarty (Lead).  They were up against a Cardross rink of David Forrest (Skip), Caroleen Clark (Third), Elizabeth Lai (Second), and Susan Mathieson (Lead) on Sheet B.

The other Dumbarton rink of Jim MacDonald (Skip), Jonny Flowers (Third), Mike Pearsall (Second), and Alex Brown (Lead).  The were up against a Cardross rink of Adam Clark (Skip), Ian McArthur (Third), Margaret Morrison (Second), and Marilyn McMeeking (Lead) on Sheet C.

Both clubs expected a keenly contested couple of games, especially as the previous 4 contests had been decided by less than a point, with 2 of those being decided on ends after the combined scores resulted in an overall tie.  This year's contest proved to be no exception as the destination of the Shield wasn't decided on the very last stone had come to rest.

Cardross took an early advantage when Adam Clarks' rink scored a 5 in the first end against Jim MacDonald.  On the other rink, David Shanks scored a 3 in the first end against David Forrest, keeping Dumbarton in touch.  

The match on Sheet B kept swinging back and forth.  Team Forrest scored a 2 in the second end.  Team Shanks responded with a single on the 3rd end, before Team Forrest scored a 3 in the 4th end giving Cardross a 5-4 lead. 

Meanwhile, on Sheet C.  Team MacDonald dug in that disasterous start and replied with a 2 in the second end, and scored a steal of 2 in the third end, before Team Clark scored a single in the 4th end for a 6-4 in Cardross' favour, giving an overall 11-8 lead at the halway point.

On Sheet B, Team Shanks levelled the score with a single in 5th end.  The pivotal point in the game came in the 6th end when David Forrest could prevent Team Shanks from stealling 4 points in the 6th end.  Team Forrest only managed to score a single at the last end, handing Dumbarton a 9-6 victory in game 1.

On Sheet C, Jim MacDonald had a nose hit with his last stone to score a 4.  Unfortunately, the stone was just a bit light on weight as it over curled and missed the target stone to conceded a steal of 1 putting Team Clark in a commanding 7-4 lead.  Team MacDonald rallied again taking a 2 in the 6th end to come back to within one shot.

The 7th end was well controlled by Dumbarton as they sat counting 4 shots as the skips prepared to play their last stone.  With the centre line open Jim played a guard to cover the easy hit.  With an excellent line call by Jonny in the head, the stone was well controlled by the sweeping team of Mike and Alex to finish in the perfect spot.

Adam was then played what was arguably the shot of the night.  Facing 4 against, and with the game on the other sheet going the way of Dumbarton, The only option left to him was to raise one of his own stones about 4 feet outside the front of the house to remove the short stone in the 4-foot to keep Cardross' hopes of retaining the shield alive.  The stone was delivered with unerring accuracy taking a single when losing a 4 looked likely, a swing of 5 shots in Cardross' favour at the critical point in the match.

With the other game not completing the 7th end until after the bell, both teams on Sheet B stayed on the ice to watch the drama unfold on Sheet C.  With the overall score standing at 15-14 in Dumbarton's favour, and the ends, in case of a tie-breaker at 7-7, everyone knew that a single for Cardross would be enough to tie the score but win the match by 8 ends to 7.

Team Clark had 2 stones at the top of the 4-foot protected by 3 well placed guards at the front.  Jim had no option but to start clearing stones.  Mike was first and managed to hit one of the guards driving it into the house and removing one of the shot stones.  Elizabeth Lai then played a wonderful draw back in behind the remaining guards to sit 2.  Mike then managed to remove another guard with his final stone of the match.  Ian McArthur then played another stone to the top of the 8 foot providing additional cover to the shot stones and increasing the shot count to 3.  

Jonny removed the final guard opening up the house.  Ian played another guard, before Jonny removed that one also.  It then came down to the skips.  Adam played at guard that overcurled slightly leaving Jim a chance to remove a couple of stones, potentially all 3 from the house.  Even with a very heavy weight, this stone also slightly overcurled just missing the front stone, but taking out the shot stone reducing the count to 2.

Adam's final stone was another guard that partially covered the front stone, taking away the option of the double take-out that could have blanked the end.  This left Jim having to come around the stone on the 8-foot to tap back the stone sitting at the top of the button.

There was complete silence in the rink, and from those watching in the bar as Jim setup to deliver the stone.  When he released the stone he shouted to the sweepers it was close.  Jonny then called the line immaculately as Alex and Mike put in an almight sweeping effort to guide the shot only millimeters past the guard on the 8-foot and nose the shot stone tapping it back enough to leave Dumbarton with the shot stone.  Although Team Clark won the match 8-7, Dumbarton regained the Brownlie Shield by a combined score of 16-14.

All that remained was for Susan Mathieson (President of Cardross Curling Club) to present the shield to David Armstrong (President of Dumbarton Curling Club).  It was a bit more poignant as this was David's first visit to Greenacres since his accident at the end of the Lennox Cup match against Helensburgh just over a year earlier.  David thanked everyone for producing a great contest of the ice, but more especially the words of welcome he recieved from members of both clubs on the evening.

The Brownlie Shield is one of the highlights of the season.  Although there is a fierce rivalry between the clubs, both sets of players always enjoy the post match get-together were the rivalries are set aside in favour of the true spirit of curling camaraderie the sport promotes.