The club was founded in 1948 as the Blackburn Welfare Bowling Club by fitters employed by the local Blackburn Aircraft Factory, which in the post war years adapted to the provision of pre-fabricated housing units. The club adopted the name of Brock as a tribute to Mrs Willox, who previously had been married to Mr Walter Brock Jnr of Levenford House, who died in 1937 and whose name she had offered when the Blackburn factory closed. Mrs Willox’s patronage was valuable at this time of change and she was a regular attender at the openings of the green for a number of years thereafter.

The honour of being elected the first President of the club was bestowed upon Mr Andrew Skinner, latterly a member of Townend B.C. and a notable personality around the local greens. His tenure of office saw the club successfully through its inaugural year and the succeeding one, 1949. The club champion in 1949 was D.L. Turner and, when five years later a ladies section was formed, Peggy McDonald was it’s first champion. In 1981 Ex-Provost Ian McDuff was elected Honorary President and in 1990 Mr Jimmy Marshall was elected Honorary Vice-President.

The club is located on the north side of Crosslet Road and lies between two schools, Dumbarton Academy and St Patricks Primary. The original clubhouse was located between the bowling green and tennis courts, which have been closed for many years, the ground having been required by the local Education Authority. A new clubhouse was constructed on the opposite side of the green in 1966 and has been extended, first in 1978 and more recently in 1993. It now provides a games room, main hall, bowls and committee rooms plus kitchen and toilets and the services of excellent facilities.

On the bowling side the club may not as yet have won a National title but could not have come closer in the 1979 Scottish Triples Championship Final, where Danny Currie, Jim White and Willie Hughes lost by a single shot. In the Dumbartonshire Championships the club has provided a singles champion in J. McLean in 1953, Fours champions in 1993 comprising D. Ballantine, J. Stewart,G. Rae Jnr and D. Ballantine Jnr (skip) and in the following year N. Donnelly, P. Bush, D. McCully and J. White (skip) took the Senior Fours title.

One of the stalwarts of the club, the late Alex Hamill, who gave most willing service over many years, which included a period as Hon Secretary, also characterised the humour which underlies the game of bowls. One of the favoured anecdotes told of him was of an occasion when playing as third, his skip called to ask who was lying, prior to delivering the last bowl. “By my engineer’s eye, we lie one” was the response. At the resultant count the Brock had to concede five shots. Neither Alex’s nor his (nameless) skip’s subsequent comments are recorded for posterity.

Thanks to W.T. Hughes for writing this article.