On Saturday August 27th the action resumed on the greens with the juniors taking centre stage as the club hosted the annual open junior tournament sponsored by MVP Sports.

Fifteen members of the Cobourg club competed in a field of 33 with strong contingents visiting from Lindsay, Peterborough and   Oshawa. Competitors were split into two groups according to experience.  The 15 most experienced bowlers were in Group A and the remainder in Group B.

This was a singles tournament and each player played 3 games of 10 ends with a points scoring system where 10 points were at stake in each end. The total points after three games determined the standings.

As has happened recently in adult tournaments it was Peterborough members who took the top places. The group B winner was Bridget Masterson with 144 points and the group A winner was Jake Masterson with 154 points. That score was also good enough for Jake to be declared the overall winner. 

Click here for the full result

Below is a slideshow from the tournament
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When the final round of the club novices tournament started one thing was certain – the name Hickey would be on the trophy. Judy and Dave Hickey were opposition skips and whoever won the game would take the trophy.
 
The tournament, sponsored by Pharmacy 101, took place on Thursday August 25th and many of the club’s new bowlers were experiencing tournament play for the first time. 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.
 
Ten pairs teams competed with each team playing three ten end games.

Judy Hickey, in her last year as a novice, was partnered by second year bowler Brian Rogers. They got off to a great start with a 12-7 win against Baylee van Steijn and Bill Bickle. Dave Hickey (also in his final novice year), playing with rookie Jan Skillen had a close but high scoring first game winning 15-13 and they had another high score in their second game by 14-7. Those scores would turn out to be important in deciding the final standings.

In the final round battle of the Hickeys the game was very tight but in the latter stages Judy and Brian  pulled away to win 11-8 and claim the tournament win. 

The prizes were presented by James Jin of Pahrmacy 101 and he was accompanied by Jane Cornell who is  apast member of the club.

​Click here for full result and here for photos

When one of our club’s teams dropped out of this tournament  at the last minute (because of illness) we were scrambling to find a team  to keep the tournament numbers even. Failing that the last team entered would have to drop out.

Ralph Hewitt, Carl Ferguson and Patricia Stender came to our rescue. As fate would have it, this "scratch team" drew the favourites and eventual winners in the first round – not what you want when you step in at the last minute!
 
The tournament - mixed triples - was held on Thursday August 18th and was sponsored by club members Louisa and Bill Arthur. Eight home teams competed against eight visiting teams from Peterborough, Pickering, Oshawa and Campbellford with each team playing three twelve end games.
 
The favourite from Peterborough was the team of Bob Reynolds, Al Handlechner and Mary Minich and they beat the  Hewitt, Ferguson and Stender team  by 17-5 in their first game. However, Ralph's team went on to perform well winning their next two games and finishing sixth. We are very grateful to them for supporting the tournament in this way. 
 
After their easy opening game the Peterborough team faced a much stiffer challenge from the Cobourg team of Roy Thorneycroft, Janet Taylor and Dianne Lauder and an extra end was needed to break a tied game of 11-11. Unfortunately for Roy's team they lost the tie breaker. However they went on to win their final game and finish in third place. Reynolds’ Peterborough team finished with an easy win by 16-4 to give them a total of 44 points and the tournament win. 
 
 Going into final round of games the Cobourg team of Martin Foxhall, Ben van Steijn and Emmalee Smith was undefeated and a high scoring win could have earned them first place. However, it was not to be and they lost 10-12 to David Saliba’s team from Pickering. Saliba’s team finished in second place with three wins but two points behind the winners. Martin's team dropped to fourth.

For full results click here

This season is turning out to be a very memorable one for fifteen year old club junior bowler Baylee van Steijn.

Following on from a fourth place finish at the Ontario ladies pairs she has won silver medal in the Ontario juniors, bronze medal at the Canadian juniors and has now been selected to Team Canada. The squad for the North American Challenge against the USA was announced this week and Baylee is one of the ten ladies selected for Team Canada. The tournament will be held in Vancouver between September 29th and October 1st. 

Here is a link to the Bowls Canada News Release 

Congratulations Baylee and good luck on your third trip of the season to Vancouver.

Uncertainty about the weather is the enemy of a lawn bowling tournament organizer and we had a predicament on Saturday with “chances of showers” and “chances of thunderstorms” .  With teams travelling from Toronto in the west and Kingston in the east an early morning decision had to be made on whether to go ahead or cancel. The decision was to go ahead but as competitors arrived in a heavy downpour there were some doubts as to whether the call was the right one. Fortunately the rain relented and play started on time. (A power outage around 8.00 am did not help things and the kitchen staff were forced into a Tim Hortons run for emergency coffee!)
 
The tournament was an open mixed pairs and we delighted to welcome a new sponsor Vandermeer Toyota. Twenty teams competed and in addition to seven home clubs there were thirteen visiting teams from Pickering, Balmy Beach (Toronto), Oshawa, Whitby, Peterborough, Campbellford, Georgina, and Kingston.  
 
In view of the uncertain weather conditions it was decided to reduce the tournament from the usual three twelve end games to three ten end games. And that turned out to be a good call as within 15 minutes of the completion of the tournament a storm came through and the greens were flooded.
 
Georgina couple Terry Taylor and Judy Anderson have been regular supporters of Cobourg tournaments but until Saturday had never won. However  they broke that streak to finish in top place with a perfect three wins.  Their first two games were relatively easy wins but their final game against Roland Mackey and Jackie Pettes of Oshawa was a much closer affair with Taylor and Anderson prevailing 10-8. 
 
Three of the Cobourg teams had first round wins but the only team to consolidate that start with a second round win was Dave and Kathleen Shirley. However a final round loss dropped them out of contention for prize money.  Going into the final round the two Cobourg teams of David Brister and Janet Taylor and Bill and Louisa Arthur were also in contention for a high finish both having 1-1 records. Unfortunately they had to play one another. The Arthurs won that game 15-6 which was good enough to take them into third place.
 
Click here for the full results

In this very hot summer the heat relented slightly on Saturday which was a relief for the bowlers in the anniversary tournament. The tournament was once again sponsored by HTM Insurance and ten triples teams competed for the trophy. We also enjoyed a splendid anniversary cake donated by Foodland at lunchtime.
 
Each team played three ten end games and after the first round the top teams were those skipped by Bill Arthur, David Brister, Carol Dewey and Donna Longman. After the first round Donna Longman stood down and Roy Thorneycroft substituted as skip for the final two games.
 
The Arthur and Brister teams both suffered losses in the second round after which the Dewey and Thorneycroft teams were the only teams with two wins and that meant they would play one another in the third and final game to decide the tournament winner. In a high scoring game Roy, with vice Bonnie Sheridan and lead Thelma Eastcott won 15-12.

Congratulations to the new bowlers who participated - Wilf and Patricia Stender and Bill Bickle. They were members of the teams that came second, third and fourth.

The next club tournament is the novices on August 25th. That is a great tournament for all new bowlers to play in and is an ideal one to start off your tournament experience.  The sign up sheet is on the bulletin board

​Click here for the full anniversary tournament result and here for photos

Next year will be our 110th anniversary and we are looking at how we can make that a very special event.

I will start this piece on the Canadian junior championships by talking about an award made to our greens keeper Ralph Stoffers. Why you might ask. Well, read on and all will be clear

Ralph has been volunteer greens keeper for the last five years. Despite having no previous experience of greens keeping he has, through hard work and much research, produced greens that become better every year and are recognised by visiting bowlers as amongst the best (if not the best) around. To recognise his achievements and the many hours of voluntary work he was presented with a certificate of appreciation from the Ontario Lawn Bowls Association during the anniversary tournament at the weekend. 
 
Two people who have benefited from the excellent Cobourg greens are juniors Ben and Baylee van Steijn. (Now you see where I am going with this) Access to such good greens has undoubtedly helped them in their lawn bowling careers. Ben has also been working with Ralph to learn about greens keeping and that plus his work at the Cobourg Ecology garden resulted in him receiving a scholarship from the Cobourg Horticultural Society, which seems rather appropriate at this time as it was Horticultural Society members who formed the lawn bowling club in 1907.
 
Ben and sister Baylee were in Vancouver last week competing in the Canadian junior championships, their second appearance at the championships. After the round robin Ben had a 4-2 record and 12 points. However to have a chance at competing for a medal 15 points were required. He finished tied for 5th place in a field of 18 – an excellent performance.
 
Sister Baylee finished in fourth place in 2015 but this time went one better to finish third and take home a bronze medal. Struggling with flu throughout the three days of competition she finished the round robin in fourth place with a 4-3 record. Her opponent in the bronze medal game, Emma Boyd (BC) had beaten her 18-10 in their round robin match and when Boyd took an 11-4 lead (first to 18 points wins) it looked bad for Baylee. However in an epic match she clawed her way back to take bronze with an 18-17 win. Her bronze medal confirms her place in the Canadian youth development squad for another year.