It’s been a while since BLBC last held a League event for its members, so we decided to send summer off in style with our first September Smackdown. The announcement went out in late August and within just a couple of days all twelve spots on the roster were filled.

Over the course of three Thursday mornings (huge thanks to the Landscaping Crew for letting us share the green), participants competed in Rotational Triples, Aussie Pairs, and Cutthroat matches. There were also individually scheduled Singles matches which rounded out the four different disciplines, making the Smackdown a comprehensive test of overall lawn bowing prowess.

When all was said and done, Phil Grattan took advantage of a better differential to best three other contenders for fourth place. Because they were tied on both points and differential, Sal Garcia-Lemus needed the seldom-used ratio tiebreaker to sneak past Russell “Rolly” Coe for second place. Cindy Moss went undefeated through all four of her matches to run away with first place. Congratulations to these deserving bowlers.

But wait! There was still the Ron Byus Memorial Kitty to be awarded. In this spirited one-bowl rolloff, Joann Lorber laid down a perfect shot to claim the bounty. Well done.

Thanks to all the contestants for their cheerful participation. Perhaps this can become an annual addition to the Club’s tournament schedule.

The results are in! After five grueling weeks–no, wait, everybody said they were having a good time…–the BLBC High-Low Fall League drew to a close Sunday afternoon. It was touch-and-go this past summer as to whether or not the tournament would even get off the ground, and we admittedly didn’t have perfect attendance throughout the five weeks of play, but a cordial group of fourteen bowlers managed to pull it off with no noticeable glitches. Since this was nominally a pairs tournament, a format was used which kept Skips and Leads separated into two divisions for scoring purposes. Because not relying on substitutes was an important goal, an interesting mix of alternative games was utilized when necessary. Everyone got on board to make it all happen successfully.

When the numbers were tabulated, both races turned out to be extremely close among the top three finishers. Lennon Hamilton held on to his tournament-long advantage in the Skips division for a narrow victory over a hard-charging Shawn Roney, who in turn squeaked past Dave McMullen for second place. James Judge had such a strong lead that his place atop the Leads division was all but assured even though he missed the finale, while Glenn Nunez barely edged out Cindy Moss for the final prize envelope.

It was a rewarding experience for me to direct my first tournament, made all the more so by the enthusiastic support of all the participants. Maybe we’ll try something like it again!

A few folks were missing for the obligatory final-day group photo, but you get the idea,

Glenn