Blog Posts

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

Lauria Open Fours

5/23/2024

On Monday May 20 (Victoria Day) we hosted our first Open Tournament of the year. The Lauria Hyundai Open Fours.

The tournament was very well attended with 18 teams. The number of bowlers who played (72) is probably the most we will have on the greens for any event this year. They came from Cosburn Park (East York), Lindsay, Pickering, Oshawa, Campbellford, Heritage (Kitchener), Belleville, Niagara Falls, Burlington Cannington, Kingston, Port Credit and of course Cobourg.

It was a very tough field of teams. The 2 best teams from last years Ontario Fours Championships were here to tune up for this year’s championships.

2023 Gold Medalist: Eric Galipeau (team includes Cobourg’s Martin Foxall)
2023 Silver Medalist: Gary Pickering (team includes Cobourg’s Bill Mcollam)

The weather was perfect for bowling and there were many greatly contested games. After 2 games the top 4 teams (2 wins each) faced off for the top 2 prizes.

As expected Galipeau & Pickering were 2 of them.

- Galipeau took a handy 19-4 victory over Frank Hibbs (Cosburn Park) to win the tournament with 3 wins (47 pts). They won each of their games handily.
- Pickering was matched against Cobourg’s Terry Bradshaw team. Against the odds Bradshaw won a nail biter 9-8 to take 2nd place in the tournament with 3 wins (34 pts) and knocked the Pickering team right out of the money.

The final results:
Quite a showing for Cobourg teams as we also took home all the other prizes

1st Place: Galipeau, Foxhall, Galipeau, Llewelyn – 3 wins 47 pts
2nd Place: Bradshaw, Al Bell, Mary Salter, Laura Mounce – 3 wins 34 points
3rd Place: Bob Bates, Pat Bylok, Brian Rogers, Andy Perry – 2 wins 38 points
4th Place: Ben and Baylee van Steijn, Emmalee Smith, Bridgett Masterson – 2 wins 37 points (26 against)
5th place: Dave & Kathleen Shirley, Carol Dewey, Anne Tough – 2 wins 37 pts (31 against)
High last Game: Bill & Louisa Arthur, Sheri Perkins, Nan Hendren 16pts

This event wouldn’t be a success without the help of many volunteers.
Some were there long before the games started:

The greens crew for getting the greens in great condition.
The Kitchen crews who were there before anyone arrived and were cleaning up after everyone had left.
Ralph Hewitt for doing the Share the Wealth draw ($101 to the club)
Eve Gorringe for overseeing the bowling draw and prizes.
Members who car pooled so we had enough parking passes to go around
Others . too many to name who helped set up the greens, tables & chairs and put equipment away, look after parking passes, take pictures, etc

This was a great way to start the tournament season. Hope everyone who came enjoyed themselves.

Open Tournament Convenor
Bob Bates

2024 Opening Day

5/11/2024

Another season is underway. On a cool but dry day 50 or so members enjoyed a pot luck lunch. After that President Peter Stuart-Sheppard rolled the first bowl. Then we started with a spider which was won by Eve Gorringe.
Fourteen triples played the first jitney of the season which was won by Janet Taylor, Dana Williams and Julie Perry.
Second highest score was the team of Kathleen Shirley, Lynn Bryans and Emerson MacRae.
Third highest was Bob Bates, Louisa Arthur and Brian Rogers.
Lots of laughs and probably some aching limbs tonight.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the opening day festivities.

Baylee van Steijn selected for Four Nations Series

5/10/2024

May 10, 2024 - Bowls Canada News Release

Bowls Canada Boulingrin (BCB) is pleased to announce the players named to the Four Nations Test Series event to be held at Bowls Scotland’s National Training Centre in Ayr, Scotland. The event is scheduled from August 25, 2024, to August 30, 2024. The participating countries are Canada, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and the USA.
“This inaugural event is the result of the relationships developed by BCB over the past few years.” says Don Caswell, Performance Manager for Bowls Canada Boulingrin. “We are hoping that this test series will grow and will hopefully have a permanent place on our international calendar. Scotland stepped up to host the inaugural event and I know the players are excited to get there in August.”

To read the rest of the release and the full team click the link below:

bowlscanada.com/en/canadian-high-performance-athletes-to-represent-at-the-four-nations-series-this-summer/

New Horizons for Seniors Program

4/29/2024

The club has received a grant of $9,000 from the Government of Canada through the New Horizons for Seniors Program which is administered by Employment and Social Development Canada.

The club is grateful for the support that this grant program has provided over the years.

The existing halogen floodlights are over 20 years old. They take time to warm up and reach maximum brightness and they are inefficient in terms of energy consumption. The grant enables the club to replace the existing lights with LED lights. This will not only provide improved lighting for the bowlers but will also save on energy costs.

Installation of the LED lights has started and will be completed as soon as the weather permits.

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

World Short Mat Bowls Championships 2024

3/26/2024

The World Short Mat Championships were held in Belfast between March 15th and 17th. A team of twenty bowlers represented Canada, six of them from our club.

Canada continues to improve every time we compete at the World Championships. In 2023 Canada recorded two wins. This year it was 15 wins and one tied game.

The stand out performance was by Peter Stuart-Sheppard playing with Gary Pickering of Niagara Falls. They won six of their ten games beating Belgium, India, Isle of Man, Ireland, Germany and Scotland. They finished fifth in their group.

Martin Foxhall and Bill McCollam were playing fours with Fred Wallbank and David Llewellyn from Port Credit and recorded wins against Belgium and Sweden. They came very close to beating England but lost 7-8.

The Cobourg triples team of Louisa Arthur, John MacKenzie and Bill Arthur did not fare as well and were not able to record a win. Their best performances came against the better teams and unfortunately their worst performances were against teams they should have been able to beat. They came very close to beating Sweden but lost by one point.

Once again it was a great experience to represent Canada on the world stage and to meet many nice people and play against some great bowlers. The Cobourg players were fine representatives of Canada and Cobourg and special congratulations go to Peter Stuart-Sheppard.

The next championships will be in Norway in 2026 and then in Canada in 2028.

Bill Arthur

Lindsay Short Mat Tournament

3/10/2024

Cobourg Short Mat bowlers go to Lindsay
Upon arrival at the Lindsay Short Mat facility we were greeted by friendly faces offering tea, coffee and an abundance of muffins, cookies, cakes and other goodies.
A display table had been set up by Sarah Van Steijn with bowling items for sale. Sarah had also entered a team to play in the tournament.
There were 14 teams of which 7 had members from Cobourg.
After selecting our cards for all three games we scrambled to find a free mat to practice on. Good idea - because we discovered the difference in speed on brand new carpets compared to the well used 20+ years old ones we have become accustomed to.
Nevertheless, the Cobourg teams did well - won 2 of the 3 games, 1 Cobourg team won all 3 games, 4 teams won 2 out of 3, 1 team won 1. And I can confirm that the one team who came up short of winning any still enjoyed the day immensely.

The First Place winners with 3 wins were Peter Stuart-Sheppard, Bill McCollam and Lynn Frost.

Second – Tracey Warren, Alan Hunter, Chad Burgie.
Third – Carol-Anne Bell, Jim Baggs, Scott Bell.
Last Game High – Ron Adams, Carol Adams, Dana Williams
Plus a random draw winner – Doug Bagshaw, Janice Cowles, Rex Bussey
Mark your calendars – Rhys Warren et al are planning their next tournament with the hopes that all 11 mats are filled with 66 bowlers. It will be held on April 20th. More details to come.

Donna Longman

"Spring Classic" Short Mat Tournament

2/25/2024

On February 24th we hosted a short mat tournament at the Cobourg Community Centre. It was three bowl triples and we had 14 teams competing, including 9 Team Canada members who will be heading to the world short mat bowls championships in three weeks. Thanks to those who travelled from afar and thank you to all the bowlers who made the tournament such a success.

We played three 12 end games and congratulations to the winning team of Fred Wallbank, Martin Foxhall and David Llewellyn with 3 wins and 43 points.

In second place was Donna Longman of Cobourg playing with Bob Coleman and Michelle Bignall. Bob and Michelle were playing in their very first tournament having only started short mat at the beginning of the season. They won all three games and were only one point behind the winners with a total of 42.

Third was another Cobourg team of Lori Wills, Nan Hendren and Helen Beaton. with 2 wins and 44 points.

Fourth was the team from Ottawa – David Jefferies, Sandra Jeffreries and Bill Sheffield with 2 wins and 35 points.

Thanks to the volunteers who helped with refreshments, setting up and clearing up, too may to mention but you know who I mean.

Bill Arthur

Christmas Party

12/9/2023

On Friday December 8th a Christmas Party was organised by the short mat club. A big thanks to the Secretary, Donna Longman. Also to her helpful elves, Laura Mounce, Jen Wetherall, Mary Salter, Brent Bayley and Al Bell.

Santa Claus (Carl Ferguson) took time off from getting ready for Christmas and visited us with lots of presents for the bowlers.

Tammy Browes-Bugden was the master of ceremonies for a wonderful rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" from everyone present. It was indescribable... you had to be there!

Overall, a great evening. Here's a slideshow of photos.

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Club Triples Tournament

Lauria Open Fours

2024 Opening Day

Baylee van Steijn selected for Four Nations Series

New Horizons for Seniors Program

Lindsay Short Mat Tournament

World Short Mat Bowls Championships 2024

Lindsay Short Mat Tournament

"Spring Classic" Short Mat Tournament

Christmas Party

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