What a day! What a final! Ginger Cheng takes Berkeley 2022 Novice Singles Title

The 2022 BLBC Novice Singles Tournament—yes, that’s the 2022 event—finally took place on February 4, 2023 after several postponements in December and January due to the welcome but, for bowlers frustrating, winter bomb cyclones and atmospheric rivers that the Bay Area has been subjected to.

Undaunted by the prospect of further inclement weather during the day, 12 eager Novices took to the damp and heavy green and braved a day of cold, wind, and showers—sometimes intense—to show their mettle. (“Fine bowling weather” it’s called in Scotland.) Given the uncertain conditions, a last minute decision was made by the Tournament Team to abjure the usual singles format of playing till a certain number of points is scored and instead to have games run to 15 ends, in the hope that this would expedite play and allow the tournament to be completed on the day.

By random draw, the field of 12 went through three preliminary rounds with only two players emerging as winners of all three of their games. This resulted in a final matchup of Tom Birt and Ginger Cheng, and what a final they gave us.

End for end, bowl for bowl, they assiduously contested every point, with the lead moving back and forth over the course of the match due to excellent shots by each player. On the 15th end, you just knew it would happen, on a beautiful draw Tom seized two points to tie the score, so a last, tie-breaking end had to be played. With Ginger lying shot, Tom had little option but to try a “yard on” with his last bowl. In it came, edging the jack over four feet to where one of his bowls was closest, but before he could celebrate victory his runner continued, nudging Ginger’s bowl just enough to put it a few inches closer to the jack than Tom’s, giving her the game and the 2022 Novice title by a single point. It was a final to grace any tournament, let alone a Novice one.

Thanks are due to many people, not least Tom himself as a “Novice” Tournament Director in difficult circumstances, to all who helped with hospitality and green setup, and especially the veteran bowlers who volunteered their time as markers and who carried on through the on again/off again downpours.

• Report courtesy of Jim Corr

BLBC 2022 Pairs Culminates in Dramatic Final

The Club’s 2022 Pairs Tournament was held on Saturday, October 2022 and featured eight teams, first playing a series of three randomly-drawn 10-end games. The two top teams from that round went forward into a 10-end final. Teams had been formed by a random matching of Skips with Leads and had been handicapped based on the combined handicap of Skip and Lead. 

Only one team—Gary “Bing” Burns and Gordon Beveridge—emerged from the prelims with three wins, while three others had won two of their three matches. Of the latter, Chris Davis and Sarah Allday moved on to the final through having the best differential among the tied second place teams.

And what a final it was! A delight to the assembled spectators. Starting out with a net handicap in this matchup of +5 and taking three shots on the first end, Gary and Gordon looked in a formidable position. But Chris and Sarah were not giving in that easily and fought their way back into the match to tie it up at 9-9 on the eight end. Both teams were bowling really well, drawing continuous applause from the peanut gallery for shot after excellent shot, a particularly spectacular one being from Gary to slip in on the 9^th end with his last bowl and take away Sarah’s point that was sitting less than two inches from the jack. The perfectly executed draw slowed as it drew in and curved just so to nestle an inch behind the jack. But the undaunted Davis/Allday team were not yet out and grabbed a single point on the 10^th end to tie the game.

A 1-end bowl-off determined the winners. Chris and Sarah were now on a roll and put in great shots to win by three points and thereby emerge as 2022 Pairs Champions. 

Congratulations Chris and Sarah and thanks to all the participants for a fine day of bowling, to the hospitality crew of Sarah and Rolayn for vittles, and, as always, to our Greenskeeper Annie for what must currently be the fastest natural cover green in the PIMD.

– Report courtesy of Jim Corr

The “Allende El Cerro” Trophy Goes to the Other Side of the Hill
They say “better late than never,” but when the news is not so good, maybe it’s not so good. Anyhoosies, with apologies for the delay to those of you not already aware, we lost the annual challenge match to Rossmoor LBC on Saturday, November 5.
We fielded six triples teams for a morning and afternoon game, but sadly only managed two wins on either side of lunch. Rumor has it that the Rossmoor folks were riled up by your humble correspondent holding up the trophy at announcements time, urging our hosts to take a good look, as some of them had never seen it before. (Berkeley had won the preceding four years in a row.) Lesson learned.
The trophy titled “Allende El Cerro” translates as “Over the Hill” to some people—a bit too close to the bone for me, with its whiff of an implication that lawn bowls is a sport for geezers. “On the other side of the hill” is a perfectly good alternative.
Riled or not, our Rossmoor colleagues were ever gracious and laid on a very nice lunch with hamburgers, veggie burgers, and hot links with all the fixings and then some, served up by grillmaster Ozzie Ozorio. We thank them and look forward to next year’s match-up here at home when we anticipate the trophy will return to this side of the hill!

– Report courtesy of Jim Corr

The 2022 4-Bowl Singles Tournament was a split affair, with the first stage being a round robin of four groups of three played over the course of September, and the winner of each game being the first to reach 16 points. The top two players in each group proceeded to the playoff round on Saturday, September 24.

Based on their performances in the round robin phase, the eight remaining contestants were seeded for the quarter-final round with 1 v 8, 2 v 7, and so on, resulting in a match up of Cris Benton v Phil Grattan, Sal Garcia-Lemus v Jim Corr, Rob Hoey v Cathy Dinnean, and Gary “Bing” Burns v Tom Birt. Those games, like the semis, were also played on the basis of first to reach 16 points. From the quarters, Phil, Jim, Rob, and Bing emerged to duke it out in the semis. The Jim v Bing match-up was close fought, tying at 12-12 before Bing gained one point on the 15^th end, followed by a game-winning three on the next one. In the other semi, Phil led from the outset, and, while Rob sought valiantly to fight back, Phil ran out on top by 16-6.

The final was set up on the classic format of first to 21 points for singles events. Phil once again dominated. But Bing was determined to make it a real contest and came back from what could have been a spirit-sapping position of down 18-1 after seven ends to bring it to 19-12 by the 15^th. However, with a couple of 1-pointers on the next two ends, Phil showed his determination not to let victory slip from his grasp and prevailed as the 2022 4-Bowl Singles Champion.

Congratulations to Phil and thanks to all who took part in the event including the early contenders. As always thanks to our hospitality crew for sustenance and to our greenskeeper for the quality of the green.