The Annual General Meeting will commence with a Call to Order and verification of a quorum, followed by the President’s Welcome and Annual Update regarding club membership and operational highlights. Key financial presentations will be provided, including the Treasurer’s Report detailing the club’s fiscal standing, income, and expenses, as well as a report from the Memorial and Endowment (M&E) Fund Trustees regarding asset growth and grant disbursements. Additionally, the agenda will include a PIMD Report outlining regional goals and relevant news from the division.
Following the administrative updates, the meeting will transition to specific Committee Reports, covering Hospitality, Building, Landscape, Greens, Tournaments, and Coaching. These reports will review maintenance projects, tournament results, and volunteer acknowledgments from the prior year. The proceedings will conclude with the Election of Officers and Directors for the new term and an open floor session for member questions and the introduction of new members.
The BLBC Board announced the following slate for the 2026 election which will be held at the AGM on December 13. As a full member, you must be present to vote so put it on your calendar. Dual members are also invited to attend. There will be a short meeting followed by a delicious potluck lunch and bowling.
President Ethan Bortman VP Ben Corson Secretary Patricia Erwin Treasurer Ben Steinberg
The Pacific Inter-Mountain Division (PIMD) bowling season reached a spectacular conclusion on November 22, 2025, as the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club hosted the annual Champion of Champions Tournament. Under beautiful skies, the event brought together the division’s elite—competitors who had already proven themselves by winning their respective club singles tournaments. A total of twelve club champions from across the Bay Area, including representatives from Santa Cruz, Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco, Rossmoor, Santa Clara, and Palo Alto, gathered on the Berkeley greens for this prestigious season finale.
Janie Hillyer has become a formidable competitor within the PIMD and beyond
The women’s competition proved to be a nail-biter, featuring a relentless round-robin format that came down to the wire. The field was incredibly evenly matched, ending with a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard: Rachel Marcuson (Santa Cruz), Reggie Banares (San Jose), and local favorite Janie Hillyer (Berkeley) all finished with impressive 4-1 records. The title was ultimately decided by “plus points,” with Rachel Marcuson edging out Janie Hillyer by a slim margin of just two points (+27 to +25) to secure the overall victory. Congratulations to Rachel Marcuson for emerging as the 2025 Women’s Champion of Champions.
Daniel’s bowls a final game head – it kind of says it all.
On the men’s side, the field was split into two flights, with stellar performances leading to a clash of undefeated bowlers. Ian Cameron (San Jose) and Daniel Gorelick (Berkeley) dominated their respective groups, both posting perfect 3-0 records to advance to the final. In the championship game, Berkeley’s own Daniel Gorelick defeated Ian Cameron to claim the title, keeping the Men’s trophy at home. Congratulations to Daniel on his victory, and to all the competitors for a wonderful end to the season. (Action photos provided courtesy of Dave Seivert) .
The victors: Rachel Marcuson and Daniel Gorelick
Umpire Annie Brillhart, a maven of marking, ran a tight ship of volunteer markers.
As the 2025 lawn bowling tournament season wraps up, it was time for the annual BLBC Novice Tournament. This year, the field was small but packed with talent. We had Mike O’Leary and Ben Corson, who took first and second in the PIMD Novice Tournament just a week ago in San Francisco. Joining them was Mark Baker, who also did well in the PIMD Tournament, and Stephanie Upp, a less frequent bowler with a natural athletic flair.
Contestants Ben Corson, Stephanie Upp, Mark Baker, and Mike O’Leary.
It was a lovely fall day for bowling, with perfect temperatures and no wind under a sunny sky. The hospitality committee put together a delicious spread, and the tournament drew an appreciative group of spectators and markers. The tournament followed a round-robin format with three rounds of games. Winners were determined by the first to reach 15 points. After two rounds, Mike was leading with a 2–0 record, Ben and Mark were each 1–1, and Stephanie was 0–2. This set the stage for an exciting finish. Mike would win outright with a third victory, while Ben and Mark were in striking distance if that didn’t happen.
Mark Baker showing fine form
Mike O’Leary delivers before a rapt audience in the final game
Ben played Stephanie in the final game and won, bringing his record to 2–1. In the next rink, Mark faced off against Mike in a closely watched game. This one was intensely played, with Mark establishing an early lead and maintaining a small margin as the game went on. The heads were impressively tight, with both bowlers well dialed in. As Mark approached the required 15 points, Mike had some really nice bowls that came within an inch of claiming the head. But, in a stroke of misfortune they bounced the wrong way, and the game went to Mark.
Mike and Mark approach the final and deciding head . Mike’s two bowls came close to displacing Mark’s nice shots.
At the end of the day, Mark, Mike, and Ben each ended up with a 2–1 record. The winner was then determined by differential points. Mark had the highest differential total, making him the 2025 BLBC Novice Champion.
Mark Baker, 2025 BLBC Novice Champion and Leslie Engler, BLBC President.
Well done to all the bowlers for putting on such an entertaining display. Kudos as well to the Greenskeepers, Cindy Moss as Tournament Director, and the Hospitality Committee.
Once again new players from around the Bay Area have gathered for the annual PIMD novice tournament and once again the BLBC had a fine showing. This year the tournament attracted 16 novice players, all of whom had been in the game for two years or less.
The 2025 Novice Tournament participants plus the ever helpful Sebastian Sciacca.
There was a preliminary round with each novice playing three games at the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club. From this four players emerged with a perfect 3–0 record to continue on as the final four – Renne Xie, Ben Corson, Mike O’Leary, and Mark Hanusin. The champion was determined as these folks battled it out in a round robin format.
Results from the qualifying round
Tournament Director Bud Birkenseer (a hero to us all) reported on the final four playoff: “The weather was lovely at Golden Gate Park today, and Lawn Bowling had some excellent bowling today. One of the matches went 23 ends before one of the bowlers reached the needed 18 points for a win. Mike O’Leary snuck by Ben Corson with a last end 3-Pointer: You can see Mike’s three bowls in the image below (they still are friends…I think.)”
Ben and Mike after the final and deciding end.
The final four Novices did themselves proud and the BLBC can take great pride as well in Mike’s win, Ben’s very close second place, and Mark’s third. Well done.
At the 2025 PIMD Singles Championships held at the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club in early October, bowlers from across the Pacific Inter-Mountain Division competed under excellent green conditions freshly rolled with the club’s new roller.
On the women’s side, Rose Selby from the Palo Alto Lawn Bowling Club emerged as the overall champion, completing an impressive undefeated run—winning all six games over the two days. In the final, she overcame a strong challenge from Berkeley’s Janie Hillyer, who took second place after carrying an early lead. Joanne Ribeiro of Rossmoor finished third, and Angie Peet from San Francisco placed fourth.
Top women’s finishers Joanne Ribeira (3rd), Rose Slebly, (1st) and Janie Hillier (2nd) (Angie Peet missing).
The men’s field was split into two groups for Sunday’s play. Berkeley’s Daniel Gorelick and Rossmoor’s Frankie Napoli both went undefeated in group play, advancing to face each other in the title match. Napoli proved dominant in the final, claiming victory in decisive fashion to complete his own unbeaten weekend performance. Gorelick took the runner-up position, with Kevin Reynolds (San Francisco) finishing third and Jim Corr (Berkeley) fourth.
Top men’s finishers Jim Corr 4th), Kevin Reynolds (3rd, ) Frankie Napoli (1st), and Daniel Gorelick (2nd)
Berkeley’s greens and organization received praise for providing ideal tournament conditions.
Our Daniel Gorelick will bowl with Calvin Darling to represent PIMD in the Men’s Pairs competition at the US National Championships to be held at the Laguna Beach LBC in October. Consider that a warm up as Daniel and his teammate Bill Brault (SWD) just won the US PBA Men’s Pairs Qualifying Tournament held at Cambria this weekend. So Daniel will be making the trip to England in January to compete in the World Indoor Bowls Championship at Potters Resort in England.
Scottie Marzonie posted a video of Daniel’s and Bil’sl championship game on Facebook:
Incidentally, Daniel was also in the championship game playing Loren Dion for the singles qualifying spot for the UK Open. Meanwhile, SFLBC’S Calvin Darling, also a dual member at BLBC, won the Singles Qualifying Tournament for the World Indoor Bowls Championships. These guys are getting the job done – respect.
For the third Saturday in a row, BLBC bowlers gathered for an intra-club tournament. In this case, it was the Aussie Pairs match-up, which quickly filled to capacity with 28 bowlers. Bowling started promptly at 9 a.m. on greens that had been well prepared by our hard-working greenskeeping team. For this tournament, there were no handicaps and a random draw to establish opponents and rink assignments.
Bowling proceeded at a brisk pace during the morning with some very competitive games. After the completion of round two, there were only two teams standing with a 2–0 record – Andrew Keeler playing with Michael O’Leary and Ethan Bortman playing with Art Kotoulas. Not far behind with a record of one win and one tie were the teams of Phil Grattan and Philip Andrews as well as Lesle Engler and Ben Corson. So, these were the teams to watch going into round three.
Mo, Judy, Janie and CindySal and LennonArt and EthanMark and SteveSara and JaniceGlenn and Gordon
In the third round, Ethan and Art faced Cris Benton and Glenn Nunez. It was a close game in the beginning, but Cris and Glenn slowly pulled away in a tightly bowled game with many good shots. Meanwhile, Andrew and Mike were playing Janice Bell and Sarah Allday. They had to work to win this one, but they eked out a 11–8 win and with that accomplished, they won the tournament. Phil and Philip came in second in the tournament, followed by Leslie and Ben, and then Jim Corr and Mark Hanusin.
The victors – Andrew and Mike.
Kudos to the groundskeeping team for their extra efforts preparing the green. As always, the hospitality team did a great job, providing refreshments and keeping the clubhouse in good order.
GreenGreenskeepersCris keeping score
For those interested in detailed results here are the games scores and standings (click to enlarge):
As bowling greens in the Bay Area go, Berkeley is looking pretty good. We enjoy bowling on a fast rink and our green attracts dual members from across the Bay Area. It’s hard to overstate the energy and dedication required to keep the green in good shape. Take, for instance, rolling the green to improve its speed and consistency. Our current crew of Greenskeepers have been selflessly performing this task multiple times a week and my introduction to the process this week reveals that it is far from trivial.
Greenskeepers Patricia and Janie instruct our rolling neophytes
On Monday, six green rolling newbies (Cris, Charlie, Mark, Glenn, Philip, and Janine) attended the first of three training sessions led by Greenskeepers Janie and Patricia. The goal is to have a trained team who assume green rolling duties by the end of the year.
The gas-powered roller
We are currently using an older gas-powered roller, but will soon receive a new electric model from Australia. Rolling the green involves several steps. Arriving at 8 AM, the process begins with a walking inspection of the green. It’s important to clear debris, often dropped from neighboring trees, from the green so that it doesn’t get embedded in our turf by the rolling machine. On some days, this is a quick process but on others, say after a brisk wind, it could be a two-hour job. Nevertheless, it must be done before rolling and it makes sense to have two or more people in the rolling crew.
Simple but effective logbookThe equipment shed
Rolling proper begins with opening up the equipment shed, hauling out the roller, and making notations in a small logbook about direction and date of rolling. After a close inspection, the somewhat heavy roller is then wheeled onto the green through a gap in the backboard. The machine is lowered onto the green by carefully rotating a big yellow frame. One then adjusts the choke and throttle to start the machine’s engine, and then rolling begins.
Patricia coachingPhilip at the joystick
As one sits on the roller, it moves left and right perpendicular to the body position of the operator. This takes a bit of getting used to. It also has a turning radius that is wider than that of an automobile. So maneuvers to change direction require some forethought. The roller is first run around the perimeter of the green where tolerances in missing the ditch are tight. It is then reversed back-and-forth in parallel paths to cover the entire green surface. This requires approximately 80 passes and can follow an orthogonal or diagonal pattern depending on the day’s bowling direction and prior rolling.
Groping for thatchA look under the machineThatch harvested from rollers
Driving the machine is challenging at first, but also kind of fun. Not fun is stopping to clear thatch that accumulates on the rollers. When the rollers pick up debris, the machine must be stopped, turned off, tilted back onto its transport wheels, and carefully cleaned by hand which requires (for me) lying on the ground to reach underneath. On good days this might happen once or twice, after a verticutting session it might happen a half dozen times (groan.)
Lifting the machine to clear thatch
I have come away from my inaugural training with great admiration for the effort our Greenskeepers have put into their rolling program to date. It’s a good thing that we have folks signing up to help out for this aspect of greenskeeping alone is a significant job. Here’s a pat on the back for those who have volunteered.
There was a huge turnout for this week’s session of free bowling lessons. Twenty folks showed up for an introduction to the game and games were underway on four rinks within an hour of instruction .
Lessons underway with a nice turnout of students and coaches.
Happily, there was advanced notice that a larger group was interested in learning the game. Kudos to Leslie Engler, Cathy Dinnean, Sarah Allday, and Cindy Moss for stepping up to coach these lessons. The club could not exist without the cheerful volunteer contributions of its members.
Cathy Dinnean explains scoring after an end is complete.
We promote the game of lawn bowling for the enjoyment of new and experienced players alike.
