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Lindsay Short Mat Tournament

12/1/2024

Cobourg teams placed second and third in a short mat tournament in Lindsay on November 30th.
In second place was the team of Terry Bradshaw, Al Bell and Laura Mounce.
In third place was the team of Mary Salter, Anne Leahey and Terry Shannon.
Congratulations.

Thanks to Laura Mounce for the update and photos.

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Canadian Short Mat Bowls Championship

11/24/2024

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The Canadian short mat championships were held in Virgil between November 18th and 23rd. There were four events, Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours and Cobourg members were the dominant players during the week.

Peter Stuart Sheppard won three gold medals, in pairs, triples and fours.
Bill McCollam won two golds, in triples and fours and he also won bronze in Singles. Cobourg dominated the triples with Terry Bradshaw, Al Bell and Laura Mounce winning silver. Al Bell won silver in the singles.

Peter's partner in Pairs, Triples and Fours was Gary Pickering of Niagara Falls. Peter and Gary had great success at the world championships in Belfast earlier this year and continued their good performance at this event. In the triples they were joined by Bill McCollam and in the Fours Bill also joined them as did Patrick Cote. (I'm not sure which club Patrick represents).

Although the Canadian team for the world championships in Norway in 2026 will not be decided until after the 2025 Canadian championships the Cobourg players have given themselves a great chance of being selected.

Congratulations everyone. Click here for the full results from Virgil.

Photos are courtesy of Laura Mounce (with the exception of the Fours - photographer unknown). Click on any image to enlarge.

Bill Arthur

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Short Mat Bowling

11/10/2024

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The short mat season has now been running for just over a month and we have 59 members. New this season are singles and pairs leagues in addition to regular jitneys. Thanks To Terry Bradshaw for organizing this.

We meet twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday afternoons) at the Cobourg Community Centre. For more information contact Donna Longman [email protected]

Open Tournament.
On Saturday November 9th we held an open triples tournament and there were 16 teams from Ottawa, Kingston, Lindsay and of course teams from our own club. Teams played four 10 end games and the winners were the Lindsay team of Chad Burgie and Rhys and Tracey Warren with four wins. In second place was the Kingston team of Jim Baggs, Scott Bell and Rick Choma (3 wins one loss). In third place was the team of John MacKenzie, Alan Hunter and Lynn Frost. (3 wins and one loss). Skip John is from the Cobourg club. There was lots of good play and some close games and all in all it was a fun and exciting tournament. Congratulations to the winners.
Bill Arthur

Click on any photo to see the full image

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An eventful week to finish the season

9/23/2024

A club tournament on Thursday September 19th followed by the Ontario Ladies Novice Singles. And that's where I have to start with the news that Laura Mounce won the gold medal.
Play on Day 1 was round robin play. There were four groups, each with four players. Thetop two in each group went forward to elimination play on Day 2.

We had a great opening day. There were lots of close matches and some great shot making. The home club players, Lori Wills and Laura Mounce had mixed results. Lori played well but her opponents bowled a bit better and she finished 1-2 and did not make the elimination round on Sunday. Laura on the other hand played well all day to finish with 3 wins (18-15, 18-5 and 18-12)and top her group.

In her quarter final game Laura won 18-14 and followed that up with a very good performance in her semi final, winning 18-10.

The gold medal game was between Laura and Karen Manfredi of the Beeton club. There was some great shot making by both bowlers but Laura got off to a fast start and her lead was never seriously challenged by Karen. Encouraged by the home crowd Laura ran out the gold medal winner by a score of 18-10.

Including the District playdowns Laura won 12 consecutive games and was indeed worthy of being crowned an Ontario champion.

The gold medal game was covered by Your TV Northumberland and when aired viewers will be able to see a fine match and some “waves” from the spectators, led I believe by Dave Shirley.

On Thursday September 19th we held the inaugural over seventies tournament (aka the Golden Oldies). Many thanks to Ralph Hewitt and Fran Marsh for sponsoring this new tournament. The winners of the tournament were Carl Ferguson, Al Gourd and Monica Miller. In second place was the team of Mike Place, Louisa Arthur and John Ashley. Third were Brian Rogers, Henry Kowlaski and Donna Longman. In fourth place were Ann Tough, Carol Dewey and Emerson Macrae. It was a fun day with great weather. Thanks to Ralph and Fran for presenting the prizes. Thank you to our drawmasters Julie and Tammy and for the many photos some of which are included here.

Bobby Tough Memorial Tournament

9/15/2024

On Saturday September 14th we held the penultimate club tournament of the year, the Bobby Tough Memorial. The sponsors are Al Bell and Laura Mounce. Ann Tough was playing and presented the trophy at the end of the tournament.

As we come close to the end of the season this tournament is a celebration of Bob Tough's contribution to our club and his smile and sense of fun are reflected by making this a fun tournament with different formats.

Twelve triples teams competed and there were some substitutions on teams to reflect the fact that not everyone wanted to play three games.

In game one we did not centre the jack but played it wherever it landed, assuming it was within bounds. The top scorers in that round were the teams led by Sarah van Steijn and Ernie Sapinski.

In game two three points were awarded for winning an end, regardless of shots scored. Sarah was still in the lead after that round but second place was now Terry Bradshaw who also had two wins.

In game three any bowls short of the jack were removed. In addition each team had two power plays to use during the ten end game. The score was doubled when a power play was used. This was a crucial factor in determining the winner. Sarah was losing to Terry 13-15 but had a power play in the final end. A score of three became six and Sarah won 19-15 to claim the trophy.

The day started with a spider and a prize of $20, donated by Lyle Skidmore. Between games we held two skills competitions. The first was a rolling the jack competition and was won by Ernie Sapinski. The second was a draw to the jack competition which was won by Henry Kowalski. Each won a bottle of wine, donated by Al Bell and Laura Mounce. Finally, Nancy Kirby won the draw for a bottle of whisky which was donated by Ann Tough. Click here for the full result.

And Finally.......
Peter Stuart-Sheppard seems to have been playing every day of the last week. That is partly because he stood in at some tournaments for Martin Foxhall. Anyway he won four tournaments in the last week to take his total tournament wins for the season to 12. Congratulations Peter.

MacCoubrey Open Pairs

9/8/2024

Our last open tournament of the season was held on Thursday September 5th. It's hard to believe that the season has gone by so quickly.

On a perfect Fall day for bowling there were fourteen teams competing. The champions from 2023 were both on the greens but on opposite teams this year. Martin Foxhall was playing with Rick Lyons from Oshawa and Thomas Wu was with David Saliba.

The bounty for beating Thomas Wu went to Carl Ferguson and Mike Place but Martin remained unbeaten and won the tournament with three wins and 48+1 points. Will he still be with Rick next year or will he be looking for a new partner?

Martin “book ended” the season by winning the first and last tournaments.

Rick Barnard and George Boersma continued their trend of always taking home some money from Cobourg. They also won three games but trailled Martin by 11 points.

Click here for the full results.

A big shout out to our sponsor MacCoubrey Funeral Home for their continued support of the club.

Labour Day Weekend

9/4/2024

Ontario Novice Championship (Ladies 242)

The destination was Guelph. The occasion was the Ontario Novice Pairs Ladies 242 Championship. The date was Saturday August 13th. Cobourg had two teams competing. Sheri Perkins and Lynn Bryans and Laura Mounce and Lori Wills. In total there were 16 teams competing and day one was a round robin with four groups of four.

The draw was made on Friday afternoon and unfortunately both teams were drawn in the same group.

I was travelling to Guelph as coach to the Cobourg ladies but could not leave until the Saturday morning and did not arrive until the completion of the first game. I received text updates from Al Bell so I knew when I arrived that Sheri/Lynn had lost but Laura/Lori had won. In the second round our ladies went head to head. Sheri/Lynn controlled that game and won 15-5. Going into the third round all the teams in the group had 1-1 records so the winning teams in round three were sure to qualify for the elimination games on day two.

Laura/Lori had a convincing win of 15-7 in round three. Sheri/Lynn had a close game. They were never in any real danger but their opponents put them under a little pressure before they closed the game at 14-11.

Mission accomplished on day one. Both teams qualified for the quarter finals on day two.

In the quarter final Laura/Lori were 7-2 ahead after six ends (the games were twelveends) helped by a glorious shot from Laura in the fourth end where she moved the jack to score four. Their opponents were resilient and after ten ends the score was 9-5 and it looked like all would be well for Laura/Lori but the game is never over until it's over and successive scores of two by their opponents meant the game was tied and an extra end was needed. I should say at this point how problematic the green they were playing on was and how difficult it was to get the right line. Their opponents had shot when Lori played her final bowl. She found the line perfectly and was just inside the shot bowl. It looked like she had done it but her bowl rolled a few inches too far. Heartbreaking for Laura and Lori but they had put up a great performance and can be immensely proud.

In their quarter final Sheri/Lynn conceded one shot in the first end but after their opponents drew level in the second end they were never behind again. They were tied at 5-5 after 8 ends but successive threes in the next two ends ensured the win. The final score was 12-6.

On to the semi final! This was a closer game than the 16-11 result might seem. A score of four in the fifth end was secured with a fine last shot from Sheri. After eight ends they were down 9-10 but Lynn then played one of her best ends of the weekend with four super bowls to move them to a winning position of 13-10. They followed that up with a two in the next end which basically secured the win. Absolute joy at making it to the final.

Their final opponents were from District 2 (the team that knocked out Laura/Lori) and the green they had to play on was the worst of all the greens they had played on. One one side it would go against the bias, then run on the bias before running against the bias again!

The District 2 team was playing short jacks which meant the conditions mentioned above came into play. Credit to District 2 for coping with the green much better than Sheri/Lynn. After five ends it was 0-10. Sheri/Lynn finally scored in the sixth end to lie 2-10. but then conceded two in the next end to lie 2-12. A score of one in end 8 gave Sheri/Lynn the jack and longer ends took out the idiosyncrasies of the green and they went on a scoring run of four, three, two and suddenly it was a tied game at 12-12 with one end to play. District 2 got into a prime position with their early bowls and by the time Sheri played her final bowl they were sitting with three shots. Sheri had to try a difficult shot to wick off an outside bowl to come into the jack and although she did do that her bowl did not come in enough to get shot. Game over and a silver medal for Sheri/Lynn.

Silver is always a disappointing medal to win. It is a great achievement to do that in an Ontario Championship but there is always the thought that it could have been better. Sheri and Lynn played great all weekend and nearly completed a wonderful come back in the final. I am sure they will be back next year. Sheri has two more years as a novice and Lynn three. I'm sure Laura and Lori will again be in contention in the future.

Open mixed pairs 242

This tournament took place on Labour Day with 18 teams competing. We had a new sponsor CRCS/DKI who are restoration specialists for commercial and private properties.

There was a good showing from the Cobourg teams who won three of the six prizes. Coming out on top with three wins and a score of 48+4 were Cobourg members Janice Slobojan and Bill McCollam. Bob Bates and Pat Bylok were third high two game winners and Martin Foxhall, playing with Hazel Joffe won the last game high prize. Click here for the full result.

Atlantic Challenge

Last but not least I can tell you that in the Atlantic Challenge played in Scotland last week, Team Canada ladies triples, with Baylee van Steijn playing vice, came second of the four nations competing (Scotland, Ireland, Canada and USA). I hope to bring you more detail on that when I catch up with Baylee.

Bill Arthur

Palisade Gardens Mixed Pairs August 17th

8/18/2024

Given the weather forecast on Friday night most of us expected to be told on Saturday morning that our open mixed pairs tournament had been called off. But no, Cobourg's eco system meant we had an almost completely dry day.

We have a new sponsor for this tournament Palisade Gardens Retirement Community and we were delighted to welcome Brenda Thompson, representing the sponsor, who presented the prizes.

The winners of the tournament were Cobourg's Peter Stuart-Sheppard playing with Sharon Paxton from Oshawa. Congratulations to them.

Click here for the full result.

Club Singles

8/11/2024

On August 10th we held the best club singles championship for many seasons. Twelve ladies entered and eleven men and there was some excellent bowling and close games. The ladies championship was sponsored once more by Carol Dewey and Carol presented the prizes. The men's was sponsored by Martin Foxhall but Martin was not able to attend and drawmaster Tammy Browes-Bugden did the honours.

The format was round robin for ladies and men's with each game being eight ends. There were two groups of six in the ladies and in the men's one group of six and one of five. The top players in each group contested the final and the second player in each group contested third place.

Ladies – Lynn Bryans won Group A with a perfect 15 points. Runner up was Sheri Perkins with 12 points
In Group B Laura Mounce won with 12 points and the runner up was Mary Salter with 10.
In the finals Lynn beat Laura 9-4 and Sheri beat Mary 12-2 so the final result was:

Winner – Lynn Bryans
Second – Laura Mounce
Third – Sheri Perkins

Men– Carl Ferguson won Group A with a maximum 12 points. Runner up was Bill Arthur with 9 points
In Group B Bill McCollam and Al Bell tied with 12 points but Bill was the winner having won the head to head.
In the finals Bill beat Carl 8-3 and Bill beat Al 9-7 so the final result was:

Winner – Bill McCollam
Second – Carl Ferguson
Third – Bill Arthur

A big thanks to all the players for making the tournament a success. Also to the volunteer markers, the greenskeepers, the kitchen staff and the drawmasters Tammy Browes-Bugden and Martin Bugden who ran a very smooth tournament on their first outing as drawmasters

Open Novice Triples

8/11/2024

Twelve teams competed in an open novice triples on August 8th. The tournament was sponsored by Louisa and Bill Arthur.

The winning team of Chad Burgie, Derek Ash and Elaine Antaya was from Lindsay and they put in a great performance winning all three of their twelve end games with a magnificent score of 53+4, only one point away from the maximum. The Cobourg team of Terry Bradshaw, Al Bell and Laura Mounce won their first two games but were well beaten by the Lindsay team and that loss dropped them out of the prize money.

The second placed team of Henry Kowalski, John Ledgerwood and Helen Kowalski also won three games with a total of 39+10. The story behind that result is that they won both their first and second games in the final end before finishing with a big score in the final game.

You can find the full result by clicking here

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