As the 2025 lawn bowling tournament season wraps up, it was time for the annual BLBC Novice Tournament. This year, the field was small but packed with talent. We had Mike O’Leary and Ben Corson, who took first and second in the PIMD Novice Tournament just a week ago in San Francisco. Joining them was Mark Baker, who also did well in the PIMD Tournament, and Stephanie Upp, a less frequent bowler with a natural athletic flair.

It was a lovely fall day for bowling, with perfect temperatures and no wind under a sunny sky. The hospitality committee put together a delicious spread, and the tournament drew an appreciative group of spectators and markers. The tournament followed a round-robin format with three rounds of games. Winners were determined by the first to reach 15 points. After two rounds, Mike was leading with a 2–0 record, Ben and Mark were each 1–1, and Stephanie was 0–2. This set the stage for an exciting finish. Mike would win outright with a third victory, while Ben and Mark were in striking distance if that didn’t happen.

Ben played Stephanie in the final game and won, bringing his record to 2–1. In the next rink, Mark faced off against Mike in a closely watched game. This one was intensely played, with Mark establishing an early lead and maintaining a small margin as the game went on. The heads were impressively tight, with both bowlers well dialed in. As Mark approached the required 15 points, Mike had some really nice bowls that came within an inch of claiming the head. But, in a stroke of misfortune they bounced the wrong way, and the game went to Mark.

At the end of the day, Mark, Mike, and Ben each ended up with a 2–1 record. The winner was then determined by differential points. Mark had the highest differential total, making him the 2025 BLBC Novice Champion.

Well done to all the bowlers for putting on such an entertaining display. Kudos as well to the Greenskeepers, Cindy Moss as Tournament Director, and the Hospitality Committee.

Once again new players from around the Bay Area have gathered for the annual PIMD novice tournament and once again the BLBC had a fine showing. This year the tournament attracted 16 novice players, all of whom had been in the game for two years or less.

There was a preliminary round with each novice playing three games at the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club. From this four players emerged with a perfect 3–0 record to continue on as the final four – Renne Xie, Ben Corson, Mike O’Leary, and Mark Hanusin. The champion was determined as these folks battled it out in a round robin format.

Tournament Director Bud Birkenseer (a hero to us all) reported on the final four playoff: “The weather was lovely at Golden Gate Park today, and Lawn Bowling had some excellent bowling today. One of the matches went 23 ends before one of the bowlers reached the needed 18 points for a win. Mike O’Leary snuck by Ben Corson with a last end 3-Pointer: You can see Mike’s three bowls in the image below (they still are friends…I think.)”

The final four Novices did themselves proud and the BLBC can take great pride as well in Mike’s win, Ben’s very close second place, and Mark’s third. Well done.

Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club had strong representation at the US Nationals held Oct 19-25th at the beautiful Laguna Beach Lawn Bowling Club (LBLBC).  LBLBC has two zippy greens overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Between the crashing waves, seagull calls and the daily Pelican flyovers, there was always something to watch in addition to great lawn bowling.  For example, on one notable occasion, a proud seagull snatched a cookie and proceeded to strut around the center of the green, stopping all play.  The venue never disappointed.

The LBLBC crew did an amazing job hosting, including feeding the players, officials and many volunteers several times each day.  Twice in the evenings, live music accompanied appetizers and/or dinner.  Event sponsors provided even more food and drinks.  This was not an event where one lacked for anything. 

For the Bowls USA, the country is represented by 7 divisions.  Berkeley LBC is in the Pacific Intermountain Division (PIMD).  Because of the large number of lawn bowlers in the Southwest Division,  they have 2 teams in each category, which they have named “Stars” and “Stripes”.  Thus, at the US Nationals, there are 8 groups of 6 players comprised of men’s singles, men’s pairs, women’s singles and women’s pairs.  BLBC had an impressive showing at the event with 5/6 PIMD players being members of the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club. 

After 3.5 days of spirited play, teams from the Southwest Division swept all of the events, save the women’s pairs, which was won by the South Central team in an epic playoff. PIMD did quite well across the board  Crushing most of their opponents with 5/7 wins was the women’s pairs team of Rose Selby and Annie Brillhart.   Overall, they came in 3rd and can boast as the only PIMD team to beat a SW team. We are also quite proud of Rob Hoey who also came in 3rd in the men’s singles with 4/7 wins.  Several of his battles were fierce and continued well after the 20th end.  Janine Maddock, who was a novice when she won the playdowns, had a strong showing in the women’s singles, winning 3/7 games.  Her battles were also long with the 19:21 loss to Anne Nunes (Stripes) going on for 23 ends.  Finally, after several back and forth games that could have gone either way, Daniel Gorelick and Calvin Darling won 2/7 of their games.

Overall, BLBC can be proud of these fine players. Videos of several of the games can be viewed at:

https://www.youtube.com/@SouthwestLawnBowls

At the 2025 PIMD Singles Championships held at the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club in early October, bowlers from across the Pacific Inter-Mountain Division competed under excellent green conditions freshly rolled with the club’s new roller.

On the women’s side, Rose Selby from the Palo Alto Lawn Bowling Club emerged as the overall champion, completing an impressive undefeated run—winning all six games over the two days. In the final, she overcame a strong challenge from Berkeley’s Janie Hillyer, who took second place after carrying an early lead. Joanne Ribeiro of Rossmoor finished third, and Angie Peet from San Francisco placed fourth.

The men’s field was split into two groups for Sunday’s play. Berkeley’s Daniel Gorelick and Rossmoor’s Frankie Napoli both went undefeated in group play, advancing to face each other in the title match. Napoli proved dominant in the final, claiming victory in decisive fashion to complete his own unbeaten weekend performance. Gorelick took the runner-up position, with Kevin Reynolds (San Francisco) finishing third and Jim Corr (Berkeley) fourth.

Berkeley’s greens and organization received praise for providing ideal tournament conditions.

The BLBC is very proud to be sending five of our members representing the PIMD to the Bowls USA National Championship, which will be played at the Laguna Beach Lawn Bowling Club from October 19 – 25.  Seven regional divisions from across the US will be represented by their players each of whom has won their respective playdown tournaments for Singles or Pairs formats.

Our Women’s Singles Champion is BLBC member, Janine Maddock, the Women’s Pairs champions are Palo Alto’s Rose Shelby and BLBC’S Annie Brillhart, the Men’s Singles champion is BLBC’S Rob Hoey, and the Men’s Pairs Champion are BLBC dual member Calvin Darling and BLBC’S Daniel Gorelick.

We are wishing all our champions the best of luck and happy bowling!

If you are interested in following the tournament, look for your email from Bowls USA and follow the prompts for links to the tournament.