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: