​On Saturday and Sunday June 25th and 26th we hosted the Ontario Under 18 championship. Cobourg’s Baylee van Steijn won silver last year and her brother Ben won gold so there were high expectations of them particularly as they were playing at their home club and had the support of the majority of the spectators. However sport is always unpredictable and it was Cori Millard of Lindsay who took the girl’s gold medal and Owen Kirby of Heritage Greens, Kitchener won the boy’s gold. Baylee  again took silver but Ben had a disappointing weekend and failed to progress from the round robin stage,
 
The championship got off to a spectacular sight as competitors were led on to the greens by piper Mark Gordon and the Town of Cobourg Concert Band played O Canada to start proceedings. After introductory speeches from MPP Lou Rinaldi and Mayor Gil Brocanier they got the games under way by each rolling a ceremonial bowl.
 
Baylee  had a smooth ride through her four game round robin and was undefeated to finish top of the group. In her final game she played Cori Millard of Lindsay who was her closest challenger and whatever the result those two would play one another again for the gold medal. Baylee won that game 21-15 but could not repeat that success in the gold medal game losing 10-21. Cori and Baylee both qualified to represent Ontario at the Canadian championships in Vancouver in August. 
 
In her first appearance in a Provincial championship Emmalee Smith of Cobourg performed very well but lost 12-21 to Aurianna D’Sa of Oshawa in the bronze medal game.
 
The draw in the boy’s championship was not kind to Ben van Steijn in that he and the two other favourites, Owen Kirby of Heritage Greens and Michael Fraser of Lindsay were all drawn in Group A.  In a four game round robin it was Michael Fraser who came out on top with Owen Kirby second. Michael then played and beat Erik Galipeau who was second in Group B and Owen beat the Group B winner Cameron Veltman of Oshawa. That set up a final which was a repeat of their round robin game and, as in the girls final, the roles were reversed with Owen taking the gold medal with a 21-13 win. Erik Galipeau won bronze with a win of 21-11.  Owen and Michael both qualified to represent Ontario at the Canadian championships in Vancouver in August.  Cobourg's Braedon Saunders was playing in his first Championship and after a tough first day finished off his round robin with a win in his final game.
 
The standard of bowling throughout the championship was of the highest order particularly in the medal games and the spectators were treated to some spectacular shot making. The other outstanding aspect of the championship was the high level of sportsmanship displayed by all the competitors – they were a credit to themselves and to the sport of lawn bowling. The Cobourg club was also delighted to receive so many compliments from competitors, spectators and the Ontario Lawn Bowls Association on the organisation and smooth running of the championships.

​There are photos of the opening ceremony and of play on the photos page

On Saturday and Sunday June 25th and 26th we will  host the Ontario Under 18 championship. Cobourg’s Baylee van Steijn won silver last year and she has had the perfect build up to the championship by winning the District 14 ladies pairs at the weekend playing with our Past President Louisa Arthur.
 
The play downs were held in Bobcaygeon on Saturday June 18th and  Baylee and Louisa played a Lindsay team in the best of three sixteen end games to determine the District champions. In searing heat they had the worst possible start losing their first game 5-23. But in a magnificent comeback they were never again behind and took game two 16-13 and clinched the title in game three 16-9. They will now represent the District in the Ontario championship in Sarnia at the beginning of July. 
 
The Under 18 championship starts at 8.15 am on Saturday June 25th with a parade of the competitors and opening ceremony with Mayor Gil Brocanier and MPP Lou Rinaldi. The best junior bowlers in the Province will be playing and there should be some great competition among the eleven boys and six girls. On the first day there will be round robin games and on the second the medal rounds. Visitors are welcome and the club hopes for a good turn out to support all the competitors but in particular the Cobourg juniors.
 
In addition to Baylee  her brother Ben will, in his last year in this age group, be defending the title that he won last year and making their first appearance in the event are Cobourg’s Braedon Saunders and Emmalee Smith. It promises to be a great tournament.

Ben was also playing in the men's pairs play downs at Bobcaygeon with Bill Arthur. In a five team round robin we will brush over the facts by saying they did not qualify and after two poor games played considerably better in their final two games. They had fun and enjoyed themselves and it was good training for Ben for next weeks junior championships.

Here is a slide show of some of the action from the weekend. Thanks to Sarah van Steijn for some of the photos.

A busy few days concluded on Sunday June 12th with a junior open pairs tournament sponsored by Cobourg Buy and Sell. Twelve teams from Lindsay, Oshawa and Cobourg competed and the standard of bowling was excellent.

Each team played three twelve end games and Cobourg's  Baylee van Steijn and Emmalee Smith had a great day with  3 wins and 40 points. However they were beaten into second place by Travis Bruce and Braedon Bain of Lindsay who finished with 3 wins and 46 points. The full result is on the results page

​Here is a slide show of some of the action and the prize winners 

The portents were not good for the James Gordon Insurance open men’s pairs tournament  on Saturday June 11th. The thunderstorms of early Saturday morning and the accompanying rain posed an early morning problem for us.  With teams coming from Oshawa, Whitby, Peterborough and Campbellford an early decision had to be made on whether to proceed or cancel. The decision was to go ahead and that proved to be the right one as the rain started to give way to drier and warmer conditions as the tournament started. This was the 26th running of the Gordon Insurance tournament and Jim Gordon, a past member of the club, was on hand to open the tournament and to present the prizes. There was also a valuable spider worth $26 to start the day - won by Larry Brown of Lindsay.
 
Eighteen teams competed for the trophy including five from Cobourg and each team played three twelve end games. Only two of the home teams won their first round game. David Brister and Steve Haslam had an 11-9 win and Ralph Stoffers and Bill Arthur won 13-5. However neither of those teams could repeat their wins in the second round which eliminated them from any chance of winning the trophy although Ralph and Bill  did win their final game which meant they would be the leading home club, finishing in fifth place.
 
The tournament winners were George Boersma and Rick Bernard who were dominant throughout with wins of 13-5, 15-12 and 16-3 to finish with 3 wins and 44 points. Their nearest challengers were Peter Robb and Rod Cipparone from Whitby who had 3 wins and 37 points. The full result is on the results page

On Thursday June 9th we held an in club-tournament sponsored by Spectacular Water Systems. In the past this tournament has been bedevilled by wet weather but on this occasion the weather was perfect with sun all day and a cooling breeze.
 
Ten triples teams competed for the trophy in a tournament of two twelve end games. This format is more of a sprint rather than the marathon of a three game tournament and it is essential to get off to a quick start and to get a high score. That is exactly what Eve Gorringe’s team did with the top score of 18+2 points in the first round.

Close behind with 15  was Nan Hendren’s team and also in contention were teams skipped by Ralph Stoffers and Bob Bates with 11 points each.

In the second round Eve's team lost 10-12 to Nan Hendren which gave  Nan's team 2 wins and 27 points. Ralph Stoffers had a big win by 16-5 giving him a total of 27 points and a tie for first place with Nan. In those circumstance the points against are the deciding factor in breaking the tie and that went in Ralph's team's favour with only 10 points against compared to Nan's 20.

​Pictured is the winning team of Ralph Hewitt, Mike Place and Ralph Stoffers with Karen Kuehn of sponsor Spectacular Water Systems. The full results are on the results page.

On Victoria Day the first open tournament of the season at the club ended in a win for a home team and after the second round of games at a mixed pairs tournament on Saturday June 4th there were high hopes that the Cobourg pair of Ralph and Norma Stoffers would make it a second home win. However it was not to be as teams from Peterborough and Oshawa came strong in the third round to claim the major prizes.
 
In addition to six home teams there were fourteen visiting teams from Peterborough, Oshawa, Whitby, Port Hope, Campbellford, Georgina and Belleville competing in the tournament which was sponsored by we fix u physiotherapy and foot care. David Evans of we fix u was on hand to open the tournament and to present the prizes.
 
Each team played 3 games of 12 ends and after two rounds there were five undefeated teams including Ralph and Norma who were only four points behind the leaders, Jack Waldie and Jan Young of Peterborough. Also in contention were three Oshawa teams: Ted and Sharron Morrison; John and Ann McLuckie and Gerry Dostie and Christine Mushynski. Waldie’s team played the Morrisons in a very close game which they won 13-12 to take the trophy. The Stoffers ran out of steam in their final game losing 8-18 to the McLuckies, a result which pushed them down to fifth place. Pictured is the winning team of Jack Waldie and Jan Young with sponsor David Evans of we fix u
 
See the results page for details of the prize winners.
 
In pairs lawn bowling each team has a total of eight bowls and can in theory score a maximum of eight points in an end which is known as a “perfect end”. It is fairly rare for that to happen but it did happen for Bill and Louisa Arthur in Saturday’s tournament during their third game and they will join the group of bowlers who receive a “top shots” pin from the Ontario Lawn Bowls Association.