Category Archives: Tournaments

2022 BLBC 2-Bowl Singles Tournament—Final Result

2022 BLBC 2-Bowl Singles Tournament—Final Result, Report by Jim Corr

BLBC Bowlers,

The 2022 BLBC 2-Bowl Singles Tournament did not go quite as originally planned, but the outcome could have been predicted in advance with last year’s champion, Daniel Gorelick, making it a two-fer in the 2-Bowls in 2022.

After an initial round robin stage, the tournament finals had originally been scheduled as a one-day event for  Saturday, March 19th, but fell foul of a fickle weather forecast—it was the forecast rather than the weather which proved fickle, shifting from day to day but still predicting a substantial, steady rain and cold temperatures on the eve of the competition, so the Tournament Committee decided to call it off. As it turned out, of course, the Saturday was no more than overcast with a few meagre showers—what’s called a fine day for bowling in Scotland—and could easily have been held. 

Instead, the 8 bowlers who had qualified for the quarter-finals played  their individual games over the next three weeks and from that knockout process, Cris Benton and Daniel eventually emerged as the finalists, an intriguing match-up as, in combination, they had won the 2021 Pairs title together. In the event, the final (held on Thursday, April 7th), and played to the first bowler to reach 15 points, was a close affair for the first 16 ends, the lead trading back and forth several times. At the end of the 16th the score was 11-10, but Daniel managed to pull it off with two points on the next two ends and emerged the winner by 15-10.

Congratulations to Daniel! 

And a shout out to all those who participated, as well as all those who volunteered as markers, and a big thanks to Hugo Deaux as Tournament Director.

2022 Berkeley Triples Tournament

2022 Berkeley Triples Tournament, Report by Jim Corr and Rolayn Tauben

The 2022 BLBC Triples Tournament took place in pleasant bowling weather on Saturday, April 2. A nice round number of eighteen players, making for six teams, had signed up for the event, and the team formations were set by random draw after bowlers were first assigned as Skip, Vice, or Lead.

The preliminary round consisted of three 10-end games, at the end of which only one trio: Dave McMullen (Skip), Sal Garcia-Lemus (Vice), and Rolayn Tauben (Lead) had come through with a clean sheet, winning all three of their games with consistently fine bowling. Second in the standings at that point were Hugo Deaux, Cindy Moss, and Joseph Chow, edging out the team of Jim Corr, Glenn Nunez, and Des Simpson on scored points differential.

The stage was set for an interesting 12-end final, since Hugo’s team had suffered their sole defeat against Dave’s—and by a single point. Hugo, Cindy, and Joseph leapt into an early lead of 7 points and never relinquished it, although Dave, Sal, and Rolayn fought back valiantly to draw level on the 5th end before Hugo’s team turned it on and ran out handy winners by 16-9. 

So, congratulations to Hugo, Cindy, and Joseph as the 2022 Triples Champions! Certificates will be presented to them at our Annual General Meeting and their names will be engraved on the Club tournament winners board. 

Many thanks to BLBC’s Triples Tournament Director, Daniel G., for a fun and exciting tournament on Saturday, April 2, 2022. Much appreciation to our volunteers who helped expedite the games, especially Dave and Annie who rolled the green before the event, and to our Hospitality Committee for providing refreshments.

L-R: Dave McMullen, Sal Garcia-Lemus, Rolayn Tauben, Cindy Moss, Hugo Deaux, Joseph Chow

Berkeley Triples 4/2/2022

Many thanks to BLBC’s Triples Tournament Director, Daniel G., for a fun and exciting tournament on Saturday, April 2, 2022. Much appreciation to our volunteers who helped expedite the games, especially Dave and Annie who rolled the green before the event, and to our Hospitality Committee for providing refreshments.

We had 18 players that made up 6 teams:

Skips- Jim, Hugo, Daniel, Rob, Dave, Cris

Vice – Lennon, Annie, Bob, Glenn, Sal, Cindy

Leads – Bernie, Steve K., Des, Rolayn, Joseph, Charles

Alternates – Sarah and Phil

The format was a preliminary round with three 10-end games based on a blind draw of opposing teams and assigned rinks. The two teams with the best record of game points and point differential played in a 12-end Final championship playoff. Players of the final two teams were Dave, Sal and Rolayn, and Hugo, Cindy and Joseph.

Kudos to Hugo, Cindy and Joseph … our Club tournament winners! Certificates will be presented to them at our Annual General Meeting and their names will be engraved on the Club tournament winners board. 

It was a day full of skilled play and suspense.

Kudos to Cindy, Hugo and Joseph … our Club tournament winners!
Players of the final two teams were Dave, Sal and Rolayn, and Cindy, Hugo and Joseph.

The Meat Axe Stays In Berkeley!

Despite the definite chill in the air on Saturday, Berkeley bowlers grew hot as the day wore on and came out triumphant in the annual Meat Axe tourney against the Palo Alto Lawn Bowling Club. We were down 3 ½ games to 2 ½ at lunchtime, but, duly fortified, stormed back to win 4 of the afternoon games for a 6 ½ to 5 ½ overall score, thereby retaining the Meat Axe trophy for yet another year. Which was just as well, since we had “forgotten” to bring the plaque with us to the southern climes.

Thanks and well done to all the BLBC players!


BLBC 2021 Vet-Novice Tournament

On Saturday, May 8th, 2021, BLBC held what may not have been its first-ever Vet-Novice Tournament, but was the first in this writer’s memory covering 10+ years of membership.

The event was initiated by Club President, Ethan Bortman, who felt it would be an excellent way to start the 2021 Tournament season and get the newbies more wholly integrated into the Club and the sport of bowls. So, all current Novices (novice = less than two years membership in a recognized bowling club) were invited to sign up and six were able to do so on one of the date options available. Jim Corr, as acting Tournament Director, then found six of the Club’s leading Skips to join the fun—that offer was oversubscribed—and the teams were selected by random draw.

The format provided for each team to play three 12-end games, quite a demand on some of the newer bowlers who had not played more than one draw game in a day. Fortunately, the weather cooperated nicely and made for a very pleasant day of bowling throughout.

After two rounds, the teams of Ian Cameron/Jim Audas and Hugo Deaux/Sal Garcia were in contention for first place, being the only ones to have won both of their earlier games. In a hard-fought contest, Ian & Jim prevailed 13-8 over Hugo & Sal to “bear the gree,” as Robert Burns would have put it. Check it out. Congratulations to both and especially to novice Jim who literally “led the way,” and thanks to all participants as well as those other veterans who showed up to provide friendly but neutral advice and guidance  to any Novice who might have been uncertain about a technical issue or some of the more obscure Laws of the Sport.

And to top it all, the day was kicked off with the ever-popular “Spider,” with Jim Audas winning that and its prize of a bottle of wine too. When you’re hot, you’re hot!

BLBC Brings Trophy Back “Over the Hill”

2019 “Over the Hill” Challenge Players at Rossmoor LBC

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club sent seven triples teams to Rossmoor Bowling Club in Walnut Creek for the “Over the Hill” Challenge. The BLBC competed against them and indulged in a little bit of the friendly rivalry typical of the match since the Challenge began in 1969.

After a hiatus of twenty years or so, the clubs resurrected the event in 2016. Scheduling conflicts in 2019 prevented that year’s challenge from happening, so the clubs agreed to hold the 2019 version of the challenge on February 15, 2020 (the 2020 games will take place this August at Berkeley).

Berkeley went into lunchtime with a healthy advantage of 6 wins and only one loss. After the break, Rossmoor returned resurgent, as the afternoon games revealed. Some of the games went down to the wire, but Berkeley prevailed to win 5 of the afternoon games. The final total for the match: 11 wins for BLBC and 3 wins for Rossmoor LBC. Credit to Rossmoor for wonderful hosting and very sporting play. We’ll see them again in August!  Well done to everyone that bowled yesterday, especially to some members representing the club for the first time.

Berkeley Takes the Trophy

That’s a Wrap for Winter League 2020

The co-winning teams for the 2020 Winter League. L-R: Gareth Cole, Andy Vevers, Rose Selby, & Mike McNorton

The annual PIMD Winter League finished up its last week on Saturday January 25th and Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club members did exceptionally well. The competition is a Pairs tournament and teams from most of the Bay Areas bowling clubs participated in the three week competition.  

Each team played a total of nine games over the course of three consecutive Saturdays. After the first two weeks of competition, only a point separated the the top three teams. Berkeley’s defending champions from last year — Andy Vevers and Gareth Cole — held a slim lead of one point over Palo Alto’s team of Rose Selby and Mike McNorton. Berkeley’s other team of Shawn Roney and Jerry Knott and Jim Corr tied with for second. Berkeley’s Rob Hoey and his partner Tim Christie from Palo Alto stood within striking distance at fourth place. 

As it should in any closely contested and well played tournament, it all came down to the final day of play. The final day of play confirmed the 2020 contest to be closely contested with very good play on offer from all the team. Jerry and Jim and Andy and Gareth played each other in the first game. Jerry and Jim came to play, and they took the win despite the efforts of Andy and Gareth to rally. Jerry and Jim’s win put them in the driver’s seat for the First place tournament finish.

Alas, it was not to be. They lost their next game against a team from San Francisco that put a dent in their title aspirations. Meanwhile, the Palo Alto team of Rose and Mike quietly and convincingly won all their games and gained advantage of the Berkeley pairs first game slip up to take the top position. Andy & Gareth did all they could by winning their other two games of the day, but it all came down to the last couple of bowls of the tournament. Fortunately for the Berkeley lads, Rose and Mike could not take the maximum points on their final game, which left the field with a tie for 1st place. In view of the high levels of skill and grit on display, many may consider this a fair outcome.

Third Place Winners: Jerry Knott & Jim Corr

The final results were as follows:


Tie 1st –   Andy Vevers & Gareth Cole (Berkeley)

Tie 1st –   Rose Selby & Mike McNorton (Palo Alto)

3rd –        Shawn Roney/Jerry Knott & Jim Corr (Berkeley)

4th –        Tim Christie (Palo Alto) & Robin Hoey (Berkeley)

Fourth Place Finishers: Tim Christie & Rob Hoey


As the reader can see, a really good result for the Berkeley teams that further cements our reputation as one of the most competitive clubs in the greater Bay Area.  Many thanks to the San Jose Lawn Bowling Club for hosting a well run and genuinely fun event.

2019 Closing Day & Novice Recognition Day

On Saturday, November 2nd, the Rossmoor Lawn Bowling Club hosted the 2019 PIMD Closing Day and Novice Recognition Day.

It was chilly in the morning but quickly warmed up to a comfortable 75°. Ninty-nine bowlers from around the Bay Area and beyond were on hand to visit with old friends and meet new bowlers. Zarka Popovic, our PIMD president, provided a slide show featuring photos from the National Championships played at San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club in September. Thanks to donations (raffles, etc.) from so many PIMD members toward hosting the National Championships, there was money to spare. All PIMD clubs that provided meals–that included BLBC, were reimbursed. In addition, the remainder of the overage was returned to the PIMD coffers.

Zarka also recognized all the PIMD novices and presented a trophy to this year’s Novice Champion: Michael McLintock. There were three novices from our club: Susan Carlson, Mary Collins and John Watson. (We’re looking for one of them to win the trophy next year.)

Berkeley Lawn bowling Club was well represented by 12 full members (Sarah Allday, Cris Benton, Annie Brillhart, Susan Carlson, Hugo Deaux, Cathy Dinnean, Phil Grattan, Susan Jamart, Cindy Moss, Glenn Nunez, and John Watson) and four dual members (Mary Collins, Sebastian Sciacca and Lydia and Luis Zapata). Happily, five BLBC members were on teams that won money: Sarah Allday, Cindy Moss, Sebastian Sciacca, and Lydia and Luis Zapata. Well done!

BLBC 2019 Singles Match: Vevers Takes the Prize

We had a wonderful day of bowling yesterday at the club. Beautiful blue skies graced the whole day, the green was it’s usual impeccable self and the level of competition was a credit to the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club. Many thanks to those that helped make the day run smoothly – Annie for rolling the green and then marking all day, Susan Jamart for providing help and snacks. Bob, Rolly and Cathy also for spending the whole day marking the games. Without them the day would not have been the same. 

2019 BLBC Singles champ Andy Vevers & Runner-up (& 2018 Singles Champ) Gareth Cole

Ten participants played three random draw games to decide the top four players that would advance to the knock out round. After the first three games there were two undefeated players: Robin Hoey and Gareth Cole (the defending champion) and three players who were 2-1. Cris Benton and Andy Vevers squeaked by into the play offs on plus points, with Frankie Napoli unluckily missing out by one solitary point!

The Semi Finals were Gareth versus Cris and Rob versus Andy. Gareth squeaked out a win in a very close contested game against Cris and Andy managed to overcome after being down early against Rob.  So the final was our Tournament Director, Andy, against the defending champion, Gareth. In what was an entertaining game to watch, Andy luckily managed to squeeze out the win and became the 2019 Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club’s Singles Champion!


Thanks again to everyone that helped make the day a great success.

Berkeley Invitational 3-Bowls Singles

Warm temperatures and blue skies made for a beautiful day at the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club green. The invitational attracted some high quality players from the Bay Area, making up some very strong mixed pairs teams. The level of bowling on display was a credit to the PIMD and to Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club, who hosted this new event on the calendar.  There were some really close games and some very tight results. As you’d expect in a tournament with this many quality players, no one ran away with it and the final results came down to the last couple of bowls being rolled on the day. 
 Taking first prize and drawing the tournament winning shot with his last bowl:
Gareth Cole & Giulia Gallo
 A very creditable second place went to the very strong team of:
Russell Leonard & Janice Bell (good luck to Janice in the upcoming Nationals!)
And third place went to the extremely consistent pair of:
Jim Corr & Annie Brillhart Many thanks to everyone that came from near and far to participate and to everyone at the club that helped make the day run so smoothly.