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.