All posts by Ann Brillhart

Club Members, Events, New Bowlers, PIMD

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!

Club Members, Tournaments

The Jamboree was a Blast!

The bowlers for the 23rd Howard Mackey Jamboree

Thirty bowlers signed on to bowl in the 23rd Howard Mackey Jamboree. The sky turned blue just as trial ends began. The heat wave of the past few days diminished, so the weather was lovely. 


There are always glitches in tournaments, and this one was no exception. One of the bowlers fell ill last night and couldn’t play. Happily, Susan Jamart was on hand to bowl in his stead in the first game. Bob Schwartz–who came to watch, not to bowl–kindly stepped up and bowled in the second game. Susan had a chance to eat lunch and rest and agreed to bowl in the third game. Huge thanks to Susan and Bob for stepping up!


At the end of the first game, Andy Vevers, BLBC head TD, and I agreed some game-time management was needed. We announced the bowlers would play one more game of three-bowl triples after lunch and then one game of two-bowl triples. The announcement was received without a single grumble!


As most local bowlers know by now, the Jamboree is a unique tournament because each player keeps her/his own score card. The top four scoring skips, seconds and leads win prize money.


Congratulations to the following skips:
1st Place:  Hugo Deaux
2nd Place:  Ginger Harris
3rd Place:  John Hooper
4th Place:  Peter Knopf


Congratulations to the following Seconds:
1st Place:  Larry Murphy
2nd Place:  Laile Giansetto
3rd Place:  Mo Shooer
4th Place:  Janice Bell


Congratulations to the following Leads: 
1st Place:  Cindy Moss
2nd Place:  Marty Lorber
3rd Place:  There was a tie between JoAnn Lorber and substitute team Susan-Bob-Susan.
4th Place:  David Eldred


While the scores were tallied, Laile and Dave orchestrated the always popular “spider”. Congratulations to Andre Banares; he won a nice bottle of chardonnay. 


A special thank you to JoAnn and Marty Lorber and to Salvadore Garcia-Lemus. There was a last minute call for more bowlers; these three novices were kind enough to jump in.


Many thanks as always to the people behind the scenes: Dave:  Thank you for setting up the rinks and rolling the green. Leslie, Susan and Andy:  Thank you for bringing all the snacks and getting the coffee brewing.Laile:  Thank you for everything!


A very special thanks to Andy Vevers for his unwavering support! 

Club Members, Community, Frontpage, PIMD, Tournaments

PIMD Pairs Competition

This past week end at San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club, six women’s pairs teams battled for the right to represent the PIMD at the National Championships in September. They played three 18 end games on Saturday and two 18 end games on Sunday. Despite the freezing cold wind on Saturday, BLBC’s own Cathy Dinnean and Sarah Allday won two games and lost their third game by only one point. They were tied on the 16th end in games one and two and went on to win. They were tied in the 17th end of their third game; Cathy missed making the winning shot by a hair. All three games were exciting to watch. (Two teams didn’t finish until 7:30; they played their last end in the dark.  Happily, we three ladies arrived at our club about then.) Cathy and Sarah weren’t as successful on Sunday. Despite some fine bowling by both ladies, they lost both games by six points. However, they ended up in third place. Not too shabby for their first time at the play-downs! The winning team:  Angie Peet and Rose Selby–the only team to win all their games. Team Ginger Harris and Janice Bell (also a BLBC dual member) are the first alternates.

Eleven men’s pairs teams also played. The top six teams will compete again next weekend. Sadly, BLBC team Jim Corr and Bob Schwartz just missed the cut. However, BLBC dual members Daniel Gorelick, Mo Shooer, Frankie Napoli and Russ Leonard advanced. Good luck going forward, guys!
Club Members

Let the (2019) Games Begin!

The Group Welcomes the Start of the Bowling Season

On Saturday, March 16, 120 bowlers from the PIMD met at San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club for President’s Recognition Opening Day. Our own Jim Corr was recognized as a past president, and Ian Cameron was recognized as our current president. Along with Ian and Jim, eight other members of our club–Andy, Annie, Cathy, Glenn, John, Rob, Mo and Susan Carlson–were on hand to enjoy seeing familiar faces and to meet new friends.

Of course there was a raffle to help raise money to pay for hosting the 2019 National Championship at San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club in September. We’ll be needing volunteers from our club to help. More about that soon!

The morning began with a well earned tribute to the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department. (See first photo below.) Their commitment to improving the greens and surrounds is extraordinary; their sincere belief that lawn bowling is both an historic and a contemporary socially important activity that deserves their City’s strong support serves as a model for other communities. After the opening ceremonies, we all participated in a spider. Quite a sight! (See the photo below.)

Then, everyone was ready for the bowling to begin. We played a game in the morning, took a break for lunch and played another game in the afternoon. Six of our club’s bowlers won money! (I know it’s not just about winning, but we all have to admit it’s great when we do!) Two of our novices did quite well.

Novice Susan Carlson: 2nd Place in the morning game. Well done, Susan!

Novice Ian: Tied for 2nd Place in the morning game, and won 2nd Place in the afternoon game. Hubba, hubba!

Annie: Tied for 2nd Place in the morning game.

Jim: 2nd place in the afternoon game.

Mo: Tied for 2nd Place in the morning game.

Rob: 1st Place in the afternoon game. (Best win for our club!)

The weather was perfect. It was a great day!

Checking the Spider Results
Club Members, Tournaments

BLBC 2018 4-Bowl Singles Champion Gareth Cole

2018 BLBC 4-Bowl Singles

The 2018 4-Bowl Singles Tournament was held on Saturday, September 22nd, on a beautiful sunny but cool fall day in the Bay Area. This year, we had twelve bowlers competing for the title, including the defending champion, Rob Hoey. This year’s format was three 15-point games, with a differential limit of ten points, and with the top four bowlers progressing to a semifinal and a final game.

By the end of the qualification stage, two bowlers, Rob Hoey and Frankie Napoli, were in first and second place respectively, each having won three games, and Shawn Roney and Gareth Cole, one of our newest members from Wales, joined them in the semi-finals, having the best points differential among those who had won two games.

The two semifinal games pitted Rob against Gareth and Shawn against Frankie. Both games showcased the great bowling skills of all four players and kept the audience on the edge of their seats. Eventually, Gareth and Frankie won their semifinals games, and battled against each other for this year’s title.

Again, the final game kept the club members very entertained by each bowlers’ shots. In the end, Gareth prevailed over Frankie with a beautiful yard-on shot that pushed Frankie’s shot bowl away from the head just enough to guarantee our Cymru representative the three points he needed to win the game.

Huge thanks to Laile Giansetto for bringing delicious pies for our breakfast, Ann Brillhart and Giulia Gallo for bringing muffins and other good food for the day, and to Ian Cameron, Glenn Nunez, Cris Benton, and everybody else who helped greenskeeper Ann Brillhart prepare the green for today’s games. Thanks also to Tournament Director Shawn and Ann, as Assistant Tournament Director, for making the whole tournament proceed smoothly, and to Glenn, Giulia, Jim Corr, and Andy Vevers, who marked the semis and final games.

Congratulations to all the bowlers who participated in this event today and especially to Gareth Cole, the 2018 BLBC Singles Champion!

Club Members

2018 PIMD Aussie Pairs

Thirty teams played in the very popular Aussie Pairs tournament at Rossmoor today. The top eight teams would win money.
A huge round of applause for Shawn and Rob. They were one of only four teams to win all three games. All four teams won an equal share of prize money.
Another round of applause for Cris (playing with Larry Collaco) with two wins and one loss but having the highest differential: They took 5th place.

Photos of the three teams that tied up for first place.

Club Members

Glenn Stewart Tournament

Sixteen teams from around the Bay Area signed up to bowl in the Glenn Stewart (formerly called the Ed Arnold) tournament in Palo Alto today, and our club was well represented by 18 full and dual members. This tournament is unique because all bowlers play each position (lead, second and skip) for four ends.

Huge congratulations to Rob Hoey, with the help from Bob Schwartz (Palo Alto) and Leslie Engler for winning 1st Place! This year there’s a trophy, so their names will be the first to be on it! As often happens, other competitive BLBC bowlers were in the mix. A very cheery round of applause to the following:
  • Team Shawn Roney, Ann Brillhart and Cris Benton for winning 3rd Place.
  • Team Jim Corr and Giulia Gallo with help from Tim Christie (Palo Alto) for winning 4th Place.
  • Team Ethan Bortman and Laile Giansetto with help from Bud Birkenseer (Palo Alto), for winning 6th Place.

And an extra round of applause for the rest of the BLBC bowlers who competed today:  Sarah Allday, Cathy Dinnean, John Hooper, Jerry Knott, Dave McMullen, Frankie Napoli (dual member from Rossmoor), Mo Shooer (dual member from San Francisco) and Erwin Vista.

Rob Hoey, Leslie Engler and Bob Schwartz (l-r)

Club Members

Rossmoor 50th Anniversary Triples

Rossmoor Lawn Bowling Club continues to celebrate its 50th Anniversary, this time at their 50th Anniversary Mixed Triples tournament, which saw twenty-eight teams from all over the Bay Area and beyond playing and celebrating the anniversary.

Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club was well represented. Three teams were comprised of all BLBC members; a fourth team had a dual member from our club.

The format of the game was a 14-end game in the morning and another 14-end game after lunch, with the top five teams on both greens would win money in both games.

Before each game began, bowlers on both greens enjoyed the always popular “spider”. (A bottle of wine for the bowler who ended up closest to the jack.) Also, prizes were given to the last team in both games who scored four or more points.

Team Rob Hoey, Shawn Roney and Annie Brillhart tied for 1st place in the morning game with an Oakland team, and won 2nd place in the afternoon game. Dual member Frankie Napoli’s team won 4th place in the morning game, and team John Hooper, Cathy Dinnean and Cris Benton won 4th place in the afternoon game.

Laile Giansetto, Annie Brillhart, John Hooper (think “50” from his perspective), Cris Benton, Cathy Dinnean, Shawn Roney, Rob Hoey

Rob Hoey, Annie Brillhart and Shawn Roney

Club Members

Berkeley Jamboree

Twenty eight bowlers enjoyed a fun day of competition at the annual Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club Jamboree.
In this unique to Berkeley tournament, each player keeps her/his own score card and plays each game in the same position–but with different people (usually) in each game. It’s a great way to get to know other bowlers! We played three 12-end games.

BLBC tournament director, Shawn Roney, set up four triples and one pairs game for each round. As always, prizes were awarded to the top 12 players.

Five bowlers from Palo Alto competed this year. Congratulations to Ed Chang, a relatively new bowler, for placing 12th!

Leisure Town bowlers love this tournament–probably because they always do so well. Eleven members from their club participated, and their own Andy Anderson won top honors! Four other bowlers from LTLBC also won money.

But BLBC wasn’t to be denied. Six of our bowlers were in the money. Congratulations to:

Rob — 2nd Place
Erwin — 3rd Place
Mr. Luo — 4th Place
Des — 7th Place
Annie — 8th Place
Shawn — 9th Place

A snapshot of the annual Berkeley Jamboree

Club Members

PIMD Mixed 2×2 Fours

A very tough, but also a very fun day of bowling at Palo Alto in the PIMD Mixed 2×2 Fours.

Eight teams played four 8-end games with a break for lunch after the second game. Only the top three teams would win money.

Three teams had members from our club, two of which were all Berkeley (listed in order to play below):

– John Hooper, Cathy Dinnean, Sarah Allday and Cris Benton
– Jerry Knott, Bob Schwartz, Annie Brillhart and Leslie Engler
– Bud Birkenseer, Ethan Bortman, Tess Ball and Laile Giansetto

The only two teams that won all three games had to play each other in the last game in a battle for first and second place.
Congratulations to team Larry Collaco, Joanne Kluck and Angie & John Peet for winning 1st Place.
A well deserved round of applause for team Rod & Rita Arriaga and Cheryl & Al Minvielle for winning 2nd Place.
Congratulations to BLBC team Jerry Knott, Bob Schwartz, Annie Brillhart and Leslie Engler.