Jim Corr (skip) and Ray Francis (lead) took the honors in the BLBC’s 2016 Draw Pairs Tournament. The event was held on a lovely Saturday November 12, when “passing showers” in the forecast seem to have evaporated without touching the ground and the weather was pleasantly and unseasonably warm. Twelve strong bowlers were divided into six skips and six leads and then randomly matched to make up the separate teams. After three 12-end games, only two teams—Jim and Ray and John Hooper (skip) and Ann Brillhart (lead)—managed to win all three games, setting up a tough and spirited final. John and Ann started firmly, maintaining a lead until the half way point, but, as the shadows lengthened, Jim and Ray came back strongly to carry the day (or the evening as it was by then!). Congratulations to Jim and Ray and thanks to all participants, especially those who stayed on to watch and encourage the finalists!
Ray Francis (left) and Jim Corr (right), BLBC 2016 Draw Pairs Champions.
Over 90 bowlers from eight clubs celebrated PIMD’s Closing Day and PIMD’s 50th Anniversary at San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club. Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club was well represented by sixteen bowlers: Twelve vets and four novices. The format: One 12-end game in the morning, a break for lunch, and then one 12-end game in the afternoon. Two teams would be awarded 1st Place, 2nd Place and 3rd Place in both the morning and afternoon games. In addition, several ties were awarded. Prizes were awarded at the end of a very fun day!
Six BLBC members won money in the morning game: Shawn Roney (skip), Frankie Napoli (skip), Bob Schwartz (second), Glenn Nunez (lead), Giulia Gallo (lead), and Sarah Allday (lead in tie game).
Four BLBC members won money in the afternoon: Rob Hoey (skip), Bob Schwartz (second), Cindy Moss (lead), and Leslie Engler (lead).
Congratulations to all BLBC winners and to all the BLBC members who participated!
To celebrate PIMD’s 50th anniversary, fifty prizes were awarded based on today’s drawing from a large container of raffle tickets collected throughout the year starting on Opening Day. Anyone who played in a PIMD tournament or attended a PIMD meeting was given a raffle ticket. Nine members from our club won prizes! Cathy Dinnean and Sarah Allday each won a bottle of wine. Cris Benton won a set of decorative candles, Gordon Wilson won a Drake’s Pride towel and a PIMD 50th Anniversary coin, Annie Brillhart won a box of See’s candy, Jim Corr won a $20 gift card donated by PALBC, Cindy Moss won a $25 Bevmo certificate, Millard Long won a $50 Safeway certificate, Shawn Roney won $50 cash, and Frankie Napoli won $100 cash!
Last, but not least, one of the primary goals of Closing Day is to recognize and encourage novices. Sixteen PIMD novices participated this year. BLBC novices included Cindy Moss, Glenn Nunez, Laile Giansetto, and Giulia Gallo. They are all a welcome addition to our club, and it was great to see them at Closing Day!
PIMD 2016 Novices
One of the highlights of the day occurred when Bud Birkenseer, PIMD Tournament Director, presented our own Giulia Gallo with a trophy to celebrate her win as the PIMD 2016 Novice of the Year. Well done Giulia!
Bud and Giulia, 2016 PIMD Novice Champion
Congratulations to everyone in our club who participated in this tournament!
Fourteen mixed triples teams stepped on to the Palo Alto LBC green this morning hoping to bowl their best, have a great time….and maybe even win.
The Ed Arnold is a tough tournament because each bowler plays four ends as a lead, four ends as a second and four ends as a skip. Berkeley LBC was represented by four teams:
Rob Hoey, Leslie Engler and Bob Schwartz
Ethan Bortman, Cathy Dinnean and Erwin Vista
Jim Corr, Laile Giansetto and Bud Birkenseer (Palo Alto)
Shawn Roney, Ann Brillhart and Cris Benton.
There were some very close, hard-fought games. At the end of the day, only two teams won all three games. Congratulations to BLBC team Shawn, Ann and Cris! They took top honors with only a one point differential over team Mike Coiner, Frank Matyskiela and Michell Matthews. Congratulations also to two other BLBC teams: Ethan, Cathy and Erwin took 3rd Place, and Jim, Bud (Palo Alto) and Laile took 6th Place. Go Berkeley LBC!!!
1st place winners: Ann Brillhart, Shawn Roney, Cris Benton
3rd Place Winners: Erwin Vista, Cathy Dinnean, Ethan Bortman
What a wonderful day! Not too hot, not too cold, and 24 bowlers from the PIMD were ready to step on to the green and start their games. But first, we took a few moments to present our club’s Howard Mackey with a certificate of appreciation for starting the Jamboree in 1996 and running it until 2014. This unique tournament requires players to keep individual rather than team score cards. Today’s tournament was named The Howard Mackey Jamboree in his honor! Special thanks to Jim Corr, our club’s talented wordsmith, and Cathy Dinnean, our club’s computer graphics pro, for the certificate! We also took a moment to acknowledge our club’s novices: Cindy Moss, Laile Giansetto, Giulia Gallo, Hugo Deaux and Glenn Nunez.
As soon as everyone selected their score cards we headed out to to the green to find out who we would be bowling with…and against. Two bowlers had to drop out at the last minute, so we had to change two triples games to pairs, but that didn’t change the scoring. The top three skips, top three vices and top three leads would win money. It was wonderful to have ten bowlers representing clubs from Leisure Town, Oakland, Palo Alto, and San Francisco! Fifteen bowlers from our club rounded out the field with three of us rotating in and out as needed. While I tallied the scores after the final game, Cathy gathered all the players on the green for a “spider.” Our own Mr. Luo won the prize: A bottle of wine. And, of course, everyone received one of Howard Mackey’s traditional post-tournament treats: An ice cream drumstick!The winners:
1st Place Skip: Nikki Schrager
2nd Place Skip: Pete Knopf
3rd Place Skip: Ginger Harris
1st Place Vice: Bob Beksel
2nd Place Vice: Hugo Deaux
3rd Place Vice: Dave McMullen
1st Place Lead: Millard Long
Tie for 2nd and 3rd Place Leads: Laile Giansetto and Giulia Gallo
Congratulations to everyone who participated! And a special round of applause for our club’s novices!
A very tough Aussie Pairs tournament this year at Rossmoor. Twenty-eight top-notch teams played three 12-end games. Eleven bowlers from our club were on the green.
Huge round of applause for team Rob Hoey and Shawn Roney! They won all three games and took second place…losing only by a one point differential. The same thing happened to them last year! Third times the charm, guys. Next year!
Team Bob Schwartz and his partner, Larry Collaco, won two and lost one. Well done!
Team Jim Corr and Annie Brillhart won one, tied one and lost one as did team Frankie Napoli and his partner, Sandy Souza.
Team John Hooper and Cris Benton won one and lost two.
Team Des Simpson and Dave McMullen tied one and lost two as did team Millard Long and his partner, Nikki Schrager.
Better luck to all of us next year!
Berkeley’s Rob Hoey & Shawn Roney, the 2016 Aussie Pairs 2nd Place Team
On a beautiful August summer Saturday, forty bowlers from around the Bay participated in this year’s tournament; which was hosted by Berkeley, but played in Oakland. We’re proud that ten bowlers from Berkeley played on the greens – and especially pleased that a Berkeley team took First Place! Congratulations to Sarah, John, Cathy, and Cris.
Winners: BLBC’s Sarah Allday, John Hooper, Cathy Dinnean, and Cris Benton.
Twelve bowlers waited to see who they would be bowling with (and against) in our club’s 2016 Triples Draw Tournament on July 16. It was a perfect round robin with the top two teams to play for the championship.
Des, Millard and Dave won all three of their games. (Excellent bowling you guys!) There was a very tough battle for second place between teams Erwin, Ray and Bob, Cathy, Phil and Ted, and Shawn, Ann and Luo. With a truly extraordinarily super bowl by Shawn at the last end of our third game, he moved his team into second place. Now his team had a tough assignment: Beat the team (Des, Millard and Dave) that had just beat his team by two points. Well, Shawn’s team was definitely up to the challenge. They won with points to spare. Congratulations to Shawn, Ann and Luo!
BLBC members Cathy Dinnean, Ann Brillhart and Sarah Allday — along with Palo Alto bowlers Ginger Harris and Cheryl Anderson —
The day’s winners: Cheryl Anderson, Ginger Harris, Cathy Dinnean, Ann Brillhart, Sarah Allday
took 1st place on July 10 in the 2016 PIMD Women’s Fives tournament at the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club.
Ginger took on the difficult (and lonely) task of bowling the singles game in the morning. Several rinks over, Cathy did an admirable job of skipping, Ann, Cheryl and Sarah in the fours game. (Sarah’s jack rolling and bowling to the jack were awesome!) After a break for lunch, Ginger and Cheryl won a close pairs contest, and Cathy, Sarah and Ann won the triples game with points to spare.
This team is the only team that day to win all its games. Congratulations!
Gold Medal Winners (l-r): Jim Corr (skip), Bob Schwartz (lead), Frank Matyskiela (second). Photo: Martha Mckee
Jim Corr and Bob Schwartz of Berkeley, together with Frank Matyskiela of Palo Alto LBC, took first place in the Sonoma Wine Country Senior Games for the second year in a row.
The games were held June 10-11, as last year, at the Oakmont Lawn Bowling Club in Santa Rosa and attracted teams from as far away as St. George, Utah and Fresno, CA as well as from around the Bay Area. A strong contingent of Oakmont bowlers also participated.
The format differed slightly from last year and allowed all 16 teams to participate fully on Day 2. Saturday, the top eight teams from Friday played a random draw of three 10-end games for Gold and Silver, while the bottom eight teams played off for the bronze medal. By lunch time, three Bay Area teams had won both their morning games. The San Francisco trio won their third game quickly, but with the knowledge that the winner of the Berkeley/PA – all Palo Alto matchup would almost certainly take first place because of a superior points score. As it turned out, after a close start, Jim, Frank, and Bob established a solid lead which Ian, Ginger, and Grace could not catch. In the bronze playoffs, a team from the Leisure Town club in Vacaville—with the delightful name of “Back Bowls Bobs and Marge”—came through for the medal. As an added bonus, this year all medal winners were also presented with a bottle of 2012 Russian River Valley Reserve Zinfandel from St. Anne’s Crossing, one of Sonoma County’s high-quality vineyards. As an anonymous bowler was heard to comment drolly: “You can’t drink a medal!”
A good competitive tournament, very well organized by the Oakmont Club, played in fine bowling weather (unlike last year when temperatures soared well into the 90s). What can be wrong with that? And as side note, the Oakmont Club has requested to re-join the PIMD after some years absence, so here’s hoping to see more of their players at tournaments around the region.
The winning teams (l-r): SILVER: Rod Arriaga, Robb Pawlak, Rita Arriaga “Team Triple R” San Francisco; GOLD: Jim Corr, Bob Schwartz, Frank Matyskiela “Bay Area Bowlers” Berkeley; BRONZE: Margie DuSell, Bob Beksel, Bob DuSell “Back Bowl Bobs and Margie” Vacaville (Leisure Town). Photo: Martha McKee
Berkeley bowlers put in a strong performance at the PIMD Men’s Singles Championship event and Jim Corr came home with the 2016 title. (PIMD is the Pacific Inter-Mountain Division of BowlsUSA, comprising clubs in Northern California, Utah, and Hawaii).
The competition, held at the Sunnyvale Lawn Bowling Club the weekend of May 14-15, brought together 16 of the top players from all over the Bay Area. Eight contestants at the end of Day 1 went on to the Championship “A” and “B” Flights on Sunday, with the next four being placed in the “C” Flight and the lowest four in the “D” Flight. In his first game Sunday morning, Jim got off to a good start, beating Miguel Roliz of Rossmoor LBC, the only player who had defeated him on Saturday. This set up a semifinal match against Cris Benton, a fellow Berkeley bowler, that turned into a nail-biter. Jim took an early lead only to see Cris draw level and then surpass him to reach a 17-13 lead. With 18 points being the winning goal, Jim had to dig deep, but eventually managed to prevail by the narrowest of margins, eking out an 18-17 victory.
The final again matched two Berkeley bowlers against each other. Jim faced Frankie Napoli, a dual member of Berkeley and the Rossmoor Club. While not as close as the semifinal, the match nevertheless proved a tough one, Frankie coming within two points (13-11) of leveling the score, but Jim held on to take the game by 18-13 and the 2016 title.
Overall, with Rob Hoey winning the “B” Flight, Berkeley members ended up with four of the top five spots, a great showing. Congratulations to all.
Berkeley participants at 2016 PIMD Men’s Singles Championships. From left: Jim Corr, Des Simpson, Cris Benton, John Hooper, Rob Hoey, Frankie Napoli.
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