News - Cobourg Lawn Bowling Club

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.

Canada Day

7/2/2024

The sun shone, the park was packed with visitors, the band marched past the club, we had breakfast in the park.....yes it must have been Canada Day.

What a great turnout we had. Sixty members played in fifteen triples teams and, as usual, it was quite the spectacle for all the people walking past the club and watching the games.
I will start with thanks to:

The sponsor - Thomas Motors
The drawmasters - Pat Bylok, Fran Marsh and Ralph Hewitt
Al Bell and Laura Mounce for getting everything ready at the start of the day and Al for grilling
Ralph Hewitt – for the share the wealth
Kitchen staff – Dot Macrae, Dale McMillan, Laura Mounce, Carol Dewey, Mary Salter (with apologies to any one I missed
And to all the players and visitors for making it a great day

And what about the tournament?

The top scorers in the first round were my team and Sarah van Steijn’s both with 15+1. We played each other in round two and Sarah had a resounding win. Meanwhile Carl Ferguson’s team followed up a good first round win with an empathic 14-6 win to be tied on points with Sarah after two rounds and set up a match against one another. Carl’s team had yet another convincing win to win the tournament with a magnificent score of 3 wins and 44 points.

Two other teams won all three games, Donna Longman’s and Jacob Hyatt’s but Donna pipped Jacob into second place by one point. Ironically Jacob’s Mom, Stacey, was on Donna’s team.

Click here to see the full result

I did do a little live streaming on Facebook during the day, including, the prize giving. Apologies for the fact that there are a couple of minutes with nothing happening at the beginning of the section. Fast forward to get to the action. I will edit in due course and post on YouTube.

Bill Arthur
N.B Prizes were presented by Dean Johns from Thomas Motors

Gordon Insurance Men's Pairs

6/24/2024

On Saturday June 22 we held our only Men’s Tournament of the year, the Gordon Insurance Men’s Pairs. Gordon’s has been a sponsor for many many years & their support is greatly appreciated. The timing this year wasn’t the best as on the same day the Ontario Men’s 5 a side was being played in Pickering . . so we had a smaller field than normal (12 Teams). The teams came from Lindsay, Pickering, Oshawa, Whitby, Campbellford, Belleville and 5 teams from Cobourg.
The weather was ‘iffy’ for bowling as storms ran through the area in the morning. Thankfully they were gone by 8am. They did however leave puddles of water on rinks 2,3 & 4 leaving them unplayable in the morning. Thanks to our masterful greens crews the other rinks were in great condition and playing fast once again.
The 2023 winners (Ben van Steijn / Dan Milligan) were there to defend their title. There was a ‘Bounty’ on their heads. The first team to beat them would win $30. The team with the first chance were Dave Saliba (Pickering) & Frank Dinardo (Brampton). They almost captured the prize but lost in an extra end. They must have been very demoralized as they went out and lost their 2nd game 26-0 (!) to Carl & Ernie.
With rain in the afternoon forecast we cut the games down to 3-Bowl Pairs to finish before 3pm . . but it turned out to be great weather for bowling all day long. They weren’t so lucky in Pickering where I understand it rained (with lightning) and they were not able to get in all their scheduled games.
The final results:
1st Place: Al Purcell / Berkeley Emmons (Belleville)– 3 wins 48 pts
2nd Place: Ben van Steijn / Dan Milligan – 3 wins 44 points
*Note . . Ben & Dan also won the $30 Bounty as no one beat them during the day.
3rd Place: Wayne Wallwork / Lorne Schiele (Pickering) – 2 wins 41 points
4th Place: Rick Tomkins / Bob Guppy (Campbellford)– 2 wins 40 points
High Last Game: Peter Robb (Whitby) – 15

Al Purcell has been winning tournaments left & right this year. After the games I asked him when was the last time he lost a game . . and he said he couldn’t remember that far back!
Thanks to the volunteers who came out to run the kitchen, set up the equipment, monitor parking passes, run the Share the Wealth and many other tasks.

Open Tournament Convenor
Bob Bates

Congratulations to Bill McCollam and to Martin Foxhall. Their respective 5 a side teams qualified for the play offs that will decide the Ontario Championship and the right to represent Ontario in the National Championship.

Club Triples Tournament

5/26/2024

OPENING IN-CLUB TOURNAMENT
On May 25th the club held its first In-Club Tournament of the 2024 season. Unfortunately, the weather was less than cooperative. Light rain started towards the end of the first game, but all rinks completed game #1 without getting too wet. After a brief shower, the weather started to clear up and the second game got underway. However, the rain returned towards the end of that game and the tournament was called after completion of the second game.
This year the tournament had two sponsors -- Spectacular Water Systems, who have sponsored this tournament in previous years and a new sponsor, Benjamin Moore. The club wishes to acknowledge and thank both sponsors.

Thirty-one members (10 teams) participated in the event. The top three teams all had two wins and their total scores were very close. The team of Al Bell, Donna Longman & Alan Loney, was ahead of the other two teams by only 2 points and was awarded the trophy. In second place was the team of Carl Ferguson, Laura Mounce & Eve Gorringe. Third place was taken by Brent Bayley, John Ledgerwood & Helen Kowalski. The second & third place teams were tied in both for and against points. It was the number of ends won that determined their placement. Bill Arthur, Ernie Sapinski & Dana Williams were the high one-game winners. Congratulations to all winners and thanks to everyone who braved the rain and completed both games.

Donna Ball
Drawmaster

Lindsay Short Mat Tournament

4/21/2024

On Saturday April 20th five Cobourg short mat teams made their way to the Lindsay Curling Club. Not to curl but to play in a short mat tournament. The Lindsay club has been playing at the Exhibition Grounds but for this tournament they moved operations to the curling club which accommodated 11 mats to host the 22 mixed triples teams. I think the club was correct in claiming this to be the largest single one day short mat tournament in Canada, surpassing the Cobourg Spring tournament by 8 teams. There were teams from Ottawa, Muskoka, Burlington and of course, Lindsay. (There may be some I missed)

Each team played three twelve end games and there was a time limit of 105 minutes for each game which I think took some people by surprise and certainly in the third game I noticed that some teams only completed 11 ends. You need to keep an eye on the clock in those circumstances. Where there is a time limit the rule is that once the first bowl is in play you can complete the end otherwise your game is over.

The Lindsay mats are all new and slow compared to what we are used to in Cobourg but good bowlers can adapt quickly, as we all did!!

At the outset I though that the team of Bill McCollam, Peter Stuart-Sheppard and Lynn Frost (Lynn is from Cosburn Park) would be the favourites and that is how it turned out as they won the tournament with three wins.

I was playing with my regular triples colleagues, John MacKenzie and Louisa (can you call your wife a “colleague”?) and we got a tough draw in round one against a strong Ottawa team led by David Jefferies. We lost that game 7-11 but then had wins of 18-2 and 19-4 to place fourth overall as the high two game winners.

Ron and Carol Adams playing with Dana Williams also won two games (I think they were second high) and were in the prize money.

Terry Dyche, Brent Bayley and Jen Weatherall won the one game high prize. There were a number of consolation prizes one of which was won by Anne Leahey playing with Bob Coleman and Michelle Bignell.

Congratulations must go to the Lindsay club which only started short mat in November. It was a great tournament, well run and it was good to meet new people and have lots of fun while enjoying some good bowling at the same time.

Bill Arthur

And Now The End Is Near........

9/17/2023

It comes round so quickly......the last tournament of the season. It was the first running of the Robert (Bobby) Tough memorial tournament sponsored by Al Bell and Laura Mounce. We had a great turn out for the tournament with all eight rinks in play. Nearly all teams were triples although we did have four doubles teams which meant that some games were triples versus doubles which isn't ideal but we made it work! Not all entrants could play all three games which is why Nan Hendren appears in the photos of two of the winning teams!

Given that the tournament was a memorial to Robert Tough we asked players to dress with a Scottish theme and many did as you will see from the photos.

We usually mix things up for the final tournament of the season and this was no exception. The first game was a regular game of 10 ends with three bowls each; the second was 12 ends with 2 bowls each; the third was 14 ends with just one bowl each (there were some long measures in this game). In each game teams could nominate one end as a power play which meant their score was doubled. This proved very useful as teams found out. Trailing by 3 or 4? No problem, score 4 and its doubled up to 8 and suddenly you have a big lead.

The day started with a spider, with the best prize ever, a bottle of Scotch courtesy of Ann Tough. Between each game we also had a skills game. The first game involved delivering a bowl within 2 meters of the jack. Fail and you were eliminated. Succeed and you went into the second round which involved delivering within one yard of the jack. The final round was a challenge to deliver within one mat length of the jack. The winner was Ian Hartford.

In the second skills game a bowls was delivered from the hog line and had to hit a jack placed 2 meters from the ditch. It only took two rounds to find a winner and that was John Saunders.

The overall tournament winners were Jan Skillen, John Clews (Nan Hendren substituted for game 2) and Henry Kowalski. Click here for the full result.

Thanks to everyone who made this final game of the season such a success. We were pleased to have Ann Tough present the prizes. Here's a slide show of photos from the day.

Bill Arthur

Youths, Seniors, Novices and more......

9/5/2023

Wow, what a busy last ten days. So much to catch up on.

Youth Tournament August 26th
The youths took centre stage at the club with 13 youths competing in the 4321 tournament sponsored by MVP Sports. Brother and sister Elise and Isaac Kerr (are they the next Baylee and Ben van Stijn siblings?) took the top two places with our own Jacob Hyatt placing third. Thanks to MVP Sports for their sponsorship and thanks to the drawmaster, Ben van Steijn for a well run tournament.

Lindsay Friendly - August 27th
We hosted the Lindsay club for the return fixture in our friendly challenge. Despite a downpour during Saturday night the match went ahead although some of the rinks were unplayable.

In the first round there were wins by Jan Skillen & John Saunder’s teams. Unfortunately, those were our only 2 wins. 2 games won by just 1 point each helped Lindsay win 4 of the 6 matches. That is probably why our Lindsay guests seemed to be enjoying themselves so much at lunch time.

Our fortunes did not improve as the not so friendly Lindsay teams took 4 of the 6 afternoon games as well. We will make it up next year!

Ontario Seniors - August 29th/30th
Bill Arthur and Peter Stuart- Sheppard, with John MacKenzie of Oshawa, represented District 14 in the Ontario Seniors Championships in Hanover on August 29th and 30th The format was double knock out and they got off to a great start with an easy win against District 8B in their first game. In their second they did not do as well against District 13 (who went on to win bronze) and lost the game but in their third game they recovered from 1-8 to beat District 7 and moved on to Day 2. In cold and wet conditions they had a disastrous start against District 11 but recovered from 1-11 and were two down going into the last end. Lying two shots they were denied a tie by a wick right into the head by the District 11 skip. I had one shot left but could not take out the District 11 bowl. District 11 went on to win silver.

District 14 Novice Singles playdowns - September 2nd and 3rd

The playdowns were held in Bobcaygeon on Saturday and Sunday September 2nd and 3rd. Half of the twelve competitors were from Cobourg. In total there were 5 ladies and 7 men. The ladies played a round robin in one group. Lori Wills came out on top with a perfect 4 wins and 12 points. Lynn Bryans was second with 3 wins and 9 points, her only loss being to Lori. Lori will now play in the Ontario Championships at Cobourg on September 23rd and 24th as will Lynn who received an invitation to play since there was a District without an entry.

The men split into two groups for round robin play. One group of three and one of four. Jacob Hyatt qualified for the semi finals, coming second in his group. In the other group there were good performances by Peter Stuart-Sheppard and by Al Bell. However, after all three rounds had been completed there was a three way tie between Peter, Al and Mike Cyr of Oshawa. Once the dust had settled Al placed first with Peter second. Al won his semi final match against Jacob and Peter beat Mike to set up a rematch between Al and Peter. Peter won the final and will represent District 14 at the Ontario Championships in Tilbury.

Open Mixed Pairs (242) - September 4th
Eighteen teams competed in a mixed pairs 242 tournament, sponsored by Brenda Kloostra Royal LePage realtors. Bob Bates and Pat Bylok claimed their second Cobourg open tournament with athree wins and a magnificent total of 49+8 points. Congratulations to them.

For more photos of all the above events click here

This brings everything up to date. Check back next week for all the latest news.

Bill

A Thunderous Weekend

8/13/2023

Friday night's weather forecast was ominous and it looked unlikely that there would be any bowling at all. But, to everyone's surprise the club singles tournament went ahead as did a tournament in Kingston in which three of our members competed.

Club Singles - a report by Donna Ball
Our In-Club Singles Tournament to determine the Men’s & Ladies Club Champions for 2023 was held on August 12th. We were fortunate to be able to complete the event on that day. The predicted storms were all around and it started to rain at the end of the first game. Play resumed after about a 30 min delay and the rest of the day was basically rain free, until well after the tournament was completed at about 4pm. The sun even made an appearance for much of the afternoon.
It was good to see more entries this year than in the past few years, with 11 entries in the Men’s event (sponsored by Martin Foxhall) and 8 entries in the Ladies event (sponsored by Carol Dewey). And not all players were experienced bowlers; some of our novice members entered too. The format for this year’s competitions was a double knockout, playing 8 end games. There were many well played games throughout the day. It all came down to the final 2 games, where Al Bell defeated Bob Bates to win the Men’s competition and Donna Longman defeated Nan Hendren for the Ladies title. Both games were very close, coming down to the final bowls of the 8th end. Congratulations to Al and Donna, our Club Champions for 2023.
Many thanks to the members who were there to support the event by helping in the kitchen, putting out equipment and acting as markers for all the games. You were a big help!

There are some more pictures on the photo page
Kingston Triples tournament - a report from Bill Arthur

Whilst all that was happening at home in Cobourg Peter Stuart Sheppard, Louisa Arthur and I were in Kingston in a triples tournament where the skip had to be a novice. We were fortunate in having Peter as our skip (yes, he is still a novice).

As was the case in Cobourg, the tournament was interrupted by thunderstorms, After a comfortable win in our first game we had a good lead in our second game but had to come off the greens after 6 ends. On the resumption we struggled a little but were still leading after 8 ends when another storm came over and play was suspended again. Eventually we squeaked home by one point. In our third game we again won by one point to win the tournament. A second tournament win for Peter this week (see previous news report)

Welcome to July

7/2/2023

July came in with a bang, not only in the sense of fireworks, but also at the club with our Canada Day tournament.

On a hot and humid day 16 triples teams competed for the trophy sponsored by Thomas Motors. It was too much for some members to play in all three games so some leads shared the day. First round winning teams (in no particular order) were Terry Bradshaw, Dave Carleton, Kathleen Shirley, Carol Dewey, Ken Bevan, John Hawrysko, Baylee van Steijn and Nan Hendren. Nan was the top scorer with a win by 17 (15+2) against 5. They continued with another big win in the second round by 16 (15+1) against 6. John Hawrysko, Ken Bevan and Baylee van Steijn also had two wins after round two.

Baylee and Nan met in round three and in a tightly contested game Nan claimed the trophy with an 11-10 win.

Thanks go to all those who made the day go so well, the drawmasters Pat Bylok and Donna Ball, Bonnie Sheridan and Dale McMillan in the kitchen and indeed all the players for some fine competition.

You can see the full results and photos of the prize winners by clicking the buttons below.

Also, here is a slideshow of other photos from the tournament

Bill Arthur

Full Results

Photos

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