The action just continues non stop and it is hard to believe that we have now been bowling for 3 months.

Yesterday and today we hosted the District 14 singles playdowns and I have to say that we made an excellent job of it.  There are lots of members to thank. Nan Hendren did  a great job as convenor; Peter Kurita - the umpire; the markers - Dave and Kathleen Shirley and Donna Ball; Helen and Fran in the kitchen and Louisa as first aider. Also I have to thank those members who called in to watch and support the players. They saw some great bowling over the two days.

There was only one ladies entrant, Baylee Van Steijn so she gets a bye and goes straight into the provincial championships at Belleville. We wish her well in that event.

It was a little tougher in the men's event! There were 7 competitors including Ben Van Steijn and me. The favourites were the Steffen brothers of Oshawa and Ben and I had some good fortune with the draw in that the Steffen brothers were all drawn together in Group A which had 4 players , whilst Ben and I were drawn in Group B with Larry Brown of Lindsay. The top two in each group would proceed to the semi finals on the second day.

Ben and I played one another in our first game. In singles play the winner is the first to 21 points. We had a close match which I won 21-15 after 23 ends. Ben then played Larry Brown and in another tight match he won 21-18. In the final round robin match I had to play Larry. If I won then Ben and I would proceed to the semi finals but if I lost the standings would be decided on points difference as we would all have won one and lost one. Short story is that I won 21-18 in the 24th end. The full story is that I was leading 12-3 after 11 ends but after 18 ends I was down 12-17. At that stage Ben couldn't watch anymore and went for  a lie down in the club house! The last chapter in this story is that 3 ends later I took the lead again at 18-17 and went on to win 21-18. That meant that Ben and I both qualified for the semi finals.

Ben played Dave Steffen and in another incredibly close game he lost by 21-17. I played Rob Steffen and after 18 ends we were tied at 12-12. However Rob then played some great bowls to pull away and beat me 23-12. In the final Rob beat Dave 21-7.

It was great fun and a good learning experience to play against some excellent bowlers.

Last Thursday we had our annual match against Wilmot Creek. If you played last year you will remember that we were thoroughly trounced winning only 2 of 16 games. Fortunately this year was a bit different. The scoring system was 2 points for a win and one point for a tied game and we played two 12 end games. In the morning session nearly everything went right for us and we took 11 points out of a possible 16 to race into an 11-5 lead. There were wins for Carol Dewey’s team (19-2), Fran Marsh (18-5), Norma Stoffers (13-6), Ralph Stoffers (14-12) and my team (Bill Arthur) (16-6). Jo Carleton’s team earned 1 point for us in a tied game.

We should not have stopped for lunch! Did we all have too much dessert and cake?

There is an old football (OK soccer) cliché that it was  game of two halves and that was certainly true of this match. Did Carol Dewey win again? – No! (lost 4-19). Did Fran Marsh win again? – No (lost 6-21). Did Norma Stoffers win again? No! (lost 4-21). Did Ralph Stoffers win again? No! (lost 10-12). Did I win again? No! (lost 7-13)

But then the good news. Jo Carleton having tied in the morning won 11-5. Eric Carleton won 14-9 and Ron Covert won 23-5. That was enough to give us 17 points to Wilmot Creek’s 15 and take back the trophy from them. A most unusual sequence of results in that every Cobourg team took 2 points during the match and Jo Carleton’s 3 points made the difference.

It was  a great day played out under blue skies and so many people contributed to the success of the day. Helen, Bill and Norma in the kitchen; Donna on the 50\50; Gerry on first aid (who did a good job when one of the Wilmot Creek players had a fall); and all of you who provided door prizes for our visitors.

Finally, if you didn't know, lawn bowling is one of the sports played at the Commonwealth games. Team Canada has not done very well so far. If you're interested the best site I have found for up to date results is Bowls International Click on the link.

As you know we have been trying different things with in club tournaments this year and yesterday was a combination of different things with it being 3x8 ends and aussie pairs 242. I know many of you had not played 242 before but it seemed to go down very well. As always we would appreciate feedback on the different types of tournament so that we know what works and what doesn't.

Wasn't it great to see all those people in Victoria Park heading to watch our tournament and see the Windmill trophy? I don't suppose it had anything to do with the other trophy on display yesterday!

We had eighteen teams of pairs playing and in the first round of games the scores were generally very close and low scoring. Indeed three had to be decided by a tie breaker. The pattern of close games continued in the second round and Dave Hickey and Marg Salley, who lost their first round game on a tie breaker suffered the same fate in the second round!

The team of Peter Kurita and Julie Schillaci was one of those that won a first round tie breaker but in their second game they scored a maximum 12 points which took them into the overall lead. Five teams went into the final round with two wins each so it was all to play for. In the top game Peter and Julie played Carol Dewey and Jim McIlwham and defeated them by 9-7 giving them a cumulative points total of 27. That was just enough for them to take the trophy, as despite a 12-2 win in their last game, Bob Tough and Thelma Eastcott finished one point behind with 26.

Peter and Julie are pictured receiving the Windmill trophy from Short Mat Club President, Ralph Hewitt.

The full results and more photos are on the respective pages.

The next in club tournament is a very special one - our 107th anniversary tournament on August 2nd. It will be a 3x10 end triples tournament. The sign up sheet is on the bulletin board and I'd encourage you to put your name down for it if you haven't already done so.

We finally had a good evening for our most popular jitney - the Tuesday night session. To the accompaniment of the Cobourg Town Band's Victoria Park concert, 40 members enjoyed 2x8 end games. The lighting is much better since the refurbishment of a few weeks ago and the  north west corner is no longer in semi darkness. Hopefully we'll get more evenings like this in the coming weeks.

Ralph Stoffers, Dave Shirley and I were playing in the District senior triples in Peterborough yesterday but were unable to defend our title. We lost a best of three games competition (0-2) to an excellent team of Jim Butler, Bob Matthews and Gord Terwillegar. That didn't stop us turning out for the jitney and Ralph's team won it, Harry Knapper's was second and mine was third. Full results on the jitney page.

Kathleen Shirley was playing with Nan Hendren and Port Hope's Dianne Hawryszko in the District Playdowns for ladies triples last week. They were also defending their title from last year but went down 1-2 to an Oshawa team skipped by Nicky Chamois.

There is a short slideshow below of photos from the jitney last night. We start in daylight; then the band start and we finish under the lights.

Once again we dodged the bullet with tournament weather. Thankfully the storm of Tuesday gave way to fine weather yesterday and the pools of water on the south green on Tuesday night had all drained away by Wednesday morning. (click here for photo on Northumberland Today web site). Some of us hardy souls did play on the North green on Tuesday night though.

This was the second year of the Ron and Trudy Milligan memorial tournament and we are very grateful to Sharyl Ann and Dan Milligan for sponsoring this tournament in memory of their parents. Last year it was ladies triples or two ladies and a man to lead but this year it was changed to an open triples and that seems to have worked as the entries were slightly higher this year at 16 teams.

One of the encouraging features of the last few opens has been the number of entries from our own club. It is always great to have the same number of home and away entries, as we had yesterday. 16 teams competed for the trophy and going into the third and final game Ann and Bob Tough, playing with Kathleen Shirley were in the hunt for the trophy. At that stage they had two wins and 30 points and were in second place. Unfortunately they lost their final game 7-11 to the eventual winners, the Peterborough team skipped by Bob Reynolds. That loss dropped them out of the prizes but Ron Covert, Dave Hickey and Fran Marsh had  a 17-8 win in their final game to finish in fourth place with two wins and 39 points. Full results are on the results page.

Another Cobourg team gained  a rare distinction yesterday. If you were there you will know what I mean; if you were not then I’ll share the story with you now. Better I do it than someone else.

Louisa and I, playing with David Brister had  a tough draw in game one in that we played last year’s champions from Peterborough, Al Handlechner, Elaine Welch and Jan Young. We had a good start, 6-2 after 3 ends but we did not score again and had the misfortune to give up a perfect end to Al’s team! I missed my final shot into a group of opposition bowls and they scored 9 in the 9th end! Dan Milligan was presenting the prizes and made sure that everyone knew what had happened. It was all done in good fun and we all had  a great day but not an experience I want to repeat.

Earlier in the week Ann Tough, Kathleen Shirley and Carol Dewey had  a good day at Whitby in a ladies triples and finished in the prize money after two wins.

Good luck to Kathleen and Nan Hendren, playing with Dianne Hawryszko of Port Hope in the District 14 ladies triples playdowns this coming weekend. They won that title last year so here’s hoping they can defend it successfully.

Next Tuesday, Ralph Stoffers, Dave Shirley and I will be playing in the District seniors playdowns at Peterborough. Ralph and I won that last year playing with Port Hope’s Stan Zuly.

Once again we had a prominent article in Northumberland Today this week. If you did not see the print article (it’s on the club bulletin board) here is a link to the online edition.

Finally you may be interested to know that the statistics for the website show that it is in constant use and after I do an update and notify you of that by email we get upwards of 150 hits which is way in excess of the number of email recipients. On July 2nd we had 212 unique visitors. Does that mean you are passing on details to your friends and family and they are keeping up to date with things by going to the website? I wish that number of visitors translated into members.

First of all I omitted comment in my last post about the Canada Day results. Of the 14 prize winners only 3 were men! OK guys we must do better in the next club tournament.

It was a week for the ladies really as on July 3rd, we held the annual Ladies Triples open tournament sponsored by Mrs Catharine Wicks and her family. This is one of the club’s oldest tournaments and this was the 26th running of the tournament.

Six Cobourg teams competed against strong opposition from visiting teams from Oshawa, Pickering and Peterborough. The format for this tournament was two games of fourteen ends which in bowling terms is a bit of a sprint event and it  meant that in addition to winning games it would be imperative to get a high score.

The first round was disappointing for the Cobourg teams with only Dianne Lauder’s team winning their game, and that was a close call as they were 3 points down going in to the last end but scored 5 to win 15-13.  In their second round game they had a much easier win by 18-8 against Barb Noble’s team from Peterborough and finished with a cumulative score of 33 points. 

Two Oshawa teams also had two wins.

Sharron Morrison’s team scored 28 but Nicky Chamois’ Oshawa team equalled the 33 points scored by Dianne's team.  In these circumstances the tie breaker is the number of points each team has conceded and, for a minute, there was excitement in the office as I mistakenly added up Dianne's points against total and thought she was the winner. But Ralph spotted my mistake and unfortunately for Dianne's team they had 21 points against compared with the 17 for the Chamois team.  So that meant that Chamois’ team took the Trophy. But another exciting finish to a tournament.

Ralph Presented the prizes and is pictured with Dianne's team of Marie Van Dusen and Marilyn McMillan.

What  a great Canada Day tournament we had yesterday. After all the warnings of thunderstorms it turned out to be a lovely day – only once did the rain threaten.

As always the club looked wonderful  and with everyone in red and white we were  a big attraction to all the people passing through the park. Just a pity that we can’t get more of those spectators into the club and learning to bowl.

41 members competed and it was good to have two new members, Marlene Randall and Steve Haslam playing in their first tournament only a few days after joining.

Of the 14 teams competing only two finished up with a perfect 3 wins – the teams skipped by Kathleen Shirley and Eve Gorringe and the scores were incredibly close. Both teams scored 39 points but by virtue of their 15+2 score in their first game Kathleen's team  took the trophy. Heckie Langford’s team were strong contenders after two games but losing (6-11) their head to head with Kathleen’s team relegated them to third place.

Congratulations to Kathleen and her vice, Marilyn McMillan and lead Bonnie Sheridan. This was Bonnie’s first tournament so it was great for her to be part of the winning team.

Pictured are Bonnie, Marilyn and Kathleen receiving the trophy from  Dean Johns of sponsor Thomas Motors.

The full results and more photos are on the respective pages.

Oh! – did I mention that Louisa and I were fourth?