Blog Archives

Latest Tournament News - Club novice and singles tournaments

8/31/2015

Novice Tournament

Membership is the key to any successful club and we have been very successful this season in recruiting new members and this in turn led to an excellent novices tournament on Thursday August 27th with many new members experiencing tournament play for the first time and some members playing in different positions than they are used to. However, it was not just the new members competing as a novice in lawn bowling is anyone who has played five years or less and this includes junior players.

The format for the tournament which was sponsored once again by Pharmacy 101 was eight teams of triples playing three ten end games and the favorite for the tournament was the team skipped by Ontario junior champion Ben van Steijn. His vice was rookie bowler Ken Bevan and there was another junior and new bowler at lead, Emmalee Smith.

In the first round Judy Hickey’s team were quick off the mark with the biggest win by 13-9 and Ben's was close behind after an 11-8 win. They played each other in the second round and in a close game Ben's team ran out 10-8 winners. After two rounds the only other team with a perfect two wins was that skipped by Dave Hickey and that meant his team would play Ben's for the title. Ben's team closed out that game with a 10-6 win to take the title.

Singles Championships

On Sunday August 30th a busy few days finished with the club singles championships. In the ladies competition, sponsored by Reg Ward Insurance, there were two groups of three players and after group round robin games the two group winners contested the final. That was played between Norma Stoffers, who had won this trophy twice before, and Janet Taylor who joined the club this year after a move from BC. Norma got off to a quick start and it looked like an easy win for her. But then Janet pulled up half way through the game and closed the gap to a couple of points. However Norma recovered to win the game 15-9 and reclaim the trophy after missing out last year.

It turned out to be a good day for the Stoffers family as Ralph Stoffers also reclaimed the mens singles championship . In a reversal of last year’s result he finished first with David Brister in second place. This tournament, sponsored by Martin Foxhall, involved five players with each playing four round robin games and it turned out to be a very close affair. After three wins Ralph needed to beat David Brister in his final game to be sure of the trophy but David won that game to finish with a 2-2 record and Ralph with 3-1. That left Ralph waiting on the result of the game between Dave Carleton and rookie Carl Ferguson. If Dave won his game he would also finish with a 3-1 record. But in a notable result for Carl he won 16-6 to finish 2-2.David Brister took second place by virtue of fewer points conceded than Dave and Carl.

Full results and photos are on the respective pages. Just click on the link

Canadian Nationals

8/23/2015

The biggest lawn bowling action last week was taking place at the Willowdale club in Toronto where the Canadian National Championships were held and there was local interest as Cobourg’s Martin Foxhall was a member of the Ontario A mens fours team. Martin plays at Vice on this team with Gord Legacy, Steve Millar and Dave Llewellyn.

Nine round robin games were played to determine the top four teams which would compete for medals and the Ontario team made it to the bronze medal game which they narrowly lost to British Columbia. There was some great competition and close games, none more so than on the third day when Ontario played three games against the much fancied teams from Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC (the eventual medallists). They had an undefeated record against those teams and at the end of the day were well placed to finish high in the standings and qualify for the gold medal game as their last three games were against weaker teams. However there are no certainties and a loss against the Quebec B team left them with a 6-2-1 record and fourth place which meant they would play for bronze.

In the bronze medal game against BC they were down 14-2 after nine ends, pulled back to level the game before finally losing in an extra end. Despite the disappointment in finishing fourth this was a great performance and an improvement on their previous appearance at the Nationals two years ago.

I spent an afternoon at Willowdale and enjoyed some great bowling from the competitors. I was primarily following Martin's team against Alberta and below is a slide show of pictures from that game and from the Ontario B game

Scotiabank Mixed Triples

8/23/2015

Our luck with the weather finally ran out on Thursday August 20th when rain led to a shortened open mixed triples tournament.

It was a close call as to whether the tournament, sponsored by Scotiabank, would actually go ahead but after much analysis of the weather forecast we decided to do so. The tournament would normally have been three twelve end games but given the weather forecast it was curtailed to ten end games and if rain stopped play the tournament would be decided on the scores after two games. And that is exactly what happened.

After two games the rain started to fall heavily and once puddles started to form on the greens there was no option but to call off the third game. At that point the leading team was that of David Saliba, Cara Booth and Tammy Browes Bugden from Pickering with two wins and 28 points. Cobourg’s recent record in open tournaments was maintained with Roy Thorneycroft, Janet Taylor and Dianne Lauder finishing only two points behind to take second place. A fine performance which meant that Roy has a first and second place in his last two opens and Dianne a second and third.

Having recruited an extra Cobourg team at short notice to make up even numbers it was unfortunate that one of the visiting teams had entered the same team under two names and that we then had to ask the Cobourg team to drop out. Our apologies to those members affected.

Triumph for Cobourg teams

8/16/2015

A great day for the club on Saturday August 15th as two of our teams took top three places in an open mixed pairs. Roy Thorneycroft and Eve Gorringe were winners with Ralph Stofffers and Dianne Lauder taking third place. The tournament had the maximum number of twenty four entries with seven Cobourg teams and seventeen visiting teams from Oshawa, Whitby, Peterborough, Campbellford, Georgina, Port Hope, Balmy Beach (Toronto) and Niagara on the Lake competing for the trophy which was sponsored by Amica at Quinte Gardens.

On the Friday afternoon prior to the tournament there were some worried looks from Ralph Stoffers as the south green was under 3 inches of water after the powerful storm that passed through Cobourg. However by late Friday evening the outlook was much better as the greens began to drain and fortunately there was no overnight rain and by start of play the greens were excellent although a little soft.

Each team played three twelve end games and the Cobourg teams got off to a great start with five of them winning their first round games. There were some very high scores in the first round and that was important for any team with hopes of winning the tournament as three teams would have three wins and therefore the accumulated points would decide the standings. And that is exactly what Roy and Eve did by scoring a maximum 18 points in the first round. Dave Carleton and Nan Hendren also won their first round game with a maximum 18 points but could not maintain that form into the second round. Ralph and Dianne had a closer game and won 11-6. Unfortunately the other first round winners from Cobourg, Bob and Ann Tough and Bill and Louisa Arthur were paired against each other in the second round. The Toughs triumphed 16-10 which meant they would challenge for the title in the final round. Ralph and Dianne had another close game in the second round but got their second win by 14-11. Meanwhile Roy and Eve were increasing their points total to 34 with a 16-4 win.

Going into the third and final round the three Cobourg teams with two wins were drawn apart which raised the possibility of them taking the top three places. However, the Toughs lost their final game by 11-8 to Doug and Nancy Findlay from Niagara on the Lake which dropped them out of the prize money. Ralph and Dianne had another close game which they won 12-9 to finish with 3 wins and third place. In the final round Roy and Eve faced the favourites from Peterborough, Al Handlechner and Jan Young who had accumulated a maximum 36 points. There was a tense finish to that game as the Peterborough team came from two shots behind in the last end to tie the game and an extra end was needed to decide the winners. Roy scored a great winning shot in the extra end to claim the win and the title for the Cobourg team.

Off the greens it was another fine performance by all the members working in the club house (Norma, John, Marlene, Gerry, Donna, Judy and Fran - hope I didn't forget someone). Without all their hard work we would not have had such a well run tournament.

The full result is on the results page and photos on the photos page.

108th Anniversary tournament

8/9/2015

One of the highlights of our season is always the anniversary tournament. 108 years after the club was founded in Victoria Park it still enjoys one of the best (if not the best) lawn bowling locations in Ontario with its views out across the lake and the park. And on Saturday August 8th the club was at its best with the greens faster than they have ever been. The tournament was once again sponsored by HTM Insurance and a celebratory cake was donated by Fishers Foodland.

Twelve triples teams played three ten end games and the tournament can be described as a “Tough’ one as the two leading teams were those skipped by Bob Tough and Ann Tough with both teams having a perfect three wins. However the team of Bob Tough, Louisa Arthur and Barbara Covert took the trophy by virtue of their higher cumulative points total of 42 compared to Ann’s 34. This was the second consecutive club tournament win for Bob Tough and for lead Barbara Covert and it seemed appropriate that their vice, club President Louisa Arthur, should be on the winning team on anniversary day.

This was the second time in three days that Ann Tough had skipped a team into second place in a tournament. Playing with Kathleen Shirley and Carol Dewey they placed second in a major ladies triple tournament at the Pickering club on August 7th – only one point behind the winners! Congratulations to them.

Click here for the full results and here for all the photos.

Canadian Junior Championships