For the third Saturday in a row, BLBC bowlers gathered for an intra-club tournament. In this case, it was the Aussie Pairs match-up, which quickly filled to capacity with 28 bowlers. Bowling started promptly at 9 a.m. on greens that had been well prepared by our hard-working greenskeeping team. For this tournament, there were no handicaps and a random draw to establish opponents and rink assignments.

Bowling proceeded at a brisk pace during the morning with some very competitive games. After the completion of round two, there were only two teams standing with a 2–0 record – Andrew Keeler playing with Michael O’Leary and Ethan Bortman playing with Art Kotoulas. Not far behind with a record of one win and one tie were the teams of Phil Grattan and Philip Andrews as well as Lesle Engler and Ben Corson. So, these were the teams to watch going into round three.

In the third round, Ethan and Art faced Cris Benton and Glenn Nunez. It was a close game in the beginning, but Cris and Glenn slowly pulled away in a tightly bowled game with many good shots. Meanwhile, Andrew and Mike were playing Janice Bell and Sarah Allday. They had to work to win this one, but they eked out a 11–8 win and with that accomplished, they won the tournament. Phil and Philip came in second in the tournament, followed by Leslie and Ben, and then Jim Corr and Mark Hanusin.

Kudos to the groundskeeping team for their extra efforts preparing the green. As always, the hospitality team did a great job, providing refreshments and keeping the clubhouse in good order.

For those interested in detailed results here are the games scores and standings (click to enlarge):

Final standings:

It was another lovely day in Berkeley, with the green trimmed and true for a friendly Vet–Novice Pairs tournament designed to welcome newer bowlers into the club’s lively mix of annual competitions. Ten novices teamed with one of ten veterans in a random draw, no handicaps and no strength-vs-strength match — just three 12-end pairs games starting at 9:00 a.m. with plenty of good-natured mentoring along the way. The format kept things simple and spirited: win what can be won, learn what can be learned, and enjoy the rhythm of bowls on a well-prepared surface. I will pause here to thank the Greenskeepers, Tournament Committee, and Hospitality Committee for their considerable efforts in support of the tournament. The club as we know it would not exist without our volunteers.

By lunch, two games were in the books and three teams held a perfect 2–0 record. Cindy Moss and Steve Arvin set the pace with an imposing +20 differential, closely followed by Art Kotoulas and Stephanie Upp at +11 differential, while Cris Benton and Mark Hanusin rode two come-from-behind wins to +5 differential. Fortune added drama: the draw had Cindy/Steve and Art/Stephanie playing against each other in the third round, making a 3–0 finish likely for one of them. Cris and Mark could still reach 3–0 against Russ Leonard and Ben Steinberg, but the differential gap loomed like a small mountain.

As the last round unfolded, the Cindy/Steve vs. Art/Stephanie game tightened end by end until it finished as a 10-10 draw, denying both Cindy/Steve and Art/Stephanie the 3-0 record that seemed inevitable for one of them at noon. On the adjacent rink, Cris and Mark were six down with four ends to play. Buoyed by the tie emerging next door they chiseled away to trail by two entering the final end against Russ and Ben. It was a long jack; after the leads had bowled Russ and Ben held two, while Cris and Mark had a nice collection of back bowls, shaping a chance. Two of Cris’s deliveries added more back bowls, a third went hunting for the jack and missed leaving one bowl left to change the day.

That last shot was a yard-on shot down the wide side to nudge the jack gently four feet back into the waiting pocket of six back bowls. Russ and Ben had one chance to answer involving a tight line to a displaced jack, but the bid didn’t land. With their last bowl, Cris and Mark turned a deficit into the count they needed, sealing the win on the day. A fitting finish for a Vet–Novice tournament: mentorship, nerve, and one decisive bowl at the end.

The 2025 4-Bowl Pairs took place on August 23, with a full house of 28 bowlers filling the seven playable rinks on the green. Bowlers were assigned positions–Skip or Lead–by the Tournament Committee (TC), taking account of preferences to the extent practicable. The TC also assigned a limited amount of handicaps. 

Skips drew their Leads, and first round rink assignments, by random draw. Thereafter, we used the strength v strength format, with the top two teams after each round facing each other, third v fourth,  and so on. 

By the conclusion of the third round, only two teams had won all three of their games, so the Final pitted Cris and Janine against Mo and Judy. The result was as closely contested a 10-end game as you could get without it actually resulting in a tie. The first nine ends were won with single points, each side outdoing the other with superb bowling along the way. But Mo and Judy had taken six of those ends to Cris and Janine’s three, leaving the latter down three going into the final end. Cris and Janine were holding two in the final end when Mo, with characteristic calm, drew the third shot. It came down to the last bowl but Cris’s efforts to best Mo’s shot fell short. So, Mo and Judy won the game 6-5 and with it the tournament.

Congratulations to Mo Shooer and Judy Hillyer as BLBC 2025 Pairs Champions!

 And thanks, as always, to our greenskeepers, and to our wonderful hospitality crew

Berkeley pulls off an inter-club hat trick!

The annual Meat Axe Challenge between Berkeley and Palo Alto has been played nearly every year since 1958.  It has always manifested the best of lawn bowls competition, with a combination of competitiveness, joviality, and good sportsmanship. This year’s edition was no exception. 

Palo Alto traveled north, keen to avenge last year’s loss on their home turf.  The schedule called for five 12-end triples games in the morning and afternoon sessions, with the trophy going to the side with the most game points … three for a win, one for a tie.

The unseasonably chilly, misty weather did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of both squads. Like liposuction, the contest was nip and tuck all the way. In the morning, the visitors captured three of the five matches, winning two of them quite handily.  It was nervous times for the Blue and Gold as Palo Alto seemed to have the upper hand.  They only had 15 bowlers, so their teams could remain the same.  We had 25, which demanded a juggling act to add 10 new bowlers in the afternoon. Only our five skips bowled both games.  

They had stability, we had depth. Ultimately, depth prevailed as we won four of the five afternoon matches to secure an 18-12 victory.  The Meat Axe remains where it seems happiest … in our clubhouse.

Once again, kudos to our greenskeepers for the beautiful and speedy green, and to our Hospitality Committee for the yummy snacks and barista-quality coffee.  And an extra shout out to our Tournament Committee for arranging and rearranging the team assignments. 

Moreover, we swept the season’s three inter-club matches for the second year in a row.

On a cloudy, cool, and misty Saturday morning, 42 enthusiastic and seemingly over-caffeinated bowlers from five Bay Area clubs arrived in Berkeley to participate in the annual Howard Mackey Jamboree, the crown jewel of BLBC’s annual tournament schedule.  The Jamboree, which was created by Mr. Mackey in the 80s, has a unique tournament format. There are three 10-end triples games.  Players are allocated into the three categories of skip, vice, and lead and the teams are randomly selected and then changed after each game.  It is the one tournament in which there is an “I” in team as each player maintains their own score and at the end of the day there are no team awards, only individual winners in each category.

The challenge for our tournament committee is to ensure that every bowler will have different teammates and different opponents in each…i.e., no one will ever play with or against the same bowler all day.  Kudos to our TC for figuring out how to do this.  An additional, albeit yet to be solved, complexity is never having anyone bowl on the same rink more than once.  That’s next year’s challenge.

As usual, the BLBC green was in pristine condition and there was an abundance of yummy, nutritious snacks and barista-quality coffee.   Manifesting the collective IQ of the participants was that game one started on time as every bowler was able to figure out their team, position, and rink they were assigned to.   As if scripted, the clouds disappeared by 10 AM and the remainder of the tournament was played under blue skies and pleasant temperature.  The last games finished at 4 PM and nearly all the participants gathered on the patio, munching on ice cream sandwiches (a Jamboree tradition), eagerly awaiting the final results, which were:

Even though there was a bit on cash involved, the abundance of camaraderie, laughter, and cheerful banter throughout the day was akin to a typical draw game, which is exactly what this tournament is all about.  

And lastly, a huge shout out to our Hospitality Committee and our greenkeeping team for helping make this a glorious day.

Daniel is BLBC 2025 4-Bowl Singles Champion

Sixteen players took to the green on Saturday, May 31 to contest the Club’s 2025 4-Bowl Singles Tournament amid excellent bowling weather. Daniel Gorelick emerged victorious after four rounds, thereby adding to the 2-Bowl Singles title he had won in early March.

Because the green could only accommodate seven “playable” rinks, the event got off to a staggered start, with one matchup—decided by random draw—having to wait until one of the first seven games finished. Once that round was complete, the bottom two players were eliminated, thus removing the need for further staggered play, and the remaining teams were drawn into the now familiar strength v strength format, with Number 1 playing Number 2, Number 3 against Number 4, and so on.

From that point forward, games became essentially single elimination, as any loss put the chance of reaching the top two positions mathematically out of reach. At the end of Round 2, four players remained in contention: Daniel Gorelick, who faced Jim Corr, and Calvin Darling, who took on Cris Benton. These two semifinals were both hotly contested, resulting in a final game of Daniel against Calvin.

In the final, which was set up on a first-to-18-points basis, Calvin got off to a brisk start with three points on the first end playing a nicely weighted shot with his last bowl to trail the jack to the back. He held that lead until the seventh end, when Daniel edged ahead with a 3-shot, and then pushed on to have a solid advantage of 10-6 by the ninth end. But Calvin would not let him get “out of sight” and kept himself in the game trading ends that witnessed some nice tight heads and great bowls by both players. On what proved to be the final end, Calvin was trailing 11 15 in the game and down one shot in the head. Demonstrating the confidence he had shown throughout, Calvin attacked the head, successfully hitting the target, but as the shot bowl winged off to the side it hit Calvin’s own bow—that had been the second shot—hard enough to push it completely out of the head. It was a misfortune that would have been difficult to foresee, and the result was to leave Daniel with three shots in the head giving him the needed 18 points to win the game and the tournament.

Congratulations to Daniel, whose victory will now make him eligible to represent Berkeley in the PIMD Champion of Champions Tournament at the end of the season.

As always, thanks to our greenskeepers for maintaining a fine bowling surface, to our hospitality crew for the food and drinks, and to all those who helped set up the rink (mainly Annie Brillhart) ahead of play. A special shoutout to our markers who helped make the games run as smoothly as possible and whose only reward—a worthwhile one to be sure—was to be up close to witness a great day of bowls.