Berkeley LBC members Jim Corr, Ann Gardiner, and Shawn Roney took first place in the 2012 Ed Arnold Tournament held at Palo Alto LBC on November 3.
The “Ed Arnold” is a special event held annually in Palo Alto in honor of a former long-time member of that club who was active not only in lawn bowls but also in promoting youth sports in his home town of nearby Burlingame. It has some unique features in that it is not only a “mixed triples”—every team of three has to have a member of both genders—but also, over the 12 ends of each match the team members rotate their positions so that each plays as lead, vice, and skip for four ends. This places a premium on “all round” bowlers who know the requirements of the different positions.
A very popular tournament, this year saw, as usual, a strong field of 16 teams from across the Bay Area. Only two teams won all three of their matches over the course of the day: the Berkeley trio and the team of Rod and Rita Arriaga and Norm Tiernan from San Francisco. As announced at the outset by tournament director, Bud Birkenseer, the winner would be decided by a one-end “sudden death” playoff, with each player having only two bowls instead of the usual three. In a short but tense culmination, Jim, Ann, and Shawn took that final point and first place.
“I think we all bowled well as a team,” said Jim after the match, “but I would single out a couple of key moments that made a big difference. First, in our second match, Ann, playing as skip at the time, came in with her last bowl on two successive ends to take the point, in each case turning what would have been a five-point deficit into a one point gain. Then, in the critical final playoff, both Ann and Shawn laid a bowl less than a foot from the jack, with good back bowls, putting the opposing skip under tremendous pressure. The result was that I didn’t even have to use my last bowl.”
Congratulations to all and special plaudits to Ann and Shawn who have shown that they are more than ready to leave their “novice “ status behind and enter the ranks of “veteran” lawn bowlers!