The 2012 season schedule for the is now available by following this link.

2012_Schedule

We encourage new bowlers to play in tournaments. There are lots of great bowlers out there and it’s always fun to try a new venue. Opening Day is just around the corner!!!

Laura Lewis and Andrew Stapleton topped a strong field of bowlers to take the BLBC 2011 Club Pairs title. Eight teams composed of skips (pre-selected by Tournament Director, Gary Knox) and leads (randomly drawn by each skip in turn) competed on Saturday October 15. Three teams won both their morning games (Jim Corr/Gary Knox, Dave Rockhold/Shawn Roney, and Lewis/Stapleton) and were joined by the best placed one game winners (Howard Mackey/Phil Grattan) in the semifinals. The pairs of Lewis/Stapleton and Corr/Knox advanced to and fought a keenly-contested final. With Laura and Andy commanding a substantial 4-point lead going into the last end, Jim added an element of suspense by “burning” the end with his last bowl, forcing the end to be replayed. However, Laura and Andy held on to win with a final score of 13-8. Congratulations to both!

After the game, we fired up the BarBQ and kicked back over a meal. It seems like a fitting end to the 2011 club tournament season. Special thanks to Gary Knox for all his careful planning and extra effort to set up the rinks, prepare score cards, and keep us under control. Good job, Gary!

Thanks, too, to novices Ann Gardiner and Shawn Roney who played in today’s tournament. They were a welcome addition to the event.

So, everyone get out there and practice! The 2012 season isn’t far off. Closing day is Saturday, Oct. 22 at San Francisco LBC.

Pairs at Berkeley will be on October 15. Let’s have a good turn out! Sign up in the clubhouse or email gary@garyknox.us

Closing Day (already?) is on October 22. A signup sheet is available in the clubhouse. These are always good events with this year’s being held at San Francisco LBC. No pressure, just a chance to bowl with some of the divisions best – and nicest – bowlers.

Wow, did we get a lot of work done! Howard Mackey a.k.a. Bulldog, attacked the blackberry bushes that have sprouted in the surround. With a little help from Dave Rockhold, we filled the whole dumpster! Ann Gardiner managed to weed about half of the ditch while Alan Kaplan did a bang-up job of cleaning the clubhouse floor. Good job all, and thanks!

We also managed a very short pairs game with Shawn Roney filling out the lineup. Ann and Shawn are two novices to keep an eye on. Both have superb form!

With only three staying for pizza, we decided to call it a night (year) and shut the door on the 2011 pizza night season. Nothing says we can’t organize some other type of evening event though!

Our heat wave gave way to more typical Berkeley weather so we were able to enjoy the cool fall morning today as twelve members competed for the annual Two Bowl Singles title.

After the morning rounds, four bowlers – John Spiers, Dave Rockhold, Gary Knox, and Phil Grattan – competed in semi-final and final matches. In the final match, Phil scored the winning point on the final end – even though it was Dave’s birthday. Congratulations, Phil.

Thanks to Gary Knox for all the planning, scoring and rink setup. Thanks, too, to Linnea Gershenberg and my wife Barbara for the “surprise” birthday lunch complete with awesome birthday cake.

Today was our monthly birthday celebration. This one, though, was special! Not only did we have the chance to honor one of our own, Ted Crum, with Life Membership, we celebrated the return of the Meat Axe trophy. Ted was 90 years young this month. We also celebrated the birthdays of Gerard Lazo and Jerry Leech. President Geoff Chandler event provided a bit of bubbly (Prosecco, that is) to make the event more festive. Thanks to all who brought food and to Barbara and Howard Mackey for all the decorations. Photos of today’s event can be seen on Picasa (click here)

Berkeley bowlers visited Palo Alto LBC on Sunday for the Annual Meat Axe tournament and this year Berkeley wins the event! It was a beautiful day for bowling (as are all bowling days). In the morning, Berkeley bowlers just couldn’t get control, losing 4 games. After lunch, though, we gathered our wits and managed to sweep all five afternoon games. With the tally 6 games to 4, Berkeley club president Geoff Chandler had the pleasure of accepting the Meat Axe trophy from Palo Alto’s Ginger Harris.

Of course, the Palo Alto club was most welcoming and gracious, as they always are. Visit their website at palbc.org.

In this photo, Palo Alto’s Ginger Harris and David Hale give us their very best sad face. Thank you Palo Alto, we had a wonderful time.

BLBC played host to 40 of the Bay Area’s keenest bowlers on Saturday, July 23, competing in the Pacific Inter-Mountain Division’s “Mixed 2 x 2” Tournament. This format involves four bowlers on each team, comprised of two men and two women—a good example of the egalitarian nature of the game of bowls.

No one managed a clean sweep, but over the course of four 8-end games, the team skipped by Reggie Benares and which included her husband, Andre, along with Gerry Roliz and Mary Kung, won the day. Rod (skip) and Rita Arriaga plus Al and Cheryl Minvielle took second place, while another dual husband and wife grouping—Al (skip) and Johanna Smith playing with Dick and Sally Ruddy—came in third. Fourth place was taken by yet another husband/wife combo; Ed (skip) and Pauline de Assis, with Mike Clancy and Diane Wong.

Hard to say whether a good marriage = good bowling or vice versa, but it certainly seems a winning combination. Congratulations to the winners shown below.

We like to say in bowls: “If you can’t be good, be lucky!” Of course, if you can be both good and lucky, that’s a sure-fire winning combination, and that propelled Cathy Dinnean to this year’s BLBC 4-Bowls Singles Champion. The little bit of “luck” came on Saturday, when, after the round-robin stage of the tournament, Jim Corr, Dave Rockhold, Mark Gurling, and Gary Knox led the pack. However, due to other commitments, Mark could not play on Sunday, and Cathy, lying fifth, moved into the vacant semifinal place. On Sunday, she showed the “good” side, running up an early lead in her match against Jim Corr. Although Jim caught up to 14-14, Cathy stayed the course to emerge a deserved 16-14 winner. In the final—Dave having defeated Gary in the other semi—the pattern held true. Cathy got out to a quick start, Dave gradually made up ground, and at one point even took the lead at 16-14. But this was an 18-point game and Cathy held her nerve, bowled excellently, and came through victorious at 18-16. Good bowling all round and a worthy 2011 Champion. Congratulations, Cathy! (by Jim Corr)

David Sals has been reported missing from the green at Berkeley LBC. There are reports that improv has taken him hostage. Nonetheless, Berkeley LBC wishes to thank David for his outstanding contribution to this website. To say that it wouldn’t exist without him is a gross understatement of the facts.

It would be nice to see improvisational lawn bowling, though.