Club members entertained quite a few guests last Saturday under clear skies. Our guests seemed to have a great time as they were introduced to the game by our coaches. Pictures have been posted in the Gallery!

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club will hold a free Open House on Saturday May 8th from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to introduce the sport to newcomers. The Club will offer refreshments, free lessons, and answer questions on this long-established sport that shares some of the same strategies and terminology with curling, a spectacle that gained many fans during the recent Winter Olympics.

“Think of it as curling without the ice and all the broom waving,” quips Club President, Geoff Chandler, adding “Contrary to common belief, it’s a sport enjoyed by people of all ages—among the top players in California are three brothers aged 15-10, all of them Berkeley members.”
The Berkeley Club is located at 2270 Acton Street (corner of Bancroft way) and has been active since 1928. But the sport has a much longer history in the USA—George Washington played bowls on his lawn at Mount Vernon in Virginia, and no less than seven states have towns called Bowling Green.

“The sport is not too different from bocce or boules,” says Chandler. “The idea is to get your bowl as close as possible to the little white ball called the jack. But since we play on grass, we ask that visitors wear flat shoes to protect the lawn—no need to wear the traditional “whites” that you might see us with on tournament days. All are welcome.”

Under beautiful blue skies, 14 players competed for the Four Bowl Singles Title. Everyone bowled two, 14-end games to choose semi-finalists who bowled another 14-end game. Jim Corr and Ted Crum then met in a final match in which Corr prevailed.

Congratulations as well to novice, Erwin Vista, who made it to the semi-final round.

The next club competition is the Pairs Tournament on May 22.

At the recent Senior Games held in Palo Alto, Berkeley bowlers Howard Mackey, Nikki Schrager and John Spiers brought home bronze medals in lawn bowling. Congratulations!

Saturday, April 24th should be a great day at BLBC! Bowlers from all over the Bay area will converge on the club around 9:00 a.m. for what has always been a fabulous event at BLBC. The format of the day will be triples with teams formed by random draw done by the Tournament Director, Howard Mackey. We expect that all available rinks will be in use between 9:30 and 3:30. Spectators are, of course, welcome.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Berkeley Jamboree tournament that is coming up on April 24th. It’s a very popular event, so get your name in or you’ll end up on the sideline. Contact Howard Mackey at howard2201@aol.com for more information.

The club will hold the first Pizza night event at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 28. We plan to start with a draw game for those interested with pizza dinner afterwards. Pizza will be available after the game for $5 per person. RSVP to berkeleylawnbowling@gmail.com.

On Saturday, March 27, John Spiers edged out Ted Crum to win the Two-Bowls Singles Tournament. Twelve entrants played two games with the four highest scoring players competing in a semi-final round. Two of the club’s newest members, both graduate students at Cal, were in the tournament and made their presence known by winning games against more seasoned members. Pictures will be posted in the Gallery section soon.

Our bowl-work-party event was, in my opinion, a success. Under sunny skies with warm weather, we bowled, cleaned, weeded, cleaned, mowed and trimmed. Dinner was at 5:30 and the food was fabulous. We even bowled more after dessert. Thanks to all the volunteers (Cathy, Susan, Sherrill, Geoff, Howard, Mark, Gary, Lennon, and George) who came to work with special kudos to Mark for mowing the surround.

Here’s hoping that those who want to bowl on Sunday afternoon will make it happen rather than wait for it to happen.

Dave R.

Gerard comes to BLBC from the USDA’s Western Regional Research Center in Albany where he leads a team of bioinformatics specialists that supports crop research. Gerald will be working on his bowling skills this summer to prepare for the novice tournament in the fall.