Cobourg Lawn Bowling Club

Visit by Rotary Club of Cobourg

9/21/2023

In 2018 we received a substantial donation from the Rotary Club.of.Cobourg to help us build a new equipment garage. For a number of reasons (primarily COVID) it had not been possible to arrange a "thank you" event, until recently. On, Sunday September 17th. A number of Rotarians visited us to see what we did with their donation, to find out more about our club and about lawn bowling. We had a fun afternoon with them, teaching them how to bowl and finishing with refreshments in our historic clubhouse. Thank you again Rotary for your contribution to our club.

Thanks also to those volunteers who helped with the kitchen, setting up, coaching and games.

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And Now The End Is Near........

9/17/2023

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It comes round so quickly......the last tournament of the season. It was the first running of the Robert (Bobby) Tough memorial tournament sponsored by Al Bell and Laura Mounce. We had a great turn out for the tournament with all eight rinks in play. Nearly all teams were triples although we did have four doubles teams which meant that some games were triples versus doubles which isn't ideal but we made it work! Not all entrants could play all three games which is why Nan Hendren appears in the photos of two of the winning teams!

Given that the tournament was a memorial to Robert Tough we asked players to dress with a Scottish theme and many did as you will see from the photos.

We usually mix things up for the final tournament of the season and this was no exception. The first game was a regular game of 10 ends with three bowls each; the second was 12 ends with 2 bowls each; the third was 14 ends with just one bowl each (there were some long measures in this game). In each game teams could nominate one end as a power play which meant their score was doubled. This proved very useful as teams found out. Trailing by 3 or 4? No problem, score 4 and its doubled up to 8 and suddenly you have a big lead.

The day started with a spider, with the best prize ever, a bottle of Scotch courtesy of Ann Tough. Between each game we also had a skills game. The first game involved delivering a bowl within 2 meters of the jack. Fail and you were eliminated. Succeed and you went into the second round which involved delivering within one yard of the jack. The final round was a challenge to deliver within one mat length of the jack. The winner was Ian Hartford.

In the second skills game a bowls was delivered from the hog line and had to hit a jack placed 2 meters from the ditch. It only took two rounds to find a winner and that was John Saunders.

The overall tournament winners were Jan Skillen, John Clews (Nan Hendren substituted for game 2) and Henry Kowalski. Click here for the full result.

Thanks to everyone who made this final game of the season such a success. We were pleased to have Ann Tough present the prizes. Here's a slide show of photos from the day.

Bill Arthur

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A Slow News Week?

9/10/2023

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Fairly slow news week. Just run of the mill events such as Baylee van Steijn winning a bronze medal at the World Championships and Helen Kowalski being the top jitney player in August. So, where to start.........

Of course it has to be the World Championships. For the last two weeks we have been following Baylee's progress in the fours and then the triples. After what must have been a disappointing quarter final loss to Scotland it was on to the triples. The team moved through sectional play losing only one game (to New Zealand) and finished second in the the group to set up a quarter final against India. A great win by 20 shots to 9 and they were into the semi final, guaranteeing them a medal. Their semi final was a repeat of their round robin game against New Zealand and the result was the same, a win for New Zealand.

In so many sports the losing semi finalists play one another to determine the bronze winner which always seems to me to be a pointless game and very much “after the Lord Mayor's parade”. I think that giving both losing semi finalists a bronze medal is much fairer and a reward for their overall performance. I'd like to see that happen more often.

Transgressing for a moment, and this is a personal opinion, I would like to see all Ontario Championships follow the format in national (and international) play. That is, round robin play to determine the top teams before moving on to elimination games. The double knockout format is something I have only ever experienced in Ontario and I don't know why the championship committee persists with it. OK, I've got that off my chest, back to matters in hand.

Thank you to Donna Longman for keeping track of all the jitney scores during August. The winner was Helen Kowalski, second was Helen Beaton and third was Henry Kowalski. Well done.

Open Tournaments: We held two tournaments this week, on Monday September 4th we had a mixed pairs 242 and on Thursday September 7th we held an open pairs to round off our open tournament season. The mixed pairs was won by our own Bob Bates and Pat Bylok with a magnificent 3 wins and 49+8 points. At the other end of the prize winners table were Carl Ferguson and Nan Hendren who won the last game high prize.

Bob and Pat could not repeat their Monday performance in the open pairs on Thursday but they did win the last game high prize. The winners were Albert Wu and Martin Foxhall with 3wins and 45 points.

Four Cobourg teams travelled to Campbellford on Saturday September 9th for a pairs tournament and Bob and Pat were in the money again winning the two game high prize. Louisa and I also had two wins but not enough points to get in the money.Bob will be buying drinks at the end of season dinner, he seems to have won lots of money this year!!

I would like to say a personal thanks to those people from other clubs who read this website and have complimented me on the content. It means a lot to me to know that it is appreciated and read more widely than just in Cobourg. Thank You.

Finally, finishing on a sad note, I would like to pass on to Bonnie Sheridan the condolences of all at the club on the passing of her husband Ray on August 30th.

Bill Arthur

You know what to do to see photos from this week and full results

Results

Photos

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Youths, Seniors, Novices and more......

9/5/2023

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Wow, what a busy last ten days. So much to catch up on.

Youth Tournament August 26th
The youths took centre stage at the club with 13 youths competing in the 4321 tournament sponsored by MVP Sports. Brother and sister Elise and Isaac Kerr (are they the next Baylee and Ben van Stijn siblings?) took the top two places with our own Jacob Hyatt placing third. Thanks to MVP Sports for their sponsorship and thanks to the drawmaster, Ben van Steijn for a well run tournament.

Lindsay Friendly - August 27th
We hosted the Lindsay club for the return fixture in our friendly challenge. Despite a downpour during Saturday night the match went ahead although some of the rinks were unplayable.

In the first round there were wins by Jan Skillen & John Saunder’s teams. Unfortunately, those were our only 2 wins. 2 games won by just 1 point each helped Lindsay win 4 of the 6 matches. That is probably why our Lindsay guests seemed to be enjoying themselves so much at lunch time.

Our fortunes did not improve as the not so friendly Lindsay teams took 4 of the 6 afternoon games as well. We will make it up next year!

Ontario Seniors - August 29th/30th
Bill Arthur and Peter Stuart- Sheppard, with John MacKenzie of Oshawa, represented District 14 in the Ontario Seniors Championships in Hanover on August 29th and 30th The format was double knock out and they got off to a great start with an easy win against District 8B in their first game. In their second they did not do as well against District 13 (who went on to win bronze) and lost the game but in their third game they recovered from 1-8 to beat District 7 and moved on to Day 2. In cold and wet conditions they had a disastrous start against District 11 but recovered from 1-11 and were two down going into the last end. Lying two shots they were denied a tie by a wick right into the head by the District 11 skip. I had one shot left but could not take out the District 11 bowl. District 11 went on to win silver.

District 14 Novice Singles playdowns - September 2nd and 3rd

The playdowns were held in Bobcaygeon on Saturday and Sunday September 2nd and 3rd. Half of the twelve competitors were from Cobourg. In total there were 5 ladies and 7 men. The ladies played a round robin in one group. Lori Wills came out on top with a perfect 4 wins and 12 points. Lynn Bryans was second with 3 wins and 9 points, her only loss being to Lori. Lori will now play in the Ontario Championships at Cobourg on September 23rd and 24th as will Lynn who received an invitation to play since there was a District without an entry.

The men split into two groups for round robin play. One group of three and one of four. Jacob Hyatt qualified for the semi finals, coming second in his group. In the other group there were good performances by Peter Stuart-Sheppard and by Al Bell. However, after all three rounds had been completed there was a three way tie between Peter, Al and Mike Cyr of Oshawa. Once the dust had settled Al placed first with Peter second. Al won his semi final match against Jacob and Peter beat Mike to set up a rematch between Al and Peter. Peter won the final and will represent District 14 at the Ontario Championships in Tilbury.

Open Mixed Pairs (242) - September 4th
Eighteen teams competed in a mixed pairs 242 tournament, sponsored by Brenda Kloostra Royal LePage realtors. Bob Bates and Pat Bylok claimed their second Cobourg open tournament with athree wins and a magnificent total of 49+8 points. Congratulations to them.

For more photos of all the above events click here

This brings everything up to date. Check back next week for all the latest news.

Bill

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What Happened This Week?

8/25/2023

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Monday Night League
As reported last week we are into the playoffs and these are due to be completed on Monday August 28th. However, due to various team absences the game to decide the top two was played this week. Team Hendren (Carl Ferguson, Nan and Mike Hendren) were two points ahead of The Titans (Peter Stuart - Sheppard, Mike Place and Bill Arthur) going into the game with a superior points difference so to claim top spot the Titans needed to win by about 10 points. In a very tight game the result was a tie so that means Team Hendren is the winner of the Monday Night League. I will bring you the full standings next week.

Club Novice Tournament
This tournament, sponsored by Pharmacy 101, was held on Thursday August 24th. Eight teams competed. In the first round, two of the four games were decided by only one point and there were some close games in the second and third rounds. After the second round Tom Bevan (with Dana Williams and Dennis Kirby) and John Ledgerwood (with Brent Perkins were the only teams with two wins and they met in the third round. Tom's team won that game by 3 points to claim the trophy. You can see the full result by clicking on results and view the pictures by clicking photos.

Ontario Novice Combo Fours
The championships were held at the Pickering club on August 26/27th. Al Bell, Sheri Perkins, Brent Perkins and Lynn Bryans were competing. There was some great bowling and the team represented the Cobourg club so well. There were fine margins in many games and some where a couple of bad ends made all the difference. In summary here is how it worked out.

Fours - two wins in three games. In the losing game two bad ends made all the difference. A really good win in the final game. If the opposition had won they would have finished second. As it was they finished fourth. Top performance of the weekend.

Ladies - three losses but one game by only two points and another by one point. Both those games could easily have had a different outcome. To illustrate how close it was, in one game the score was 4-6 in a 10 end game!

Men -one win from three games. In this morning’s losing game two bad ends determined the outcome otherwise they were well matched.

Short Mat Players Tournament
Terry Bradshaw is competing in the English open tournament. At the time of writing he has won 3 of his 5 wins and is into an elimination round. Well done Terry.

Youth Tournament August 26th
Jacob Hyatt finished third. I will publish the full results in the next few days.

Friendly versus Lindsay
At the time of writing I don't know how this went. I will update as soon as possible.

Bill Arthur
August 27th

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A Friendly, a Tournament and a Wedding

8/20/2023

We will start this week with .......
The Monday Night League
Regular play has now finished and the playoffs started this week. All teams are still competing and retain their existing points. The top four teams play one another and the rest play one another to determine the final standings. The Ferguson/Hendren team suffered their first loss in the first week of the playoffs losing to the Bayley team who brought in Martin Foxhall as their spare in the absence of Terry Bradshaw. The Titans (Bill Arthur, Peter Stuart-Sheppard and Mike Place won a tight match against the Shirley team and are now only one point behind the leaders.

The Friendly
On Thursday August 17th we visited Wilmot Creek for the annual friendly match. We had seven teams but Wilmot Creek only had five teams. That meant one Cobourg team was designated as a Wilmot team so that there would be six teams for each club. The Cobourg “traitors” were Mary Salter, Al Bell and Laura Mounce but they performed in a neutral way, winning one game and losing one game.The Wilmot greens are long and slow but the conditions were even more difficult this year as the greens were very wet. Due to the conditions it was decided that jacks should be placed at the hog line but despite that concession there were lots of short bowls and little draw because of the conditions.

The morning session was won by Wilmot Creek but as the greens dried out Cobourg staged a recovery in the afternoon session. The overall result was not decided by games won but by total points scored. Wilmot Creek won by 120 points to 110.

The team of Ann Tough, Kathleen Shirley and Jen Wetherall was the only one to win two games. With the score tied in the last end Ann bowled a tremendous shot to win the game.

Despite the difficult conditions it was an enjoyable day. Wilmot Creek gave each Cobourg member a ticket for a prize draw and five of us took home a bottle of wine. The real winners here were Al Bell and Laura Mounce. Al won a 50/50 prize and a bottle of wine and Laura also won a bottle of wine.

A final word about Brodie Johnston who was the youngest person on the greens by at least 50 years but was comfortable with the situation and played very well on my team.

The pictures below give some indication of the conditions.

Mixed Pairs Tournament
On Sat August 19th we held the Raymond Construction (new sponsor) Mixed Pairs
Rinks 2 & 3 were quite wet and squishy due to overnight rain that cancelled the Ribfest on Friday night. We avoided those rinks and used #8 & #10 in their place. Game day saw great weather. Five of the seven Cobourg teams were able to win a game or two but the visiting teams dominated the Prize table.
Prizes went to:
1st Place: Janice Slobojan / Trevor Cleland (Pickering) 3 wins – 42 pts
2nd Place: Steve Nelson / Hazel Joffe (Heritage) 3 wins – 40 pts
3rd Place: Al Purcell / Nicki Chamois (Belleville) 2 wins – 43 +9 pts
4th Place: Peter Stuart-Sheppard / Lynn Frost (Cobourg) 2 wins – 43 +3 pts
5th Place: George Boersma / Suzie Palmer (Belleville) 2 wins – 40 pts
High last game: David Saliba / Cara Booth (Pickering) 18+6 pts
Enticed by the appetizing BBQ smells & music (and cold beer) a few bowlers took advantage of the Ribfest for dinner after the games.
Bob Bates

A Wedding (or should I say "The Wedding")

On Saturday August 19th Ben and Emmalee became Mr and Mrs van Steijn and on behalf of the club I would like to congratulate them and wish them a long and happy life together.

Bill Arthur

PS - Here is the link to the interview which Jacob Hyatt and Baylee van Steijn did with Jeff Gard on Northumberland 89.7

Interview

A Thunderous Weekend

8/13/2023

Friday night's weather forecast was ominous and it looked unlikely that there would be any bowling at all. But, to everyone's surprise the club singles tournament went ahead as did a tournament in Kingston in which three of our members competed.

Club Singles - a report by Donna Ball
Our In-Club Singles Tournament to determine the Men’s & Ladies Club Champions for 2023 was held on August 12th. We were fortunate to be able to complete the event on that day. The predicted storms were all around and it started to rain at the end of the first game. Play resumed after about a 30 min delay and the rest of the day was basically rain free, until well after the tournament was completed at about 4pm. The sun even made an appearance for much of the afternoon.
It was good to see more entries this year than in the past few years, with 11 entries in the Men’s event (sponsored by Martin Foxhall) and 8 entries in the Ladies event (sponsored by Carol Dewey). And not all players were experienced bowlers; some of our novice members entered too. The format for this year’s competitions was a double knockout, playing 8 end games. There were many well played games throughout the day. It all came down to the final 2 games, where Al Bell defeated Bob Bates to win the Men’s competition and Donna Longman defeated Nan Hendren for the Ladies title. Both games were very close, coming down to the final bowls of the 8th end. Congratulations to Al and Donna, our Club Champions for 2023.
Many thanks to the members who were there to support the event by helping in the kitchen, putting out equipment and acting as markers for all the games. You were a big help!

There are some more pictures on the photo page
Kingston Triples tournament - a report from Bill Arthur

Whilst all that was happening at home in Cobourg Peter Stuart Sheppard, Louisa Arthur and I were in Kingston in a triples tournament where the skip had to be a novice. We were fortunate in having Peter as our skip (yes, he is still a novice).

As was the case in Cobourg, the tournament was interrupted by thunderstorms, After a comfortable win in our first game we had a good lead in our second game but had to come off the greens after 6 ends. On the resumption we struggled a little but were still leading after 8 ends when another storm came over and play was suspended again. Eventually we squeaked home by one point. In our third game we again won by one point to win the tournament. A second tournament win for Peter this week (see previous news report)

Arthur Tournament

8/10/2023

The weather forecast was not good but thankfully it stayed dry until we completed the second end of our open triples novices tournament today. We were unable to play the third game when the rain started.

The tournament was sponsored by Louisa and Bill Arthur. We had seven Cobourg teams competing and teams from Belleville, Lindsay, Oshawa and Cosburn Park. The winners were the Cobourg team of Peter Stuart-Sheppard, Sheri Perkins and Terry Dyche with 2 wins and 31+2 points. The second place team of Mark Pearson, Bill MacCollam and Lynn Frost from Cosburn Park also had 31 points but no plus points.

It was a really good showing from the Cobourg teams who took three of the five prizes.

This was a great way for less experienced players to get into tournament play and learn so much about the game. Hopefully it will encourage more players to get into tournament play.

You can see photos of the winners by clicking here

Bill Arthur
August 10th 2023

Last Week's News

8/4/2023

Thursday August 3rd

The District 14 mixed pairs playdowns were held in Oshawa two weeks ago. Since not all Districts had entries the second place team in D14 was set to go to the Provincials but declined to do so. That meant the two losing semi finalists would have to play to decide who got the vacant spot. The play off was between Gord Travis and Marion from Lindsay and Bill Arthur and Mary Salter. It was held at Oshawa on August 3rd and Bill and Mary lost by one point.

As you will know from last week's news bulletin our novice combo fours team finished third in the District 14 playdowns. Once again we have a situation where not all Districts had an entry and our team of Al Bell, Sheri Perkins, Brent Perkins and Lynn Bryans are taking one of the vacant spots. The Provincials are being held in Pickering on August 26th and 27th.

Saturday August 5th
The Windmill tournament, which was rained out the previous weekend, was re-scheduled and played on Saturday under blue skies. After two rounds the top two teams were Tom Bevan (with Brent Bayley and Helen Kowalski) and Donna Longman (with Brodie Johnston and Lyle Skidmore). The teams were evenly matched with scores of 30+5 and 29+2. My on the spot correspondent tells me that this went down to the wire. In the last end Donna's team was 7-9 down but sitting three (and ready to celebrate a win) when Tom made a match saving shot to move the jack and win 10-7. You can find the full result on the results page, click here and photos of the winners by clicking here.
Thank you to the drawmasters, Mona Attard and Ernie Sapinski for the photos and results

Eleven men from the club were competing in the Oshawa Gold Cup on Saturday. This is a men's fours tournament with 32 clubs from across the Province. Bob Bates was competing with three friends from Cosburn Park but on Friday night one of the had to drop out and Al Gourd was recruited to fill the vacancy and had quite the day as Bob's team won the Cup (and $1200) with 3 wins and 51 points.
I was playing with Carl Feguson, Terry Bradshaw and Al Bell and did not have a kind draw. For the fifth time this season I was drawn against Martin Foxhall who was playing with the team that won the Ontario Fours. We lost! The second game we won but then in our final game we had to play a team with two of the Ontario silver medalists and a Canadian Seniors winner! We lost that game. It was certainly a baptism of fire for Terry and Al.

Bill Arthur
August 6th 2023

Weekly Wrap

8/1/2023

We have to start this week with the top event - the Canadian Youth Championships. The games were played between July 26th and 30th in Regina. Not only did we have four club members playing but the Ontario team manager was Sarah van Steijn.

In the under 18s, Jacob Hyatt (13 years old) was competing against ten other boys.
In the under 25s (women) Baylee van Steijn and Emmalee Smith were competing in a group of seven.
In the under 25s (men) Ben van Steijn was competing against 11 other men.

Jacob finished second in his group and played in the final elimination games, finishing a very creditable fourth. I am sure we will see Jacob winning medals in the future.

Neither Emmalee or Ben qualified for the elimination rounds but Baylee had a perfect record of 6-0 in the round robin and qualified to play for the gold medal. She played her friend and fellow Team Canada player, Jordan Kos. On this occasion Jordan prevailed with a 21-14 win and Baylee had to settle for the silver medal. This was a good tune-up for her forthcoming trip to Australia for the World Championships.

We had good representation in a mixed triples tournament in Bobcaygeon on Tuesday July 22nd with three teams travelling for the tournament. The Bobcaygeon club was only accepting entries from teams from the same club. This meant there were no stacked teams and this provision seemed to be liked as they had a full entry of 16 teams which is unusual for their club. None of our teams performed at their best but the team of Bill Arthur, Nan Hendren and Louisa Arthur won the prize for last game high with an outstanding win of 18+6 with four against.

The District 14 Novice Combo Fours playdowns were held at Pickering on July 29/30. Three Pickering teams an one Cobourg team competed for the honour of representing the District at the Ontario Championships. The Cobourg team was Al Bell, Sheri Perkins, Brent Perkins and Lynn Bryans.

This was tough test for our team against some more experienced players and their task was not made easier by having to play in the rain for most of Saturday. The format was round robin with each team having to play the other three in a fours game, a men's pairs and a ladies pairs. On the first day the ladies pairs (Sheri and Lynn) won both their games but the men lost both. In the fours game they had a bad start before recovering but it was too little, too late, and they lost that game. On day 2 they won one fours game and tied the other. Unfortunately neither the men or the ladies were able to win their fianl pairs game. The team finished third but acquitted themselves admirably and can be proud of ghe way the represented Cobourg. The experience will serve them well for the future.

On Sunday July 30th Bob Bates and I were in Cosburn Park for a men's triples. Unbelievably we drew Martin Foxhall and David Llewellyn in the first round for the fourth time this year. We lost that game but recovered well to win our next two games. We had 46 points and missed out on prize money by one point. C'est la vie.

Bill Arthur
August 1st 2023

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Visit by Rotary Club of Cobourg

And Now The End Is Near........

A Slow News Week?

Youths, Seniors, Novices and more......

What Happened This Week?

A Friendly, a Tournament and a Wedding

A Thunderous Weekend

Arthur Tournament

Last Week's News

Weekly Wrap

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