Today was our monthly birthday celebration. This one, though, was special! Not only did we have the chance to honor one of our own, Ted Crum, with Life Membership, we celebrated the return of the Meat Axe trophy. Ted was 90 years young this month. We also celebrated the birthdays of Gerard Lazo and Jerry Leech. President Geoff Chandler event provided a bit of bubbly (Prosecco, that is) to make the event more festive. Thanks to all who brought food and to Barbara and Howard Mackey for all the decorations. Photos of today’s event can be seen on Picasa (click here)

Berkeley bowlers visited Palo Alto LBC on Sunday for the Annual Meat Axe tournament and this year Berkeley wins the event! It was a beautiful day for bowling (as are all bowling days). In the morning, Berkeley bowlers just couldn’t get control, losing 4 games. After lunch, though, we gathered our wits and managed to sweep all five afternoon games. With the tally 6 games to 4, Berkeley club president Geoff Chandler had the pleasure of accepting the Meat Axe trophy from Palo Alto’s Ginger Harris.

Of course, the Palo Alto club was most welcoming and gracious, as they always are. Visit their website at palbc.org.

In this photo, Palo Alto’s Ginger Harris and David Hale give us their very best sad face. Thank you Palo Alto, we had a wonderful time.

BLBC played host to 40 of the Bay Area’s keenest bowlers on Saturday, July 23, competing in the Pacific Inter-Mountain Division’s “Mixed 2 x 2” Tournament. This format involves four bowlers on each team, comprised of two men and two women—a good example of the egalitarian nature of the game of bowls.

No one managed a clean sweep, but over the course of four 8-end games, the team skipped by Reggie Benares and which included her husband, Andre, along with Gerry Roliz and Mary Kung, won the day. Rod (skip) and Rita Arriaga plus Al and Cheryl Minvielle took second place, while another dual husband and wife grouping—Al (skip) and Johanna Smith playing with Dick and Sally Ruddy—came in third. Fourth place was taken by yet another husband/wife combo; Ed (skip) and Pauline de Assis, with Mike Clancy and Diane Wong.

Hard to say whether a good marriage = good bowling or vice versa, but it certainly seems a winning combination. Congratulations to the winners shown below.

We like to say in bowls: “If you can’t be good, be lucky!” Of course, if you can be both good and lucky, that’s a sure-fire winning combination, and that propelled Cathy Dinnean to this year’s BLBC 4-Bowls Singles Champion. The little bit of “luck” came on Saturday, when, after the round-robin stage of the tournament, Jim Corr, Dave Rockhold, Mark Gurling, and Gary Knox led the pack. However, due to other commitments, Mark could not play on Sunday, and Cathy, lying fifth, moved into the vacant semifinal place. On Sunday, she showed the “good” side, running up an early lead in her match against Jim Corr. Although Jim caught up to 14-14, Cathy stayed the course to emerge a deserved 16-14 winner. In the final—Dave having defeated Gary in the other semi—the pattern held true. Cathy got out to a quick start, Dave gradually made up ground, and at one point even took the lead at 16-14. But this was an 18-point game and Cathy held her nerve, bowled excellently, and came through victorious at 18-16. Good bowling all round and a worthy 2011 Champion. Congratulations, Cathy! (by Jim Corr)

David Sals has been reported missing from the green at Berkeley LBC. There are reports that improv has taken him hostage. Nonetheless, Berkeley LBC wishes to thank David for his outstanding contribution to this website. To say that it wouldn’t exist without him is a gross understatement of the facts.

It would be nice to see improvisational lawn bowling, though.

Well, we had five rinks going today in the annual four-bowl singles tournament. After three games, it comes down to a semi-final and final tomorrow, Sunday, 7/17/11. Jim Corr stands in first place with Cathy Dinnean, Gary Knox, and Dave Rockhold bringing up the rear. Tomorrow, we’ll have a semi-final match with Jim vx. Cathy & Dave vs. Gary. Then we’ll have the final match featuring … your guess is as good as mine.

There’s also an invitation to play a Sunday afternoon draw game. Come one, come all!!!

It’s time for the annual singles tournament at BLBC. Come Saturday, 7/16, it’s one-on-one bowling. There will be 3 sixteen end games. Finals are on Sunday. Come down and watch us battle it out.

Last Saturday, the good folks from Leisure Town LBC (near Vacaville) made the trip from the sweltering heat of the central valley to the slightly cooler-than-average Berkeley LBC for what we call a “home-on-home” match. These are friendly matches between old friends with a few new friends thrown in for excitement. This year, Berkeley brought some new members into the fray. In the morning, it looked really good for Berkeley as we won two of the three games. After lunch, things got a little dicey, though… In the end, it was a nine-nine tie based on winning points. So, you settle these things with a duel; drawn bowls at twenty paces (Not!). You settle these things by using what we call “plus points”. These points come from the difference between the winning and losing team’s score. As it turns out, Berkeley won the match by a few points but we all won by having a great day on the green. We rewarded ourselves and the losers with good, old-fashioned Drumsticks ice cream. We even had a few newcomers try the game out during the tournament.

We will have another competitive event on the weekend of July 16. This one is a club singles event pitting member against member in the 4-bowl version of the singles game. The tournament may run into Sunday if enough players sign up.

Last week, a reporter from the Berkeley Patch eNewspaper visited the club to film a video about lawn bowling. Senior Coach (and chief cook and bottle washer) Ted Crum explains the game. You have to see the video to understand that line…..check it out on the links page.