Twelve hearty souls and a backup appeared this morning in a light mist, anxious to bowl in this year’s Mixed Draw Triples tournament. A few familiar faces were missing, but the cast of characters was replete with good bowlers. The format this year was a round-robin with each team playing each other team. The winner was determined by either game points or, in the event of a tie, by the outcome of the match between the teams in the tie. That, for the record, is how it turned out; the team led by Skip Phil Grattan was victorious having beaten the team led by skip Dave Rockhold 9-7 in a tight game decided on the final bowl of the match.
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.
Those fantastic folks from Vacaville came to town on July 10th intent on giving our Berkeley bowlers another lesson in humility. But we Berkeley bowlers were in the mood for a change. With four rinks going, Berkeley was up 5 games to 3 after two twelve-end games in the morning. Two additional games were planned for the afternoon, but after the first game, commute considerations for LT canceled the last game. Nonetheless, Berkeley won two of the four afternoon games and tied another to come out on top 15 game points to 9.
In the small world department, two of the LT bowlers were stationed in my home town of Salina, Kansas at Smoky Hill AFB. I was probably out cutting wheat in the shadow of the plane flown by pilot Dick Ruddy.
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.
Another stellar day of bowling at BLBC! Fourteen bowlers showed up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Saturday for the annual in-house singles tournament. This year’s format was fairly simple, everyone bowled three games to 15 points. When the dust settled, four bowlers had accumulated the best record for the day. Ann Gardiner, Shawn Roney, Howard Mackey, and Jim Corr, were ‘in it to win it’.
The four decided to finish their semi final matches on the same day even though they had to option of scheduling it another day. I suppose busy lives trumped feeling tired from a long day of bowls.
After the two semi final 18-point matches, Jim Corr and Shawn Roney advanced to the 21 point final game which was played on May 22nd. The game lasted nearly two hours. Jim Corr was off to a slow start, but steadily gained on Shawn. In the 27th end with the sun just about to set, Jim scored the winning point; 21 to 18 being the final score. Congratulations to everyone who participated in the tournament.
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.
The Board of the BLBC voted unanimously earlier this month to revive the Club’s Distinguished Service Award to honor Howard and Barbara Mackey, husband and wife team who have given twenty years of commitment to the Club in a wide range of activities. Barbara, who passed away last December, had served on the Board of the Club in various capacities over the years, had achieved national umpire status, and was an assiduous “social secretary,” working regularly to decorate the clubhouse and lay on a welcoming spread for many tournaments and club social activities. She was also an informal coach to new bowlers, especially, but by no means exclusively, to new women bowlers. Howard has served as President, has been greenskeeper, remains Inter-club Tournament Director organizing popular events like the Berkeley Jamboree and other tournaments on the PIMD calendar, and is one of the Club’s representatives on the PIMD Committee. He is also currently the Club’s Singles Champion! Club President Jim Corr presented the award to Howard at the PIMD Mixed Pairs Tournament held at the Club on May 10, 2013.
From all of us at Berkeley Lawn Bowling, a giant THANK YOU!
What a fantastic day for the Berkeley Jamboree! Bowlers came to Berkeley last Saturday from lawn bowling clubs all over the bay area plus a sizable contingent from Leisure Town LBC. The Jamboree was organized by Howard Mackey with help from Susan Jamart, Cathy Dinnean, and Ann Gardiner. This is a unique tournament in that every attempt is made to see that each player plays with different team mates for each game.
Cash prizes are given to the individual bowler with the greatest number of points. This year, a lead from Leisure Town, Johanna Smith, took top honors. Everyone is a winner at the Jamboree – good bowling, lots of fun, and ice cream for everyone.
Berkeley LBC would like to thank those who attended. We would also like to extend a special note of thanks to Cris Benton who took a special series of aerial photographs from a 35 foot carbon fiber pole. The series offers a special view of the event. Please check out Cris’ slide show or Flicker set.
Cris is a brand new member of BLBC who is taking to the game like a duck to water. Welcome, Cris, and thank you for the wonderful pictures.
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.
We promote the game of lawn bowling for the enjoyment of new and experienced players alike.
