On Saturday, June 14, 36 teams from clubs around the Bay Area gathered at San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club to compete in the Mixed 5’s Tournament. The teams had to consist of three women and two men or three men and two women in order to make the required team mix. Singles and Fours games were played in the morning and Pairs and Triples in the afternoon. Jim Corr and Annie Brillhart from Berkeley along with Rose Selby and Tom Burnoski won their Fours game. Meanwhile, Jonathan Burnoski won his Singles game. In the afternoon, Jim and Tom won their Pairs game and Jonathan, Rose and Annie won their Triples game. Not only were Jim, Tom, Jonathan, Rose and Annie the only team to win all four games, they also won all four games with the maximum ten + points!

Berkeley sweeps again!

The playdowns are qualifying tournaments to select one men’s team and one women’s team to represent PIMD at the national championships to be held this year in October at the Laguna Beach Lawn Bowling Club.  The playdowns are a rigorous test of skill amongst most talented and most ambitious bowlers in our division.   The playdowns are set up in a full round robin format where each team plays every other team in the competition and the team with the best record goes to the nationals.  This process can take time, but is the fairest and most complete method to select our teams.

Five women’s teams participated and played over the weekend of June 21-22 at the Rossmoor Lawn Bowling Club.  In a highly competitive and closely matched event, the standings shifted frequently and dramatically over the course of the games.   At the end of the two days of bowling the team of Rose Selby from the Palo Alto LBC and Ann Brillhart from the Berkeley LBC emerged as the winners having won 3 of their 4 games with 14 plus points.  Congrats to Rose and Ann who are on their way to Laguna Beach.  They just edged out Ginger Harris (Palo Alto LBC and Janice Bell (Berkeley LBC) by just one plus point.  Ginger and Janice will be the alternates.

Twelve men’s teams played 11 games against the other teams over the weekend of June 21-22 in Rossmoor and June 28-29 in Berkeley.  These full days of competitive bowls lasted into the early evening on the first three days, represented a test of skill and endurance.  At the end of the 4 days, consistency was rewarded as the team comprised of two lead / singles specialists Daniel Gorelick from Berkeley LBC and Calvin Darling from San Francisco LBC emerged as the winners.  They won 10 of 11 games with  117 plus points.  Congrats!  It did come down to the last game as the team of Jesse May (Santa Cruz LBC) and Luis Zapata (San Francisco LBC) won all three of their games against tough competition on the final Sunday, to keep the pressure of Daniel and Calvin.  Jesse and Luis finished just one game behind at 9-2 and will be our alternates.  

Berkeley sweeps the Singles Playdowns!

Good news this week from the PIMD playdowns. Our Janine Andrews dominated the field in a round robin competition to select PIMD’s participant in the national women’s championship. Well done! In the men’s competition Berkeley’s Rob Hoey and Daniel Gorelick rose to the top of a fiercely competitive field. Here is the account taken from the PIMD Newsletter:

On May 17-18, seven ambitious women took part in PIMD’s playdowns at the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club, competing for the right to represent PIMD in the National Singles Championships to be held In Laguna Beach, California in October. Participants were Mei Chan (San Francisco), Reggie Banares (San Jose), Joellyn Raderstorf (San Francisco), Rose Selby (Palo Alto), Janine Andrews (Berkeley), and two teen-age bowlers, Adilyn Zeino (San Francisco) and CeCe LeMessurier (San Jose). Over the course of the weekend, the ladies played a complete round robin style tournament, playing each of the other competitors one time. CeCe is a regular bowler at the San Jose lawn bowling club, which has artificial turf. Believe it or not, this was CeCe’s first time playing on natural grass. At the end of the day on Sunday, the two younger participants had very good showings, each winning three of their six games. Janine Andrews (Berkeley) won her first 5 games and had the event won prior to the start of her last game. She will represent PIMD at nationals. Rose Selby was runner up and will be the alternate.

Over that same weekend, plus Monday, sixteen men competed in the men’s singles playdowns. Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to group play with each player competing one day in San Jose and one day in Santa Cruz. After the weekend, the field of 16 was reduced to a final bracket of 8 to be played off on Monday in San Jose. The final eight consisted of DanielGorelick (Berkeley), Calvin Darling (San Francisco), Chris Davis (Berkeley), Jim Corr(Berkeley), Scottie Marzonie (Palo Alto), Frankie Napoli (Rossmoor), Rob Hoey (Berkeley), and Jesse May (Santa Cruz). All eight of these bowlers travel regularly to bowl. All of them took part in last year’s US Open and 7 of the 8 were at last month’s Southwest Open. The competition was fierce and at the end of the day Monday Rob Hoey, emerged the victor and will represent PIMD at nationals, having run through Scottie Marzonie, Jesse May, and Daniel Gorelick in three epic matches on his way to a well earned win. Daniel Gorelick will be the alternate.

Congratulations to Janie and Luis

Congratulations are due to BLBC bowlers Janie Hillyer (Skip) and Luis Zapata (Lead) who won the first official PIMD tournament of the 2025 season, the PIMD Mixed Pairs.

Played at San Jose LBC on Saturday, March 22, the event involved 14 teams playing four 12-end games. Going into the last round, only two teams had won their first three games–Janie and Luis, and Jesse May and Rachel Marcuson of Santa Cruz LBC. By the chance of the random draw, these two teams faced each other in the final matchup, ensuring that only one would end the day undefeated. (Excluding the possibility of a tie, which would then have thrown victory to the one with the better differential.) Playing with the assurance and consistency they had shown all day, Janie and Luis got out in front in the early stages and never looked back. 

In addition to the prize money, Janie and Luis go home as the front runners in PIMD’s first Bowler of the Year contest. This award will go to the Man and Woman Bowler who accumulate the most points in the course of the seven PIMD Tournaments open equally to all PIMD bowlers in 2025. For tournaments using a round robin format, 10 points are awarded for each win, 7 points for second place, 5 points for third place, with fewer points awarded down to those in eighth place. (A slightly different points allocation will be used in tournaments based on an elimination format.) See the PIMD President’s January 2025 newsletter for further details.