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Final Open Tournament of 2016

9/22/2015

We held our final open tournament of the season on Thursday September 10th . It was an open pairs tournament, sponsored by MacCoubrey Funeral Homes and what a climax it was to the tournament season with top bowlers competing in a tournament that was described “as being as good as Provincial finals”. That was because of the presence of a number of Ontario champions.

Cobourg’s Martin Foxhall and Steve Haslam were the title holders but Steve was unable to play this year and Martin was partnered by Fred Stringer who was a past President of the club before moving away from the area.

In addition to five home teams there were entries from eleven away teams from Peterborough, Oshawa, Campbellford, Cosburn Park (Toronto), Kingston and Bobcaygeon. The weather was perfect for lawn bowling and the greens, which have been much praised by visitors this season were running very fast which rewards good play.

Whenever Rob and Dave Steffen from Oshawa are competing their opponents know the going will be tough and that the Steffens will be favourites to win. The tournament format was three twelve end games and the draw for the first round was favourable to the rest of the field in that it pitched the Steffens against another hotly fancied team of Steve Nelson (an ex Team USA player) and Bob Matthews. The Steffens won that game by 16-12.

The five Cobourg teams all had first round wins with Martin Foxhall winning 18-3; Ron Covert and Dave Hickey 15-12; Roy Thorneycroft and Janet Taylor 15-12; Bill and Louisa Arthur 13-8; and Dave Shirley and Bob Rimmer (visiting from Bobcaygeon) 12-5. However only the Arthurs were able to record a second round victory. In the final round they played the Peterborough team of Bob Reynolds and Al Handlechner and despite some good play lost out 14-5 to their more vastly experienced opponents.

That victory left the Peterborough team with a record of 3 wins and 44 points and to stand any chance of winning the trophy they needed a low scoring game between the other unbeaten teams – the Steffens and Bob Bates team from Cosburn Park. However that did not happen, the Steffens winning by 14-10 to take the trophy with 3 wins and 48 points to bring the curtain down on a fine season of tournament bowling.

The full result is on the results page

Almost a Clean Sweep for Cobourg Teams

9/9/2015

The Club experienced its most successful open tournament of the season on Labour Day with club teams taking five out of the six prizes.

The format for the mixed pairs tournament, sponsored by Rosewood Estates, was 2-4-2. Eight Cobourg teams competed against top class opposition from, Georgina, Peterborough, Campbellford, Oshawa, Whitby, Pickering, and Port Hope. There should have been ten Cobourg teams but unfortunately illness meant two teams had to drop out on the morning of the tournament. So we were two teams short of the maximum numbers for this ever popular tournament.

The tournament would normally be three twelve end games but with the forecast of a humidex of 37C we decided to reduce each game to ten ends - a decision welcomed by the players.

The Cobourg teams were off to a great start with six of them winning their first round games and four of them recording the maximum score. However that did mean that those four teams would be paired in the second round games. In tight games Ben van Steijn and Marilyn McMillan beat Bill and Louisa Arthur 11-7 and Dave and Kathleen Shirley beat Eve Gorringe and Roy Thorneycroft 12-11. The two other Cobourg winners from the first round, Dave Carleton and Sarah van Steijn and Bob and Ann Tough both won their second round games easily which meant that the top two games in the final round featured the Cobourg teams of the Shirleys, the Toughs, Ben and Marilyn and Dave and Sarah. The only other team with two wins which could possibly stop a Cobourg victory was that of Stan and Sheryl Zuly of Port Hope but they were defeated in their final game by Eve Gorringe and Roy Thorneycroft.

With a runaway victory by 11-3 Ben and Marilyn defeated Dave and Sarah to claim the trophy with 3 wins and 37 points. The Toughs beat the Shirleys 7-5 to finish second with 3 wins and 34 points.

Final round wins for Eve Gorringe and Roy Thorneycroft and for the Arthurs meant that they finished third and fifth. The only “away” team to finish in the top five (in fourth place) was Terry Taylor and Judy Anderson of Georgina.

To complete a great day Ron Covert and Helen Beaton took the one game high prize.

This is the end of my sixth season at the club and I cannot recall such a successful result for the club in an open tournament in that time. I think it reflects the increased number of members playing in opens and the improvement that they gain from doing so.

Full results and photos are on the respective pages. Click the links.

Sadie Hawkins

9/6/2015

On Saturday September 5th the last in club tournament of the season was held.

The Sadie Hawkins tournament is traditionally the club tournament season closer and very much a fun event. Club members enthusiastically entered into the Sadie Hawkins theme with some very colorful clothing and some fine hats (Ann Tough's being very creative) but that’s as far as it went. There were no lady members chasing men around Victoria Park!

In the last two years the tournament has been bedeviled by rain but no such problems this year. Indeed it was quite the reverse as the hot and humid weather of the last few days made conditions rather uncomfortable and in view of the heat the tournament was reduced from three ten end games to three eight end games.

Ten triples teams competed with different formats in each of the three games. Additionally the usual team positions were reversed with leads playing as skips and skips playing as leads.

In the first game the jack was placed in a certain spot on the green and could not be moved - normal scoring applied. In the second the game was “Yard On” and all bowls within a yard of the jack scored points. The final game was 4321.

It was an inauspicious start for the winning team of Shirley vander Schaaf, Thelma Eastcott and Bill Arthur as they were eight points down in their first game after only 4 ends. However they recovered well to win 10-9 and then went on to win their second game by 7 points. After two rounds the only other team with two wins was Ken Wren, Helen Beaton and Eve Gorringe and those two teams met in the final round to decide the tournament winners. In a close game Shirley's team was down by 4 points going into the final end but scored a maximum ten points to take the trophy.

Thanks as usual to all those members who volunteered in some capacity during the day. Just as a footnote, Bill Arthur was supposed to be on kitchen duty but was asked to play to make up the numbers and not only was he on the winning team , he won first prize in the 50/50. Much better than being on kitchen duty!

For full results click here. For photos click here

Hunter Hogg is Top Cobourg Junior

9/4/2015

Lots of people contributed to a highly successful junior tournament on Saturday August 29th when the club hosted the annual open 4321 junior tournament sponsored by MVP Sports who are great supporters of Canadian junior bowling.

There was a strong field from the home club and from Lindsay, Peterborough, Oshawa, Bobcaygeon and Etobicoke. In all, 37 juniors competed in two groups. Group A consisted of 21 players aged 9-12 and Group B 16 players aged 13-16.

This was a singles tournament and each player played 3 games of 10 ends. The format was 4321 where there are 10 points at stake in each end and the total points after three games determine the standings.

In Group B Braedon Bain of Lindsay was the winner with 109 points but the top player of the day was the Group A winner, Cobourg's Hunter Hogg, aged 8. Hunter accumulated a total of 123 points and not only was that good enough to win his group it meant that he was declared as the overall tournament winner given that he had a higher points total than Bain. A great result for him and a great day for the club with another well run tournament.

Click here for full results and here for photos

Final Open Tournament of 2016

Almost a Clean Sweep for Cobourg Teams

Sadie Hawkins

Hunter Hogg is Top Cobourg Junior

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