It’s been a little while since the last blog - would you believe I've been doing some bowling? I won't mention results and from that you will deduce that I have mainly been losing games! I'm quick enough to tell you about wins but will happily gloss over the rest.

Anyway the website is now up to date and for a full round up of the recent news click here to read my Northumberland Today article.

It will be a busy weekend with Braden Saunders and Ben and Baylee van Steijn competing in the Ontario junior championships; Bob Bates and Pat Bylok competing in the District 14 mixed pairs play downs and (weather permitting) our club Canada day tournament. How wonderful it is to see over 50 entries for the Canada Day tournament. I think that is the biggest entry I have seen since I joined the club in 2010. 
I mentioned in the last blog that a few of us had attended an OLBA player development camp and I thought it would be a good idea to pass on a couple of the thoughts on communication from that camp (thanks to OLBA Head Coach, Dave Burrows for these thoughts) These messages are aimed primarily at skips but are relevant to all members of a team.

 NO BOWL IS A BAD BOWL

How many times do you hear “You're short/long/wide/narrow” from your skip and/or your teammates? You know what you've done and you don't need anybody else to tell you. No one purposely delivers a “bad bowl”. So, skips,  find something positive to say by encouraging the player and letting them know you're on their side. Good line, good spot, good back bowl for example. And when they are next ready to bowl tell the player how much weight to add or take off (eg another four feet please) or just say “tighten it up a little” or “just a bit wider

 NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION (body language)

Always try to be positive. A thumbs up, a clap, an arm raised in triumph are well received by your team. On the other hand, turning around and looking at an imaginary airplane will send a very negative response. Always be POSITIVE 

CLEAR VERBAL COMMUNICATION

 “Take this side” or “Get one in here” are not really helpful communications. Be as concise and as clear as you possibly can. For example “Raise this bowl two feet on your forehand” and “Draw to the middle of these three back bowls” are clearer and indicate clarity by the skip in shot selection and game plan.

I have more notes that were provided at the development camp and can copy them for anyone interested but these are just a few things to consider and implement (if you don't do them already) when playing this weekend. 
Good bowling and enjoy yourself - that's the most important thing.

Happy Canada Day
​
 Bill Arthur

Since my last post we have had an in club tournament, a men's open pairs, a junior open pairs and the District 14 ladies' and men's pairs playdowns. Additionally District 14 held a player development camp earlier this week. This perhaps all explains why I am so late in updating  the website this week. 

Wednesday June 7th - Baylee van Steijn and Martin Foxhall were in Peterborough for a mixed pairs 242 and had a successful day with 2 wins. I don't know whether they got any prize money so perhaps they'd let us know via the comments section of this blog. Incidentally, since I started allowing comments on the blog this year I haven't received any! Feedback would be nice.

Thursday June 8th - Finally we had a day of bowling in the sunshine without jackets on. The SWS in club tournament was a very close affair as might be expected with only 2 games of 12 ends with one point covering the first three teams. The teams skipped by Eve Gorringe and Bob Bates were tied on points scored, points against and ends won but Eve's team won by virtue of having the highest score in one of their games. I can't recall that happening before in the seven years I've been bowling

Saturday June 10th - The James Gordon Insurance men's pairs is one of the most popular open tournaments and 18 teams competed. Unfortunately it clashed with the District Pairs playdowns which meant that I missed it for the first time in several years as I was playing with Bob Bates in the playdowns (read on for news of that). I'm delighted to be able to say that Ralph Stoffers and Carl Ferguson were the winners - it was great to have a Cobourg team winning this tournament for the first time in many years. I've been playing with Ralph in it for the last 4 or 5 years and we've come close but never won it. Obviously having a new partner made the difference for Ralph!

Also on Saturday June 10th - As I've already mentioned it was the District playdowns for the men's and ladies' pairs. Bob Bates and I made a good fist of it (you know that means we didn't win) with close games throughout but we finished 1-3 and did not qualify. Baylee van Steijn and Louisa Arthur won the 2016 Ontario stream in ladies' pairs but the competition was stiffer this year with only one provincial stream. In their final regular game they were denied the win that would have won the playdowns when the opposition skip snuck in with her final bowl. They then had to go through a four end playoff which turned out to be very dramatic, Three down in the fourth end they scored three to tie the tie breaker! An extra end sudden death went against them. But a great performance from them on a day that started at 9.00 am and finished just before 8.00 pm

Sunday June 11th - the first junior tournament of the season. The more senior Cobourg juniors were each paired with one of the more junior juniors which worked against them in the tournament but which gave the younger players a good experience. As a result none of our juniors was in the prize money. The tournament was won by Bridget and Jake Masterson of Peterborough with teams from Lindsay taking the other prizes. But all in all another good junior tournament, something that our club is well know for.

Tuesday June 13th - District 14 arranged a player development camp in Lindsay which was run by OLBA coaches. This is the first time that the District has done this and it was attended by 31 bowlers including Janet Taylor, Mike Place, Dave Shirley and Louisa and me. During the day we covered communication; analysis of heads and shot selection; basic strategy and other things such as mental aspects of the game. There were also practical sessions on the greens with feedback from the coaches on how we were applying what they taught us. Personally I thought it was a great day and would recommend you attend next time one is held. I also have some practice drills for each of the ten different bowling shots (who knew there were ten?) and can let you have a copy if you are interested

And finally Wednesday June 14th - I played in a men's pairs in Peterborough with Martin Foxhall and really enjoyed my day playing with him. We won the 2nd two game high prize (which means we came fourth) with 39 points. I think Martin scored 38 of them!

If you are playing in tournaments at other clubs and have some success please let me know (with photos if you have them) do that I can include them in the blog and in the newspaper reports. If you don't know who "I" am it's Bill Arthur

If you missed the newspaper report in Northumberland Today this week here is a link. Click here

Good Bowling