I hope that those of you who played in our first in club tournament of the season on Saturday enjoyed yourselves. We were certainly lucky with the weather and it was great to be out in the sunshine for a change.

Congratulations to the winning team of Kathleen Shirley, Irene Flood and Shirley Vander Schaaf. They are pictured receiving the trophy from our sponsor Edward Cunnington of “Meet at 66 King St East”.

Kathleen’s  team won all three games with a total points score of 27+4. After a big win in their first game their second and third games were much tighter affairs. After two games only two other teams, those skipped by Peter Kurita and by me (Bill Arthur) were still in the running for the trophy. Kathleen’s team faced Peter’s in the final game which she won by 6-4. That loss dropped Peter’s team out of the prizes and despite the fact my team lost our final game 6-7 to Jo Carleton’s team we had sufficient points to claim second place with 2 wins and 28 points. Only 3 points separated second from fourth

The full results are on the results page and there are some more photos on the photos page.

As far as I’m aware this was he first time we had run an in club tournament of 3x8 games, as opposed to the normal format of 3x10 and I think it was a success given that we had 34 members playing. If you have any thoughts on the format of in club tournaments please let a member of the EC have your views.

We will be varying the format yet again with the next tournament which is 2x12 end games. That will be held on Thursday June 12th and the sign up sheet is on the bulletin board. Please sign up as soon as possible.

Our first tournament of the season, the open fours on Victoria Day went very successfully and attracted a number of top teams.

We had another prominent report in Northumberland Today and for the benefit of those who may not have seen it I have copied the report below. There was  a fine picture of Sharyl Ann Milligan coaching a junior visitor to the open house which accompanied the report but as that photo was taken by Pete Fisher of Northumberland Today I do not have  a copy. However the full article and photo are on the club bulletin board. The report was as follows:

Tournament season begins at lawn bowling club


The first open tournament of the season, an open fours, was held at the Cobourg lawn bowling club on Victoria Day and the club welcomed teams from Oshawa, Peterborough,  Belleville, Port Hope, Milton and Cosburn Park. In total fourteen teams competed for the Spring Classic trophy sponsored by Richard Bruton of TD Waterhouse.

Given the slow growth of the grass following the severe winter and the cold spring the last thing the club needed was more bad weather so the sight of flooded greens on the previous Friday was a concern for the club’s open house which was held on Saturday as well as for the Victoria Day tournament. However, the greens staff were able to ensure that enough rinks were available for both events.

Laura Seed's team from Milton were the defending champions but she was not able to repeat last year's success finishing third overall. Instead it was last year's runners up, the Oshawa team skipped by Wayne Wallwork who ran out winners.

Each team played 3 games of 12 ends and after the second round Wallwork's  team was in top spot with 2 wins followed by Bob Reynolds' team from Peterborough. Wallwork had a convincing win over Reynolds to win the trophy and the loss by Reynolds dropped him into fourth place.

The leading Cobourg team (Bill Arthur, Ben Van Steijn, Louisa Arthur and Dave Hickey) was just out of the prize money in sixth place with  2 wins and 25 points.

The full results were: Trophy winners with 3 wins for 51+3 from Oshawa  – Wayne Wallwork (skip), Al Purcell (vice), Al Handlechner (second) and Vera Richardson (lead). Second place with 3 wins for  43+2  was also an Oshawa team -  Jim Butler (skip), Gord Terwelligar (vice) Bob Souch (second) and Linda Butler (lead). In third place with 2 wins for 39, from Milton, were Laura Hawrysko (skip), Lisa Mckerihen (vice), David Anderson (second) and Laura Seed (lead). The fourth place spot with 2 wins for 35 went to the Peterborough team of Bob Reynolds (skip), Jack Waldie (vice), Jim Caldwell (second) and Roger Hakins (lead).

Two days earlier on Saturday May 17th the club held an Open House which allowed people who had never tried lawn bowling to just drop in and “Give it a Try”. That’s the slogan that the Ontario Lawn Bowls Association (OLBA) has adopted as part of the marketing of the game. Unfortunately the cold weather kept people from venturing out and the turnout was not as good as at previous open houses. However, a number of people did venture out and enjoyed their first experience of lawn bowling. There will be further opportunities to try out the game next month as the club offers free beginner lessons every Wednesday In June, starting at 7.00 pm. There is no need to book in advance – just turn up at the club.

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Winners of recent club jitneys were: May 12th - Ralph Stoffers and Bozana Brick; May 13th - Ralph Stoffers, Bozana Brick and John Johnson; May 17th - Ralph Stoffers, Fran Marsh and Thelma Eastcott.

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And a footnote regarding the open house; there are some photos of some very cold mmebers playing in the jitney on the Northumberland View website. Just click here to see them.

Open House

Thanks to all those members who turned up for the open house. The weather was not kind to us and the cold must have kept many people inside as we had nothing like the number of visitors we had last year. We were pleased to have Malcom Wardman return to the club and we have a few possible new adult members plus two new juniors who signed up. Despite the lack of visitors the day was successful from a publicity perspective with reporters from Northumberland Today, Northumberland News, Snap'd and NorthumerlandView.ca. Hopefully this will result in good publicity which will encourage people to try out the beginner lessons which start in June.

Given the rain at the end of last week we were restricted in which greens we could use. On Friday, as you will see from  this photo the south green was flooded and we had to keep off it as if was still very soft. It should be OK though for the Victoria Day open fours tournament.

In view of the cold weather there was also a good turn out for the Saturday afternoon jitney with 24 members competing for the huge cash prize of $1.15 each. Our President, Ralph, must think that his position allows him to win all the  jitneys as he claimed his third successive win, playing this time with Fran Marsh and Thelma Eastcott. I have to say though that he was extremely lucky on this occasion as he was four down in the seventh end (playing against me) and I was very unlucky when a great shot that looked to be right on the jack just diverted it slightly to give him four!  He then had a lucky wick in the last end to win the game! (Writing the news allows you to put your own perspective on a game!)

Membership

Renewals are going well but if you have not yet managed to renew please visit the club as soon as possible. Gerry Childs will be at all jitneys and tournaments in the immediate future to accept renewals.

In Club tournament - Coach's Cup

On Saturday May 24th we have our first in club tournament of the season - the Coach's Cup sponsored by Edward Cunnington of Meet at 66 King St East. This tournament will be triples 3 x 8 end games. We are trying to avoid having in club tournaments where we end up playing teams of two against three and at the latest count we still need 5 more members to give us eight teams of three. The sign up sheet is on the bulletin board but if you can't manage to get to the club to sign up but do want to play please contact one of the Drawmasters, Dianne Lauder or Marie Van Dusen.

Monday Night League

Sign up for this has gone well. There are still places available but the deadline for signing up is Monday May 19th. Please contact Donna. Ball if you are interested.

It was great to see so many members at the opening day pot luck lunch and jitney. It may have been a little on the chilly side but we had a wonderful lunch and some great bowling. 

Usually by this time of year the greens are, as per the name, green and lush. However, the severe winter has taken its toll and our President Ralph Stoffers, has, with Greenskeeper Mike Hendren, been working hard for several weeks now to bring the greens to life. Their hard work is paying off as the bare patches are now showing signs of growth.

Despite the problems with the greens the bowls were running pretty true and given that this was the first outing of the season for most members there was some good quality bowling. In bright and breezy conditions 36 members played a jitney of two ten end games. The first winner of the season was the team of Helen Beaton, Vince Tamburello and Norma Stoffers. In second place was the team of Dave Shirley, Baylee Van Steijn and John Johnson  and in third place was the team of Dianne Lauder, Larry Flood and Ray Sheridan. The scores can be found on the jitney results page. I will keep the unofficial league table of jitney results on the same basis as last year. Points are only awarded when prize money is given. So, for example, on Saturday May 10th there were three prizes so the winners got 3 points, second two points and third one point. However, in the May 12th jitney only one prize was given so only the winning team got points (3).

Helen Beaton started this season as she finished the last one. When I looked back at the results from last season she finished with a 2 game win with 30 points - the same  as she started this season.

The after game comments were the same as always - "We just missed the jack". "We were only inches from getting shot". If so and so had happened we would have won instead of losing. Yes - that's  a true sign that the season is underway.

On Sunday, Ralph Stoffers, Dave Shirley and I (Bill Arthur) teamed up with Port Hope's Stan Zuly to play in a mens fours tournament at the Agincourt club in Toronto. In a high quality field which included a number of Ontario champions we placed second with a perfect 3 wins scoring 43 points, nine points behind the winners from Willowdale. A great finish to the opening weekend of the season and hopefully a portent for a good season.

If you are playing in out of town tournaments at any time and want to let others know about your success please send me details and I'll publish them.

Finally you'll find a couple of photos from the weekend on the photos page.