Now that all the open Ontario Championships have been completed we move on to those championships requiring district playdown qualifiers for the Ontario Championships. The first of these, the Mixed Pairs, was contested in Oshawa on Saturday and Sunday July 22/23.
There were seven teams competing, including two from Cobourg, Carl Ferguson and Nan Hendren and Bill Arthur and Mary Salter. There was one group of four and one group of three. After round robin play in the group stage the top two in each group qualified for semi finals and finals on Day 2.
Unfortunately the two Cobourg teams were drawn in the same group. Both of our teams lost their first game and met in the second game. It was tight all the way through and after 17 ends (I forgot to mention it was 18 ends of 3 bowl pairs) we were tied coming home. Carl and Nan were sitting two when I played my last shot and although I moved one of their bowls out it was not quite enough to move the second bowl which was about 1/4" nearer to the jack than ours. So, after two games Carl and Nan had one win and I had none. Carl lost his final game whilst Mary and I won ours. That meant three teams tied for second place, each with one win. I won't go into the details of how a tie breaker works in these circumstances suffice to say that Carl and Nan won their first four end tiebreaker and then played Mary and me. This time we were the victors and qualified for the semi final on Sunday morning against Arnie Markowitz and Janice Slobojan from Pickering.
Mary and I were fast out the gates and built up a good lead. After 11 ends we were still in good shape but a run of 6 ends without scoring meant that we went into the last end 2 shots down. Mary played a fine shot, moving the jack to give us one point but I could not build on that to get the second shot we needed to keep the game alive. The final score was 18-19.
Bob Bates will recall a similar situation in the Ontario Seniors last year when we were two down against Arnie going into the final end but could only score one! Arnie and his team went on to win the gold medal at the Canadian Seniors.
At the time of writing I don't know who won the final of the playdowns, Rhys and Tracey Warren (Lindsay) or Arnie and Janice.
Thanks for the support from Dave and Kathleen Shirley on both days.
Bill Arthur
July 23rd
There were seven teams competing, including two from Cobourg, Carl Ferguson and Nan Hendren and Bill Arthur and Mary Salter. There was one group of four and one group of three. After round robin play in the group stage the top two in each group qualified for semi finals and finals on Day 2.
Unfortunately the two Cobourg teams were drawn in the same group. Both of our teams lost their first game and met in the second game. It was tight all the way through and after 17 ends (I forgot to mention it was 18 ends of 3 bowl pairs) we were tied coming home. Carl and Nan were sitting two when I played my last shot and although I moved one of their bowls out it was not quite enough to move the second bowl which was about 1/4" nearer to the jack than ours. So, after two games Carl and Nan had one win and I had none. Carl lost his final game whilst Mary and I won ours. That meant three teams tied for second place, each with one win. I won't go into the details of how a tie breaker works in these circumstances suffice to say that Carl and Nan won their first four end tiebreaker and then played Mary and me. This time we were the victors and qualified for the semi final on Sunday morning against Arnie Markowitz and Janice Slobojan from Pickering.
Mary and I were fast out the gates and built up a good lead. After 11 ends we were still in good shape but a run of 6 ends without scoring meant that we went into the last end 2 shots down. Mary played a fine shot, moving the jack to give us one point but I could not build on that to get the second shot we needed to keep the game alive. The final score was 18-19.
Bob Bates will recall a similar situation in the Ontario Seniors last year when we were two down against Arnie going into the final end but could only score one! Arnie and his team went on to win the gold medal at the Canadian Seniors.
At the time of writing I don't know who won the final of the playdowns, Rhys and Tracey Warren (Lindsay) or Arnie and Janice.
Thanks for the support from Dave and Kathleen Shirley on both days.
Bill Arthur
July 23rd