Nice crowd this morning under the dreary sky (dreary because it could not come up with any real rain). Coach Francis hosted five students while six members tried to hone their skills for the upcoming winter league. The green was verticut again on Friday and it was rolling nicely with better draws and a nicer finish. Thanks again San Francisco LBC!
Tomorrow, January 12, is the first open lesson from 10 to 12 on Sunday morning. Here’s hoping for another good turnout.
Your executive Board invites and urges you to attend these events. This is the one time all year when the membership can get together to discuss the state of the club, its future – and then celebrate the holidays. The meeting starts at 10:30 AM with the party (potluck lunch) to follow at noon. I do hope that as many of you as possible will attend the meeting, for reasons outlined below. If you can’t do that but can come for the party, that is fine. Please do come! That is also discussed below.
MEMBERSHIP MEETING: On the agenda are the state of club – finances, building rentals, the physical plant (green and buildings), 2013 tournament reports, election of 2014 officers, revival of the intra-club Ladder competition, and a proposed dues increase. As mentioned here last month, The Pacific InterMountain Division (PIMD) and Bowls USA are increasing dues. Our proposed increase would cover that cost to the club ($20 per member). On the other hand, it is proposed that student members who are over 18 pay one-half the full rate. Currently the one-half rate applies only up to age 18. Parenthetically, we are growing – 16 more members this year than last year. We need to continue this growth to be self-sustaining.
CHRISTMAS PARTY: The potluck format has proven very successful so we are going to do it again. Jim Corr has volunteered to co-ordinate the menu. Please let Jim know what you will bring. We hope that quite naturally there will be a variety of food items so we are not making any particular requests. It is, however, important for you to let Jim know so that (however unlikely) we do not wind up with 20 chocolate cakes and 20 potato casseroles, for example!
The club is increasingly being contacted by outside organizations to use our facilities for their events. In order to avoid confusion, the Executive Board has appointed Ann Gardiner, on a short term basis, to co-ordinate this kind of usage. She will keep a calendar in the clubhouse and also inform Dave Rockhold who keeps the website current. If you are contacted by non-members regarding rental of the clubhouse, please notify Ann.
Closing Day in San Francisco was cold and foggy all morning and for part of the afternoon. Even when the sun finally did come out, it was still chilly. We played two 12-end games with a break for lunch. Due to the large number of bowlers (over 100), all three greens were put into play. The tournament twist: Teams only competed with teams playing on the same green, so there were more prizes awarded than usual: Three first places, three second places and three “ties or closest ties” in both the morning and the afternoon games.
BLBC was represented by vets Nikki Schrager, Ann Gardiner, Desmond Simpson, Phil Grattan, John Hooper and Erwin Vista and by novices Sarah Allday, Cris Benton, Dave McMullen, Rob Hoey and Wilfred Wong. (That’s more than double the number of bowlers from Berkeley who entered last year’s Closing Day!) Some of our vets and novices were on teams that won both games, but, sadly, that didn’t guarantee winning any money. The point spread differential determined the winning teams. Here’s how we fared:
The vets: Ann won a first place. Nikki, Ann, Phil, and Erwin each won a tie.
The novices: Cris won a first place. Sarah, Cris, Dave and Wilfred each won a tie. Well done novices!
While yours truly got all distracted by the impending arrival of my grandson, the 2013 class of novice bowlers had their eye on the title of Novice Singles Champion. It was a beautiful day for the Novice Tournament when five entrants – Cris Benton, Rob Hoey, Westin Kurlancheek, Dave McMullen, and Wilfred Wong showed up for the annual event.
Tournament director Gary Knox arranged for a single round robin tournament wherein each bowler would play every other bowler in the field. When it was all over, Cris Benton had prevailed with four wins and +29 points.
Many thanks to Erwin Vista and John Hooper for serving as markers.
This weekend, Berkeley BLBC member, Nikki Schrager, won the qualification round (“Playdowns”) to represent the Pacific-Inter Mountain Division (PIMD) at the 2013 US National Championships. This is the second year in a row that Berkeley will provide a PIMD representative at the Nationals, following the success of Jonathan Burnoski last year who went on to win the Men’s Singles title, at age 19 the youngest-ever bowler to do so. Jonathan’s father, Tom, also played in the 2012 nationals, as part of the Men’s Pairs team. To qualify, Nikki had to overcome Angie Peet of Sunnyvale in a Sunday tie-breaker, each having won an equal number of games the day before. Sweet revenge, since Angie had actually defeated Nikki in the Saturday round of play.
Nikki will face bowlers from each of the other Bowls USA divisions at the finals in Santa Anita over the period October 16-20. The format will be a round-robin of seven games over four days, a tough and grueling set-up, especially if there should be a late Southern California heat wave.
We all wish Nikki every success!
Sixteen souls gathered on the green on the morning of June 21 to participate in the annual pairs tournament. The format again this year was a ranked draw wherein bowlers chose their position and the random draw was then held to permanently pair bowlers for the day.
After three twelve end games, two teams had won all three games. Those two, skip Phil Grattan with lead Harry Gans and skip Frankie Napoli with lead Wilfred Wong, met in a single-game final on the 23rd.
The game started at 2:30 in a light mist. The teams decided to play 14 ends which they all agreed had been Gary’s revised plan (rather than 18). Frankie and Wilford wore whites. Phil and Harry opted to be more casual. Perhaps the green appreciated the nod to tradition. Team Frankie and Wilfred won the game, 15 to 11. All four players made some great shots. John Hooper and Ann Gardiner showed up to watch the game, so there was a crowd of two in the cheering section.
Congratulations Frankie and Wilfred!!!
John Luster and Shawn Roney won the Men’s Pairs, Cathy Dinnean and Ann Gardiner placed third in the Women’s Pairs, and Nikki Schrager and Phil Grattan placed fourth (in the money) in the Mixed Pairs. In addition, Cathy, and Ann, along with Sarah Allday placed fifth in the Women’s Triples – a notable achievement given that two of them are still novices.
Congratulations, everyone!!
Tiffany Burnoski, daughter of long-time member Tom, was killed in a tragic accident recently. Our heartfelt sympathy to the Burnoski family. Service for Tiffany will be on Tuesday, April 16th, 11:00 am at the Shiloh Church, 3295 School St., Oakland, CA (http://www.shilohchurch.com/ ).
The 2013 PIMD Men’s Championship Singles was held April 6-7 at the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club in Golden Gate Park and a number of Berkeley bowlers acquitted themselves well. With a field of 24 bowlers, from across Northern California, competition was strong. Jim Corr came third in the Championship Flight, losing out to Jon Yee (overall winner) and John Hickson (Runner Up), both of Palo Alto LBC. Phil Grattan won the D Flight, and Sean Roney reached the Championship Flight, composed of the top eight bowlers after the first day’s round of games. A copy of the full results from Day 2 can be found here.