LGBTQI+ History Month Bowling Cups 2024 Round-Up
14th March 2024
We’re excited to have hosted another successful National Ten Pin Bowling Tournament in celebration of LGBT+ History Month this February. Congratulations to our winners and thank you so much to all the clubs, community members and corporate partners who took part. This year over 300 people took part nationally and we can’t wait to see you again in 2025!
North Community Cup
Clubs across the highlands arranged their own games throughout the month of February for the North Cup. This built anticipation in the LEAP office as the scores trickled in from 8 competing teams. Huge congratulations to the Aberdeen Frontrunners who managed to bag both First and Second place in this year’s North Cup! The fight for Second was tight, but Inverness Craig Dunain Ladies RFC’s average score came in just two points behind the Frontrunners to take Third place.
East Community Cup
This year our East and West Cups happened simultaneously, with clubs going head to head in Edinburgh and Glasgow on the 16th of February. In the East, 6 teams competed at the Roxy Lanes on Rose Street. Results on the night were decisive, with ten points between the average scores of each of our top three teams. Coming in Third was the Edinburgh Frontrunners, followed by the Edinburgh Curveballs in Second. First place was won by a small but mighty 4-player Edinburgh Racqueteers team, making it the third year in a row that they’ve finished on top.
West Community Cup
We were blown away by the interest in this year’s West Cup! 150 members of the LGBTQIA+ sports community signed-up to compete at the Springfield Quay Hollywood Bowl. With high numbers taking over the lanes, some teams were formed by clubs collaborating for the title and the competition had to be spread across two evenings. This only increased the tension, which was already ramped up by the possibility of someone knocking Glasgow Frontrunners off their top spot for the first time in West Cup history! Make Mondays Volleyball came in Third this year and Second place was taken by Truegrip Badminton. This left First place to one of our collaborative teams, made up of players from Saltire Thistle FC and Raptors RFC. It’s lovely to see this joint team doing so well at the competition, summing up the friendliness of the whole event.
Youth Cup
35 young people competed in this year’s Youth Cup, which took place on the 18th of February at Tenpin Falkirk. Gaudie Academy, the education training centre at Kibble, entered two teams and performed brilliantly, finishing in both First and Third place with The Banana Splits and The Strikers respectively. Sandwiched between them in Second place were the young people from FK1nclude, an LGBT+ Youth Scotland group in Falkirk. Alongside the bowling, we all had a lot of fun eating and hanging out together.
Corporate Cup
Our final competition of the month was the Corporate Cup, which was hosted at the Vega in Glasgow on a very special LEAP day on the 29th of February. As well as being a celebration of LGBT+ History Month, this cup is a fundraiser for the youth work LEAP does throughout the year and we were very grateful to receive raffle prizes from some fantastic queer-friendly organisations across Glasgow. Third place on the night was taken by LGBTQ+@Sky and Second place went to HSBC. Kibble Education and Care Centre won First place, making that two trophies going back to Paisley as this team was made up of the teachers and carers of the Youth Cup winners.
We would like to thank every single person who took part in our tournament this year. It’s beautiful to see so many people coming together for LGBT+ History Month, we hope you had as much fun as we did. See you all next year!
