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.
Summertime, and the living is easy. Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high. But the green is getting dry, and it needs bit of water. So, each afternoon we’ll give spot watering a try.
As we enter Berkeley’s dry summer, the green needs strategic watering of areas that become dry while avoiding areas prone to moss buildup. Our dedicated greenskeepers are on it and could use some help. If you can spare a few minutes on an afternoon or better yet sign up for a regular shift by contracting one of the greenskeepers. I am sure we would all appreciate it, the green would appreciate it, your karma balance would swell, and so on.
Opening Day, the official beginning of the lawn bowling tournament season, was held on 5 April at the Rossmoor Lawn Bowling Club. Rossmoor’s three greens were looking fine and, better yet, bowled well with a reasonably fast pace. Opening Day provides a welcome opportunity to renew acquaintances from other clubs with this year’s attendance including 108 enthusiastic lawn bowlers from the Bay Area and beyond. That’s eighteen triples games underway at once on three greens.
Calvin Darling and Bud Birkenseer get things rolling.
The event was kicked off by Calvin Darling, PIMD President, and Bud Birkenseer, longstanding Tournament Director for the PIMD. Bud, as always, ran a smooth ship – no small feat given the large turnout. He is undeniably one of the great heroes of Bay Area lawn bowling and a most pleasant guy to boot. The winning teams were awarded prize money! A good time was had by all.
From upper left clockwise: Ethan and Judy, Leslie and Cindy, Stephan and Karen, Chris and Mike.
The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club had a great showing with 22 bowlers participating in the games. The weather cooperated with a pleasant sunny day and slightly warm temperatures. It was great weather for bowling and for our home green’s recuperation. While we were having a good time bowling at Rossmoor, our green back home was enjoying its last days of rest in recovering from the spring tine and sand maintenance. We should be bowling back home fairly soon.
From upper left clockwise: Cris, Glenn, Phil, Bernadette, HC and Ashok.
It was good to have this group of Berkeley bowlers practicing during Opening Day, for we will be back at Rossmoror next Saturday for the annual Over the Hill Tournament to be played on their home turf.
From upper left clockwise: Aika and Lennon; Janie and Patricia; Leslie and Charlie; Claudia and Mei.
Once again, I am pleased to report that last Sunday’s drill and fill workday was a huge success. I was amazed when I Facetimed Leslie at 1 PM to view the activity from afar and there was nothing to see other than a few munching on pizza. The work was completed in record time. Very impressive indeed. It is this type of volunteerism and cooperation that enables our green to be the envy of PIMD.
Many hands make light work!
A big shout out to the volunteers (listed in random order and including several who called in sick): Alexandra Terninko, Rolly, Phil Watson, Leslie, the Bentons, Kern, Steve Harris, Annie, Gary S, Chris High, Glenn, Douglas Frey, Martin, Charles, Mike O’, Stephen Ng, Ben Corson, Marty Lorber, Daniel, Mark Baker, Cathy, Tom Birt, and, of course, our four terrific GKs…Patricia, Janie, Judy, and Sarah. If I missed anyone, please let me know.
For those of you who were unable to participate, stay tuned because most likely there will be another workday in the fall.
The green on Thursday, 27 March
Update: Janie and Patricia just sent a photo of the green from this morning (four days after sanding). The green has received a gentle watering compliments of a cold front and the sand is settling very nicely into the grass – by all accounts a quickly paced recovery is underway.
For more information on this annual maintenance ritual read on.
Terry Taplin, the Council Member for Berkeley’s Second District, stopped by today’s draw game for a tour of the club and an introduction to bowling.
Our City contacts back in 1930.
The club is located in Mr. Taplin’s district as are well over a dozen club members. Our long history with the city dates back to BLBC’s inauguration in 1929. Our green and clubhouse are situated on City property so it is a fine thing to have the opportunity to brief the Council Member on developments at the club and our upkeep of facilities.
Council MemberTaplin displaying fine form on the green. We hope he comes back to bowl.
It was lovely to meet the Council Member and his staff. We appreciate their taking time to visit.
While working on the website, I stumbled upon a photo (above) from an open house the club hosted back in August 2017. I was instantly blown away by how much progress the club has made since then in the area visible in the photo. For comparison, here’s a similar image (below) taken in March 2025, almost eight years later.
Looking at the old and new photos, I couldn’t help but think about how much volunteer work and club projects have changed our facilities. It’s impressive how much the green and supporting elements have progressed. In the 2017 photo, I can spot eight places where improvements have been made – some small and some substantial:
Read on for a quick enumeration of progress recently achieved just in the area shown in the photo.
We approach the Ides of March and that means it is time to lavish even more attention on our lovely green.
Work day on Sunday, 23 March, 2025
The Greenskeepers need your help with tining, plug removal and sand application/removal, among other tasks. There are also some light duty tasks in addition to those that are outlined below. For newer members, this is a great opportunity to learn more about how our green is maintained and to meet other members you may not know.
We will be providing pizza and light snacks for those who volunteer, please let us know if you will join for that.
Below is an outline of main tasks and timing. We hope to be done by early afternoon and can use your help even if for a short period of time.
Starting around 8:30 we need 6 volunteers to shovel the plugs from Jose’s tining into wheelbarrows.
View of tining plugs, numbering over 200,000, being swept up for removal.
Starting around 10:00 we need 4-8 volunteers to shovel sand into wheelbarrows and then use buckets to dump the sand into the mechanical spreader. The larger number of volunteers would allow for breaks.
Starting around 10:30 we need 2-4 volunteers to sweep sand into the plug holes along edges and corners only. Jose will use the tractor with a broom/mat to sweep the sand from most of the green.
The club has most of the equipment, but we could use snow-type shovels and sturdy dollies. Please bring them along if you have those.
Spreading sand to fill the holes created by tining.
We do have some work/gardening gloves, but please bring your own if you have those.
Please reply to this email by Sunday March 9 to let us know that you can join and what time slot, or to let us know any questions.
Following the workday the green will be closed for approximately one month for continued maintenance.
Embarrassed by the sorry state of the old lifters floating around the club, I made a new set of club lifters. These have three sizes: short (yellow), medium (red), and tall (blue). The intent is that these lifters stay at the club for use by anyone who needs a lifter.
Annie Brillhart’s perfect blend of entrepreneurship and proselytization continues this year. Take for example Monday’s lovely event that introduced a dozen new folks to our game while providing critical financial support for the club. From Annie’s report:
“This afternoon we hosted 12 regional reps from AAA. We divided them up into three pairs games, and we had enough coaches on hand to make sure all our guests not only had a great time, but also had a proper introduction to the game of bowls. As always, everyone had a great time!
Huge thanks to coaches Cathy, Ted, Phil, Jim and Erwin. We couldn’t hold these events without our volunteer coaches!”
We promote the game of lawn bowling for the enjoyment of new and experienced players alike.
You must be logged in to post a comment.