While working on the website, I stumbled upon a photo (above) from an open house the club hosted back in August 2017. I was instantly blown away by how much progress the club has made since then in the area visible in the photo. For comparison, here’s a similar image (below) taken in March 2025, almost eight years later.
Looking at the old and new photos, I couldn’t help but think about how much volunteer work and club projects have changed our facilities. It’s impressive how much the green and supporting elements have progressed. In the 2017 photo, I can spot eight places where improvements have been made – some small and some substantial:
Read on for a quick enumeration of progress recently achieved just in the area shown in the photo.
The Bay Bridge Challenge is the annual contest between Berkeley and the San Francisco LBC, held at the respective venues on alternating years and thus sometimes referred to as a “home and home” match. This year’s contest, held on Saturday, March 15, took place on two of SF’s three greens in Golden Gate Park, a lovely setting but where the greens are notoriously heavy and slow—it’s an achievement to get the jack, never mind a bowl, past the hog line.
It also tends to be cold! And this year was no exception, although the downpours earlier in the week had dissipated and, by the afternoon, it was actually quite pleasant. By that time, too, Berkeley had asserted its strength, winning five of the eight Triples matches. But San Francisco wasn’t giving up and came back after lunch to win 4 ½ (one tied game) to 3 ½. A valiant effort—but not quite enough, with Berkeley scoring 8 ½ to 7 ½ on the day thereby retaining the shield, which will now be displayed in our clubhouse for another year.
BLBC President, Leslie Engler, (right) receives 2025 Bay Bridge Challenge Trophy from SFLBC President Sherie Koshover
Well done to all the Berkeley bowlers who made the trip across the Bay, most especially to the teams of Hugo, Judy, and Joann, and also HC, Glenn, and Bernadette, who won both their games, as well as Cris, Cindy, and Aika, whose afternoon tie prevented an even split in games won/lost, which would have required a three-end bowl off. Finally, many thanks to our SFLBC hosts, whose hospitality was excellent.
The 2025 2-Bowl Singles Tournament was held on Saturday, March 8. On the fourth round of a (primarily) strength v strength format, Daniel Gorelick seized the crown, bettering his semi-final achievement of 2024.
The day was seasonably fresh, with a nippy breeze from time to time, but nothing to dampen the spirits and performance of the 12 players who eventually took to the field after several late dropouts, including one on the morning of the event. Ginger Chen graciously offered to withdraw to maintain an even number of players. Tournament Directors everywhere thank you, Ginger.
A random draw was used to determine the initial matchups for the games of first to reach 15 points, which resulted in a top six of Calvin Darling, Hugo Deaux, Chris Davis, Lennon Hamilton, Daniel Gorelick, and Art Kotoulas. After the second round, based on strength v strength, Chris, Daniel, and Hugo topped the table with two wins each, while Calvin was running close as the highest ranked of those on one win, one loss.
Only two players—Daniel and Hugo—were on an unblemished 3 wins at the end of Round 3, setting up a tasty final.Both players put in amazing shots in the final, but Daniel dominated from the outset and never looked back. It was not that Hugo played badly, drawing much applause from the peanut gallery, and losing five extremely close measures. But on this day, he was up against a finely tuned machine in the form of Daniel, who had set his eyes firmly on the prize and won the match 15-6.
Daniel triumphant
Congratulations to Daniel as this year’s 2-Bowl Champion! And thanks, as always to our hospitality crew, our great greenskeepers, and the markers who gave generously of their time.
Thursday morning bowling and gardening group is hard at work whipping the garden surrounding the lawn bowling green into shape.
Leslie and Sarah vs. the weeds
The Gardening Committee meets on Thursday morning at 10:00 am for bowling and then gardening. Our fearless leader and chair, Leslie Engler directs our weekly projects. Last week Leslie and Sarah Allday worked on oxalis removal in one of our flower beds to allow breathing and growing room for the plants. It is, it seems, a never-ending fight with the oxalis. Meanwhile, Donna Otten and Susan Jamart worked on deadheading the daises. Charlie McFarran mowed the grass surrounding the green. Ben Steinberg weed-whacked the edge of the sidewalk while his father-in-law, John enjoyed the sunshine and watching the lawn bowling game. Patricia Erwin, one of our awesome greenkeepers, and Phil Watson worked on getting ready for our semiannual workday by prefilling buckets with sand. Claudia Benton worked on cleaning the ditch surround the green getting ready for the Two Bowl Single tournament on March 8.
It is a lovely time of year to garden. Spring is fast approaching and the oxalis is in full bloom. The roses have been pruned and waiting for new buds. Flowers and shrubs need deadheading and are beginning to sprout new growth. The English ivy vigorously grows year-round on the fences surrounding the lawn bowling club and is frequently in need of pruning. The grass surrounding the bowling green is green and growing with our warm sunny days and rain.
There is a long list of gardening projects for the gardening group to attack. The Gardening Committee welcomes anyone and everyone on Thursday mornings at 10am for a fun morning of bowling and gardening. Hope to see you there.
Deep in the weeds, our Acton Street sidewalk c. 2018
As a quick reminder of how valuable this landscape gardening group is, take a look at our Acton Street sidewalk back in the days when jungle conditions prevailed. (2018).
We approach the Ides of March and that means it is time to lavish even more attention on our lovely green.
Work day on Sunday, 23 March, 2025
The Greenskeepers need your help with tining, plug removal and sand application/removal, among other tasks. There are also some light duty tasks in addition to those that are outlined below. For newer members, this is a great opportunity to learn more about how our green is maintained and to meet other members you may not know.
We will be providing pizza and light snacks for those who volunteer, please let us know if you will join for that.
Below is an outline of main tasks and timing. We hope to be done by early afternoon and can use your help even if for a short period of time.
Starting around 8:30 we need 6 volunteers to shovel the plugs from Jose’s tining into wheelbarrows.
View of tining plugs, numbering over 200,000, being swept up for removal.
Starting around 10:00 we need 4-8 volunteers to shovel sand into wheelbarrows and then use buckets to dump the sand into the mechanical spreader. The larger number of volunteers would allow for breaks.
Starting around 10:30 we need 2-4 volunteers to sweep sand into the plug holes along edges and corners only. Jose will use the tractor with a broom/mat to sweep the sand from most of the green.
The club has most of the equipment, but we could use snow-type shovels and sturdy dollies. Please bring them along if you have those.
Spreading sand to fill the holes created by tining.
We do have some work/gardening gloves, but please bring your own if you have those.
Please reply to this email by Sunday March 9 to let us know that you can join and what time slot, or to let us know any questions.
Following the workday the green will be closed for approximately one month for continued maintenance.
After approximately 65 years of continued service, the equipment shed roof was starting to show its age. The shed was also being pushed forward by a growing redwood tree, which was probably a cheerful neighbor in its youth. The City of Berkeley maintenance department helped us by grinding off the sapling mound that was growing against the shed, relieving the pressure on the back wall of the shed.
The equipment shed is visible in the background of this 1964 Opening Day photo.
The roof covering was leaking and causing structural damage to the roof, causing it to partially collapse. To restore the roof and extend the shed’s service life, we chose to reframe the roof with larger rafters and install a membrane roof with a 40-year service life. Hopefully, this improvement will let the next generation of bowlers enjoy the shed without maintenance worries.
Mat shed roof under construction.
The mat shed is split into two parts. On the left hand side is an area for our Greenskeepers to keep specialized equipment for maintenance of the green. The right hand side is accessible by club members and houses the accoutrements required to set up the green for play. Here you can find the mats, jacks, green sheets, rink markers,, scoreboards, rakes, and more required for our games. It also provides storage for the tools used by our Thursday gardening group.
The new roof – ready and able for another 65 years of service.
And finally, here’s a big shout out to Judy Hillyer who stepped up to complete a very tidy paint job for the new roof. Judy has been a great asset to the club, quietly taking on a series of painting jobs and carrying them out with care and precision. Yet another reason we’re fortunate to have her among us.
The asphalt surround is an integral part of the bowling green. In addition to providing safe access around the green, it also contains embedded root guards on the south and west sides of the green. This asphalt surround was installed decades ago with help from the City of Berkeley (CoB). Over the years, the paving had deteriorated significantly due to uplifting of the pavement by tree roots, which created tripping hazard, and natural degradation of the surface asphalt.
Tidying up the patched sidewalk with a finish coat.
We considered three options to restore the surround:
1. Add 3 inches of new asphalt on top of the existing surface;
2. Remove 3 to 4 inches of asphalt and repave; and
3. Remove the uplifted part, patch cracks, and seal the surface with latex-based top coat.
Options 1 and 2 were impractical and prohibitively expensive, so we chose Option 3. The pavement is restored to a safe and beautiful walking surface and, hopefully, will continue to serve us well with regular maintenance.
The newly refinished surround looking mighty fine.
On Sunday February 23, 2025 the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club held the first ever Fourth at Four. The Fourth at Four is designed to provide indoor games, and enjoy our great clubhouse at 4 PM on the fourth Sunday of the month
About 15 fun seekers showed up to play games, enjoy tasty snacks, a glass of wine and enjoy each other’s company. The games were varied including pool, darts, Dominos, poker and the most fun game of all Crokinole. If you have never played or even heard of Crokinole, join us for the April Fourth at Four on April 27, at 4 PM. A great time was had by all.
The Fourth at Four for March is cancelled due the biannual BLBC workday, drilling, sanding and seeding the green.
Saturday, February 22, was, as the old folk song says, “a fair and a pleasant day,” but instead of us sailing out of Yarmouth harbor, the bowls were sailing, mostly gently, down the green as ten of Berkeley’s best competed in this year’s 4-3-2-1 Tournament.
Only in its second year for Berkeley, the 4-3-2-1 format is akin to “cutthroat” in that each of the four bowls nearest the jack is a scoring bowl, with the shot bowl awarded four points, the second bowl three points, and so on. With 10 points available on every end, scores can run up pretty fast to the target of 65 points.
As with many of our tournaments now, when demand exceeds the available supply of seven reasonably playable rinks, we held a preliminary stage in which 20 players were divided into five round robin groups of four. The top two players in each group made up the 10 finalists, consisting of: Tom Birt, Luis Zapata, Daniel Gorelick, Bing Burns, Andrew Keeler, Hugo Deaux, Mike Armstrong, Phil Grattan, Cris Benton, and Des Simpson.
A random draw determined the first round of a strength v strength format for the finals. Based on the first games’ results, the top five were, in order, Cris, Phil, Andrew, Daniel, and Louis. A second round left three players with two wins and no losses (Cris, Luis, and Andrew, and four on one win, one loss (Mike, Hugo, Phil, and Daniel). By the time round three was complete, only two players—Cris and Andrew had won all three of their games and they faced off in a fine bowling final. Andrew jumped into an early lead of 20-10 after three ends. But Cris had ably demonstrated his Comeback Kid skills in his preceding match against Luis, turning a deficit of 18 points at one stage into a win by 12. With steady bowling and many shots that drew “oohs” and applause from the gallery (to which Andrew added a good share, too, never getting out of sight) he drew level, pulled ahead, and maintained course to emerge victorious by 65-55.
Congratulations to Cris and thanks to our ever-wonderful hospitality team as well as to our great greenskeepers!
Embarrassed by the sorry state of the old lifters floating around the club, I made a new set of club lifters. These have three sizes: short (yellow), medium (red), and tall (blue). The intent is that these lifters stay at the club for use by anyone who needs a lifter.
Club lifters
We promote the game of lawn bowling for the enjoyment of new and experienced players alike.
