Blog Archives

District 14 Mixed Pairs Playdowns

7/28/2025

Nine teams competed in the playdowns in Oshawa on July26/27 and ten of the 18 players were from Cobourg.

There was one group of four and one of five and a round robin was played in each group.

After the round robin Peter Stuart-Sheppard (Cobourg) and Sharon Paxton (Oshawa) were top of Group A and the all Cobourg team of Ben van Steijn and Emmalee Smith were second.

The Lindsay team of Rhys and Tracey Warren was tip of Group B followed by Carl Ferguson and Nan Hendren of Cobourg.

In the elimination games Peter's team beat Carl's and Ben's beat the Warrens.

Peter then beat Ben to take first place and Carl beat the Warrens to finish third.

Final result:

First - Peter Stuart-Sheppard and Sharon Paxton
Second - Ben van Steijn and Emmalee Smith
Third - Carl Ferguson and Nan Hendren.

Peter and Sharon and Ben and Emmalee qualified for the Provincial Championships in Burlington. It is possible that Carl and Nan will also compete.

Club House Centenary Celebrations

7/20/2025

Our club house is 100 years old and we thought we should celebrate and showcase what has happened since it was built in 1925.
We are used to bowling whilst the Concert Band of Cobourg plays at the bandshell every Tuesday night through July and August. Yesterday, July 19th we had an exclusive performance by some band members. The band was part of the 100 year celebration of our clubhouse. We were entertained by some 1920s music during the opening ceremonies which were attended by Mayor Lucas Cleveland and other members of the town council. After opening remarks by club President Peter Stuart-Sheppard Mayor Cleveland spoke warmly of the club's relationship with the Town and community and presented the club with a Certificate of Honour.

Director of Music, Paul Storms, also spoke and pointed out that the bandshell was built 10 years after the lawn bowling club house and was built to face the club so that the Band would have a captive audience!!

After the opening ceremonies visitors were invited to view the exhibits on display and a presentation of how the club has evolved over the last 100 years.

Congratulations to the club members who entered into the spirit of the occasion by wearing period dress and looked so splendid.

And there was an anniversary tournament but that will be the subject of a separate post.

Bill Arthur

Anniversary Tournament

7/20/2025

16 teams competed in the anniversary tournament sponsored by HTM Insurance and J Noble Crane. Teams played two ten end games.

Al Bell’s team were the top scorers in round one with a win by 15-5. Terry Bradshaw’s team was the next highest with a 13-6 win so they played one another in the second round with Terry’s team winning 10-8.

The other two game winners were Mary Salter’s team, Sarah van Steijn’s team and Ralph Stoffers team. Only 4 points separated the four two game winners but it was Ralph’s team that won the tournament by virtue of a 15-7 win in the second round to give them a total of 24+1 with 12 against.

The full result was:
Winners – Ralph Stoffers, Bonnie Sheridan and Wendy Abrams (24+1)
Second – Terry Bradshaw, Dale McMillan and Irene Miller (23; 14 against)
Third – Mary Salter, Lindsey McCollam, Linda Eals (23; 16 against)
Fourth – Sarah van Steijn, Norma Stoffers, Emerson MacRae (20)
One game high – Al Bell, Dana Williams, Karren Barron (23)

Campbellford Mixed Pairs

7/12/2025

On July 11th Peter Stuart-Sheppard playing with Tracey Warren (Lindsay) took first place to win the A. D. Bennett Trophy at the Mixed Pairs tournament in Campbellford. The silver trophy Peter is holding dates from 1924 when it was donated by founding member A. D. Bennett. Bennett's Furniture continues to be a sponsor to this day. A torrential downpour that flooded the greens at the start of the third game cut short the tournament. But Peter and Tracey claimed the trophy by going 36 points plus 10 with only 9 against in their first two games.

Palisade Gardens Tournament

7/10/2025

On Wed July 9 we held the Palisade Gardens WP/Mixed Pairs Tournament.

This tournament was full with 20 teams. We had 8 Home teams from Cobourg & 12 teams from other clubs. We made this year’s Palisade event a Women’s Pairs as well as MxP and ended up with 2 Ladies teams.

Spirits were high at the start of the day. With all teams here by 9am we commenced bowling a bit earlier than the scheduled 9:30 start time. Games were played at a quick pace despite the warm weather and all teams finished their games well before the 2hr 5min time limit.

It wasn’t a good start for Cobourg teams with only 1 of the 8 home teams being able to win their first game (Ed: Bob was too modest to mention it was him and Pat)

After 2 games 5 undefeated teams faced off for the winning trophy. The top team of Susie Palmer/Gord Travis had a nail biter but succumbed in the end to Wayne Wallwork/Jo-Anne Adams 11-9. David Saliba/Cara Booth won their 3rd of the day 14-9 over Mike Cyr/Heather Stubbings (Oshawa) to take 2nd place. The other 2 game winner Bob Bates/Pat Bylok took it on the chin in game 3 losing to Rick Barnard 13-9 and fell out of the prize money.

Our sponsor was Palisade Gardens and their rep Rebecca Simms was advised to be at the club around 3:45-4:15 pm to give out the prizes. We were going so quickly we had to make a late call to get her here by 3:30 . . just as the last bowlers were coming off the green.
The final results:
1st Place: Wayne Wallwork / Jo-Anne Adams (Oshawa) 3W 45+7 pts
2nd Place: David Saliba / Cara Booth (Pickering) 3W 43 pts
3rd Place: Suzie Palmer / Gord Travis (Oshawa/Lindsay) 2W 45+8 pts
4th Place: Al Purcell / Nicky Chamois (Belleville/Oshawa) 2W 43 pts
5th Place: Rick Barnard / Pat Robarts (Campbellford) 2W 42+8 pts
High 1 Game Winner: Peter Stuart-Sheppard / Sharon Paxton (Cobourg/Oshawa) 1W 36pts
High last Game: Bob & Maureen Guppy (Lindsay) 18+7 pts
Lucky Draw for teams who didn’t win a bowling prize: Dennis & Mona Davidson (Oshawa)
Other interesting Notes:
Al Purcell’s Team defeated Peter Stuart-Sheppard in game 1 to claim the bounty (Tim’s card/bottle of wine) by being the first team to beat the 2024 winners.
Presidential bragging rights: VP Bill Arthur’s name was already on the envelope to win the 1-game high prize ($50) . . but then the last card of the day came in and President Peter S. topped him by 1 point.
Next on the Open Tournament Schedule is The Bill & Louisa Arthur Novice Triples on Aug 7.

Open Tournament Convenor . . . Bob Bates

Ladies By The Lake

7/4/2025

On Thursday July 3 the ladies took over the greens for their annual Triples tournament. 8 Cobourg teams & 8 out of town teams took to the South green for battle.

The day started with threatening weather but ended up being a great day to be out bowling. The ladies had a great time right from the get go. Ralph noted that the loud boisterous conversations made it hard for him to concentrate on his Share the Wealth duties.

The first games were close with only one of the 16 teams managing to get the maximum score of 21 for 14 ends. No surprise that it was last years winner Nicky Chamois from Oshawa. Lunch was a table of endless salads, desserts, ham provided by all the Cobourg bowlers & served up by Mike Place, Tom Bevan & Bill Arthur (with a few pointers from the ladies on how to make coffee!)

The last game off of the green was the one that decided who the trophy would go to and Maureen Guppy’s team with Anna Panton skipping got the edge on Nicky 13-11. The other prizes went to:

1st Place: Anna Panton, Maureen Guppy and Mary Minich (Lindsay) 2W 33 pts ($225)
2nd Place: Julie Perry, Bayley van Steijn and Dana Williams (Cobourg) 2W 31 pts($210)
3rd Place: Janice Slobojan, Jackie Dunkerley, Elaine McSween (Cobourg/Whitby/Balmy) 2W 30 pts ($210)
4th Place: Kim Bonisteel, Liz Reid and Judy Steinke (Belleville/Kingston) 2W 29 pts ($195)
5th Place: Nan Hendren,Ann Tough and Mary Salter 1W 34pts ($165)
6th Place: Nicky Chamois, Sue Logeman, Nancy Myers (Oshawa) 1W 32 pts ($90)

Thanks to my assistant draw master Dot MacRae who put her curling draw experience to good use . . . and guest 50/50 number announcer Lily.

Open Tournament Convenor . . . Bob Bates

(Editor - not only was Bob Bates the drawmaster, he was the sponsor of the tournament. Thanks Bob)

Canada Day

7/1/2025

Over 50 members took part in this year's Canada Day tournament, a great turn out. We played two 14 end games. Some members shared the day and just played one game.
As an aside, Breakfast in the park was popular as were the fries for lunch from the fish and chip van.

There were lots of close games and the top teams were:

Winners - Jacob Hyatt, Carol Dewey, Bonnie Sheridan and Norma Stoffers (Bonnie and Norma shared the day)
Second - Al Bell, Andrew Perry and Irene Miller
Third - Janice Slobojan, Sarah van Steijn and Michelle Tinney
Fourth - Bill McCollam, Ernie Sapinski and Monica Miller

Prizes were presented by Dean Johns of the sponsor Thomas Buick GMC.

We also enjoyed a delicious Canada Day cake courtesy of Cobourg Foodland.