Berkeley LBC members Jim Corr, Ann Gardiner, and Shawn Roney took first place in the 2012 Ed Arnold Tournament held at Palo Alto LBC on November 3.
The “Ed Arnold” is a special event held annually in Palo Alto in honor of a former long-time member of that club who was active not only in lawn bowls but also in promoting youth sports in his home town of nearby Burlingame. It has some unique features in that it is not only a “mixed triples”—every team of three has to have a member of both genders—but also, over the 12 ends of each match the team members rotate their positions so that each plays as lead, vice, and skip for four ends. This places a premium on “all round” bowlers who know the requirements of the different positions.
A very popular tournament, this year saw, as usual, a strong field of 16 teams from across the Bay Area. Only two teams won all three of their matches over the course of the day: the Berkeley trio and the team of Rod and Rita Arriaga and Norm Tiernan from San Francisco. As announced at the outset by tournament director, Bud Birkenseer, the winner would be decided by a one-end “sudden death” playoff, with each player having only two bowls instead of the usual three. In a short but tense culmination, Jim, Ann, and Shawn took that final point and first place.
“I think we all bowled well as a team,” said Jim after the match, “but I would single out a couple of key moments that made a big difference. First, in our second match, Ann, playing as skip at the time, came in with her last bowl on two successive ends to take the point, in each case turning what would have been a five-point deficit into a one point gain. Then, in the critical final playoff, both Ann and Shawn laid a bowl less than a foot from the jack, with good back bowls, putting the opposing skip under tremendous pressure. The result was that I didn’t even have to use my last bowl.”
Congratulations to all and special plaudits to Ann and Shawn who have shown that they are more than ready to leave their “novice “ status behind and enter the ranks of “veteran” lawn bowlers!
Berkeley lawn bowling prodigy, 18, is national champ
Jon Burnoski, a member of the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club, triumphed against top bowlers from across the nation at the US Lawn Bowling Association’s National Championships in San Diego on Sunday. In doing so, Jon, who is 18 years old and a freshman at Skyline College in San Bruno, became the youngest lawn bowls singles champion in US history and the first from Northern California to take the US crown in 14 years.
The four-day tournament pitted representatives from the USLBA’s eight regions against each other in a round robin format in which each bowler played one game against each of the other contenders. Jon represented the Pacific Inter-Mountain Division, which includes Northern California, and won six of his seven games. His final points differential of 39 edged out former national champion, Bob Schneider of the Central Division, by five points, a razor-thin margin in this tournament.
Jon has been bowling competitively for about 10 years, and this was his fourth time at the nationals. His brothers, Josh (15) and Matthew (12), are also successful at the sport, all of them trained by their dad, Tom. All are members of the Berkeley club. Not so coincidentally, on Sunday Tom was bowling one green away from Jon — in the National Pairs Championship, with partner Jon Yee who comes from the Palo Alto Club. (Tom and Jon came in sixth in their event.)
“This is a fantastic achievement,” said Geoff Chandler, President of the BLBC. “It’s a great boost for the club as well as a huge personal success for Jon. It illustrates what we have always said — that far from being a pastime for “old folks,” lawn bowling is truly a game for all ages.”
Jon is now being mentioned as a potential member of Team U.S.A., representing the U.S. in international lawn bowling competitions. “It is a wonderful honor, of course,” his dad says, “but the reality is that international tournaments involve considerable expense, well beyond the means of a college student. We will have to see whether there are individuals or organizations out there that would be willing to sponsor Jon’s international career.” by Jim Corr
In Memorium – Rita M. DeMoss
Rita M. DeMoss, a long time member of BLBC, passed away on August 24, 2012. Rita, formerly of Sciatuate, MA enjoyed film classics, jazz, literature, and travel. Friends and family celebrated her life at a service in Scituate on October 18. She is survived by her children, David, Anitra, and Aine and by many nieces and nephews.
Berkeley novices perform at Closing Day
PIMD Closing Day—October 20 at the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club in Golden Gate Park—turned out to be a fine day for Berkeley bowlers. The season’s closing day is an occasion to get together with old friends and new ones in a “mix and match” tournament that seeks to put bowlers from different clubs together in two separate triples draws. This year, five Berkeley members entered: veterans Jim Corr and Cathy Dinnean, and novices John Hooper, Ann Gardiner, and Shawn Roney. In the morning event, Jim, Shawn, Ann, and John were on winning teams, while in the afternoon, Cathy, Ann, Shawn, and John were once again “in the money,” playing with completely different partners.
Addressing the assembly at lunchtime, PIMD President Greg Fyvie was especially pleased at the large number of novice bowlers—who constituted a quarter of the day’s turnout of 68 bowlers from all over the Bay Area. Their participation was made easier this year by the generous contribution of an anonymous donor who covered the entry fees for novices. And, as an extra token of appreciation, all the novices were presented with one of the newly-designed PIMD membership pins. Greg also noted that he is planning to find ways to recognize those who successfully recruit new members to the sport, since that is the only way we can ensure that this ancient game continues to grow and offer enjoyment and competition to future generations of bowlers.
Congratulations to all and special kudos to our novices!
Jim Corr
VP BLBC
Ann Gardiner – Two Bowl Singles Champ 2012
A cool morning led to a beautiful afternoon and a great day of bowling. We had 8 entries for the 2-Bowl Singles this year. After the first three games Ann Gardiner (3-0), Jim Corr (3-0), Lennon Hamilton (2-1), and Jason Chien (2-1) were leading and entered the semi-finals.
Jason and Ann won. Ann then went on to win the final. Congratulations to Ann Gardiner our 2012 2-Bowl Singles champion.
Thank you to all that bowled in tournaments this year.
Gary Knox
Tournament Director
2012 Novice Singles Champ – Shawn Roney
Today was the day that our novice bowlers – those who have been bowling for less than two years – met to decide just who would go home with the bragging rights this year. The weather could not have been more beautiful as the morning cloudiness gave way to bright, beautiful, blue skies.
Tournament Director Gary Knox had the rink all ready for bowling by 9 a.m. His plan was for a full round-robin tournament with each player facing every other player. That meant that there would be five games today.
Five of the new bowlers participated today, Ann Gardiner, Wilford Wong, Harlan Ware, Shawn Roney, and John Hooper.
So, who would it be this year? Several of the games were hard fought and came down to one of the final bowls moving the jack to take the point. In the end, though, it was Shawn Roney who edged out Ann Gardiner with more plus points. Both had won three of their four games. Congratulations Shawn and to all the other bowlers who participated.
Thanks too, to those who came to observe and suport the novices. Gary Knox, Irving Gershenberg and Dave Rockhold served as markers.
Berkeley retains the Meat Axe – year two!
When yours truly looked up and saw the lineup Palo Alto brought to the party on Sunday, I knew it would be a real contest. I mean, these guys are good! But, we had the green in shape thanks to extra effort from the greenskeeper; it was mowed, rolled and just dry enough to play well. The morning refreshments provided by Nikki, Susan, and the Mackey’s were tasty. When Howard Mackey called us to assemble, it was still a little chilly but assemble we did.
It didn’t take long for it to heat up. In the first game, I saw at least four ends with Palo Alto right on the jack and, when we returned the favor, the opposing skip sent the jack two rinks to the left to burn the end. When that game ended, my team fell short by four points. Several other Berkeley teams hadn’t fared much better. We broke for lunch well behind in the game.
After lunch, the weather and our bowling perked up. By the end of the second round, we had pulled into the lead. Only five games remained to be played. As that last game was about two thirds done, someone came up to say that it wasn’t going well and I really needed to pull out a win. Good Grief- I’m bowling against Bud Birkenseer! No pressure. Well, we managed to pull it off. When Bud moved the jack to take five points, we countered by drawing to the jack to take it back.
When Bud and I started the game, he said, “Let’s have some fun!” I don’t think we could have had a better game; good bowling, good weather and we got to finish it all off with Drumstiks ice cream.
So, at the end of the day, BLBC’s Geoff Chandler held onto the Meat Axe Trophy while 
Palo Alto’s Ginger Harris prepared the “We Lost” version for a trip back to Palo Alto. Palo Alto will be ready for us when we travel to Palo Alto next summer. But, for now, the Meat Axe will hang in the Berkeley clubhouse for another year.
Curling…on the Green!?!
Sunday was an exciting day for BLBC. Novice lawn bowler and curler, Roland Gong, brought together THIRTY-FIVE members of SFBACC member curling clubs for an afternoon of fun with lawn bowling. Senior coach Ted Crum was there along with Cathy Dinnean and Ann Gardiner. Yours truly noted that one of the curlers was already tossing out a challenge on Facebook to the San Francisco curling crowd. BLBC welcomes the curling group to the green. Here’s to a long, enjoyable relationship between the curling and lawn bowling clubs.
Leisure Town 5 – Berkeley 4
Last Friday, the bowlers from Leisure Town came to play a “friendly” match. Well, it may have been friendly, but they meant business. Even though the Berkeley team of Corr, Knox, and Gardiner won all three of their games, it was LT 5, Berkeley 4 at the end of the day. Sharing ice cream at the end of the day proves that it was friendly. Berkeley will travel to Leisure town in September looking for a rematch.
Triples Results-Saturday, June 30, 2012
This year’s in house Triples tournament drew 18 bowlers plus two who were ready to bowl if needed. Gary Knox did another fine job setting things up and everyone bowled two 12 end games. After the second game, the top two teams played a third game to decide the winner. In that last match, skip Jim Corr with Dave Rockhold and Susan Jamark faced skip Gary Knox with Millard Long and Jason Chien. Gary and Jason were on last season’s winning team so they were going for a repeat. The final match was no runaway to be sure but, in the end, Jim, Dave and Susan held on for the win. Thanks to all who participated – it was loads of fun.
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