Membership has its privileges
BLBC Pres. Ashok Verma to BLBCers on 5/20/2024:
Please join me in extending our heartiest congratulations to Janie Hillyer and Jim Corr for winning the Pacific Inter-mountain Division (PIMD) Singles women’s and men’s title at the Rossmoor LBC. We now have two champions who will be representing the PIMD clubs at the National Championships in Milwaukee. The National Championships will be held at Milwaukee Lake park LBC in September 2024.
Jim Corr to BLBC Bowlers on 5/12/2024:
The final rounds of BLBC’s 2024 2-Bowl Singles Tournament were held on Saturday, May 11 amid lovely bowling weather. HC Yung, our dual member from the Kowloon Green Bowling Club (Hong Kong), emerged as champion after a show of steady, steady bowling over the three games.
The tournament started with four groups containing four players who played in round robin format with the top two from each group qualifying for the final day’s play. They were—in order of seeding—Cris Benton, Daniel Gorelick, Hugo Deaux, HC Yung, Gary “Bing” Burns, Tom Birt, Kevin Reynolds, and Jim Audas.
In the opening quarter final play, HC, drawn against Bing, jumped into an early lead, up 11-4 at one stage in the first-to-15-points game. But Bing fought back eventually edging in front 13-12. However, HC recovered his form on the next two ends to claim first one, then two points thus coming out on top 15-13. Meanwhile, on the other side of the green Hugo was winning his match against Tom with relative ease in a 15-7 victory. In the other two quarter-finals, Daniel beat Kevin 15-11 and Cris won 15-10 against Jim.
The semifinals saw Hugo in an early back-and-forth against Daniel, the score tied 5-5 after six ends. Daniel kept up the pressure to hold the game to 11-10 in Hugo’s favor on the thirteenth end. But three winning ends brought Hugo through to the final with a 15-10 victory. In the other semi, HC and Cris fought a ding-dong battle, each enjoying mini “streaks” and the score tied on a couple of occasions through the first sixteen ends. The game was still anyone’s on the 22nd end at 14-13for HC, but he got the necessary decisive point on the next end to win 15-13.
In the final, played to 18 points, HC turned on a show with one fine shot after another to run up a dominating lead of 15-3. But Hugo was not letting go quite that easily and with several winning ends battled back to put an additional eight points on the board before HC recovered and took the game—and the championship—to an 18-11 victory.
Congratulations to HC and thanks to all the bowlers who put on a fine display for the spectators. Also, thanks to Daniel for a well-organized tournament from start to finish, to Sarah Allday and Susan Jamart for supplying the vittles, and, as always, to our greenskeepers for providing a beautiful-to-the-eye and beautifully-running green.
HC Yung, Winner (right), and Hugo Deaux, Runner Up (left), BLBC 20204 2-Bowl Singles
BLBC Pres. Ashok Verma to BLBCers on 4/16/2024:
Please join me in congratulating Daniel Gorelick for being selected to represent the USA in a four-country tournament in Ayr, Scotland in August 2024. Other countries are Canada, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
If interested, you could find the details in the April 2024 Bowles Bulletin of BUSA
From Bud Birkenseer, PIMD Tournament Director on 4/15/2024:
Congratulations to Bernadette and HC for winning the PIMD mixed pairs!
What a journey, rain, wind, the party’s ON the party is OFF. The wind stopped then blew again, but the games went ON.
Thanks everyone, I appreciate that you ALL made it to the Club and ON TIME.
I saw some very nice shots made over the day. Very impressive considering most of you couldn’t feel your fingers.
Congrats to our Champions!
HC Yung and Bernadette Chan who went undefeated and had a differential of 19 points
The runners up John and Angie Peet also went undefeated, but their differential missed the mark by a few points.
Four teams won money, and we had an added donation to the prize pool! Thank you to our unnamed donor.
I am sure the winners will find a way to spend that extra cash.
I just don’t want our PIMD bowlers to expect these large prize money amounts in ALL our PIMD tournaments!!
(Thank you mystery donor!)
Glenn Nunez to BLBCers on 3/30/2024:
It was pointed out to me recently that I’ve been remiss in sharing the results of the recently-completed BLBC February Follies with our Club members. Mea culpa.
This experimental league event turned out to be aptly named, as the folly of scheduling anything during the unpredictability of February weather in the Bay Area presented more than a fair share of topsy-turvy. Two dates postponed by rain led to some folks, unable to meet the new schedule, playing their matches midweek. Only half of the original twelve entrants bowled in glorious sunshine during the final Saturday.
When the dust finally settled, Cindy Moss, Ashok Verma, Art Kotoulas, and Sal Garcia-Lemus took home prize envelopes. Cathy Dinnean laid down the winning shot in the post-tournament scramble to claim the not-insubstantial contents of the Ron Byus Memorial Kitty. All in all, it was a pretty good event…
If enough people show interest, I’d consider setting up a similar league – with a couple of format tweaks – sometime this Summer. Let me know back-channel if you might be interested and if so, would you prefer a daytime event on a weekend, or an evening during the week.
Ethan Bortman, Greens Committee Chairman, to BLBC Members on 3/29/2024:
Hi All – Yesterday’s drill and fill workday on the green was a huge success. The turnout of 18 volunteers was especially impressive, given such short notice, and greatly appreciated. It was hard work but the weather cooperated, the refreshments and lunch were yummy, and all the volunteers seemed to be enjoying themselves despite the heavy lifting.
Here’s the proof. Check out these photos from the Benton video team … Cris with the aerial shots and Claudia from the ground:
The Greens Committee gives a hearty shout out to the volunteers:
Phil Watson, Phil Grattan, Cindy Moss, Glenn Nunez, Steve Harris, Tom Birt, Donna Otten, Cris and Claudia Benton, Sal Garcia-Lemus, Ashok Verma, Susan Jamart, Cathy Dinnean, Leslie Engler and an extra special hooray to the Greenskeepers…Janie Hillyer, Judy Hillyer, and Patricia Erwin…who organized and managed the effort. (Apologies if we omitted or mispelled any names.) Many thanks also to members who volunteered for the originally-scheduled Workday on Saturday but couldn’t make it for the reschedule!
If and when it ever stops raining, there is a bit more work to be done so stay tuned for further volunteering opportunities.
Cheers
BLBC Pres. Ashok Verma to BLBCers on 3/11/2024:
Please join me in extending our appreciation to the tournament committee for organizing the first BLBC tournament of 2024, which is also the first ever 4321 tournament at BLBC.
Because of the planning and organization of the tournament director, Daniel Goerlick, the day went flawlessly. Cathy, as always, was hospitable to all. Let’s not forget the volunteers who donated their time to help out and be the markers for these games.
Sixteen bowlers competed for the honor of being the first 4321 champion of BLBC. After three rounds of round-robin games, four bowlers – Chris Davis, Cris Benton, Hugo Deaux, and Daniel Gorelick – had won all three of their games. Chris Davis and Cris Benton were declared the two finalists based on score differential.
The final game between Chris and Cris was a cliffhanger, worthy of this historic event! They competed fiercely to be the first to reach 70 points and claim the championship. In the end, Chris Davis managed to reach 71 to Cris Benton’s 69 to claim the honor.
Congratulations Chris!
(In the picture below: Cris Benton on the left and Chris Davis on the right)
“They sure didn’t bowl like novices!”
BLBC Pres. Glenn Nunez to BLBCers on 12/4/2023:
After watching the participants during the eight morning matches of last Saturday’s BLBC Novice Tournament, one of our club’s veterans confided to me that he was glad he wasn’t playing against them. We had some serious bowling going on. There were blowouts. There were matches decided on the last end. The four markers went through a lot of chalk. One end was so close that even the umpire declared it a tie. And there were just enough wrong-biased deliveries to keep it real.
I was tempted to start this paragraph with “When the dust settled,” but mist and drizzle throughout the chilly, overcast day made sure there was no dust to settle. So… After tallying the results of the two Round Robins, Cindy announced that Judy Hillyer and Gordon Beveridge had each swept their matches to finish as the preliminaries’ only undefeated contestants and would face each other in the first-to-eighteen-points Final.
An enthusiastic audience, including Ginger Cheng – winner of 2022’s edition of this event who was on hand to congratulate her successor – gathered at the center rink. Applause was the order of the afternoon as both finalists showcased skills gleaned from many months of diligent practice and competition at various levels. Judy probably could make a case that Gordon be cited for petty larceny, as time and again she laid down an impeccable shot only to see him draw just a smidge closer or somehow pop her seemingly unbeatable bowl out of the head. Judy never faltered, but Gordon’s repeated successes proved to be too much and he finally claimed victory shortly before dusk. Congratulations, Gordon!
Kudos to our stellar Hospitality Committee for providing goodies and to those participants who added extra treats. Thanks also to the day’s volunteer markers. It was heartening to see the number of new bowlers stepping up for their first competition. The future looks bright for bowling at BLBC.
Great day on the Green
BLBC Pres. Glenn Nunez to BLBCers on 9/26/2023:
As many of you know, BowlsUSA’s National Championships take place next week in Sun City, FL. Representatives from each of the seven divisions face one another in a true Champion of Champions tournament to determine the finest in our sport.
But did you know just how grand Berkeley’s presence will be during this prestigious event? As a result of having won the PIMD Playdowns earlier this year, Annie Brillhart (Women’s Singles), JIm Corr (Men’s Singles), and dual-member Frankie Napoli (Men’s Pairs) will be carrying the BLBC banner throughout the week.
This is a big deal! Put it in the following perspective: There are only four separate categories in the Nationals and we have members in THREE of them. Not convinced? How about this then: PIMD is sending six players from among its eleven clubs and HALF of them have lockers on Acton Street. Our Club has every reason to be proud.
There’s a list of competitors at
www.bowlsusa.us/national-championship.html with a link to the full schedule of events, which I suspect will be updated with scores as they become available.
Annie, JIm, and Frankie, as you pack for your flights to Florida this Saturday and prepare for your first game on Wednesday morning, know there’s a huge team pulling for you back home. Best of luck from everyone at BLBC!
********
And, more from our Facebook page on 10/31/2023 … Ann Brillhart and Jim Corr are headed to Nationals! We hope you bring us back a couple of trophies.
Jim Corr to BLBCers on 9/16/2023:
An unseasonably gray and chilly Saturday saw 14 players compete for the 2023 4-Bowl Singles title on a fast-running green. And the markers and small band of spectators saw some fine bowling and closely contested matches.
The format provided for a preliminary round of three matches played to first to 15 points, followed by the top two players from that stage battling it out in a first to 18 points Final.
At the end of the set of three matches, Jim Corr emerged in first place after defeating Bernie Chan, Daniel Gorelick (the latter in a down-to-the wire 15-14 victory) and Hugo Deaux. Meanwhile, Robin Hoey was also on 3 wins—over Jim Audas, Luis Zapata, and Phil Grattan—but had to await the outcome of the match between Ian Cameron and Bernie Chan. Ian went into that game with two wins (beating Annie Brillhart and Bing Burns along the way). A win by any margin would give Ian the advantage over Rob based on differential, but it turned out to be a nail biter. He and Bernie went toe-to-toe until tying at 14 each. With Bernie holding three shots, Ian snuck in with his last bowl to take the point and the game, edging Rob out of the Final by the margin of that one point.
The matchup for the Championship game was a repeat of the 2018 4-Bowl Singles Final in which Ian (then still a novice) had defeated Jim by a solitary point. He looked like handily repeating that win by jumping into a 13-5 lead. But after a short “bathroom break,” Jim returned to the field and bit by bit fought his way back into the match. Whether it was the break that broke the momentum, or his tactic of playing longer jacks than had been seen hitherto, or the “curse of 13” falling on Ian, Jim did not concede another point and worked his way steadily to an 18-13 victory.
Thanks go out to all those who assisted, especially our wonderful greeenskeeping team, the markers who gave up a part of their Saturday to keep the games flowing nicely, and to Sarah Allday and the hospitality crew for providing vittles.
