Our club hosted our first club tournament of the 2017 season today, the BLBC Singles tournament. All of you know that you don’t get any penny from winning this tournament…you get more than that…you get your name on the 2017 Winners Board at our club.

Differently from last year, the weather was perfect to bowl, not too hot, not too windy, and most importantly, also great for having a BBQ, and give Ray (the defending champion) and Shelagh a proper send off, since they will be soon departing for a very long journey across America.

This year, we could only accommodate six rinks, so we had twelve bowlers competing for the title, including the defending champion, Ray. This year’s format was three 12 end games, with a differential limit of ten points, with the top two bowlers playing a 12-end final game. The contestants bowled two games in the morning, took a short lunch break and then bowled the last game.

All games and bowlers had a marker (some even had their own designated marker) throughout the day, and it was a real pleasure to being able to focus on your game and not worrying about setting the jack or dropping it. Someone who knows that I am not very good at recalling things verbatim, may have said to me that marking is a job of love and, boy, we were very much loved today – so thank you Leslie, Sarah, Jim, Bob and Ann!!! Ann is also one of the PIMD umpires so she was on triple duty today!

So back to the tournament. By the end of the last game, there were three bowlers, Rob, Cathy and Lennon who won all their three games, but Rob and Cathy had the same points differential (+22), and moved to the final game, which also showcased two markers, Sarah and Ann. It was a great game: both Rob and Cathy made beautiful shots, all of which were received with applause and compliments from all of us spectators. Rob took an early lead, but Cathy fought her way back into the game, and during the second half of the game, it was a one point game. However, in the end, despite her best efforts, Cathy couldn’t overcome Rob’s great shots and bowls, and the game ended 12-6 for Rob.

After the game, we fired up the grill (thanks Rob for this idea, and thanks Erwin for starting the BBQ), and had hot dogs, chicken skewers, pork chops (thank you Cathy!), veggie burgers, potato salad, cheese and salami, a delicious cherry pie, and lot of drinks and fun conversations.

Huge thanks to Cathy, Ann and Sarah for setting up the club house, getting rid of the weeds near rink 1 and 2, and providing plenty of coffee and snacks throughout the day! Thanks to our Tournament Director Shawn and Ann, our Assistant Tournament Director – today’s event was a great success, and we all had a great time, before, during and also after the games.

Congratulations to all the bowlers who bowled and participated to this event today and to Rob Hoey, the 2017 BLBC Singles Champion!