The best thing about a short mat tournament is that the conditions are always ideal. It’s like playing in the SkyDome with the roof closed: bright fluorescent light with a pleasant, forced air temperature and a fast artificial surface. The sound of a baseball bat hitting ball is replaced with the unique thwack of bowl meeting block.
Taking the field in this mixed triples tournament sponsored by Senior Helpers were 16 squads. In round one the eight teams from Cobourg would square off against the visitors: three from Ottawa, two each from Kingston and Lindsay and one from Oshawa. They would play four ten-end games to see who was tops. In the first skirmish Cobourg took five of the eight games.
The home town teams continued to fare well in round two. The Terry Bradshaw, Mike Place and Peter Stuart-Sheppard teams were unbeaten. The only visitor at 2-0 was Ottawa’s Ric Choma. He drew Bradshaw (Bell/ Nan Hendren substituting for Mounce) in round three and ran into a buzzsaw losing 23-4. Round three also featured another battle of the undefeateds. Stuart-Sheppard (Bill McCollam/ Sheri Perkins) took on Place (Terry Dyche/Jan Skillen) and eased to a 15-5 win. That set up the game for all the marbles.
Bradshaw -v- Stuart-Sheppard (Mounce was back as lead for Bradshaw). The match was played on mat four which was very swingy from both sides and proved to be a handful. Sheppard and McCollam were first to find the line at the very edge of the mat. That got them off to a jack rabbit start and a commanding lead. Peter recounts that “the match settled down to a series of tightly packed heads, jack movements, great draws and strategic bowls.” The Bradshaw trio got a bit back but were thwarted from putting up the big-scoring ends they needed. Terry says “we needed 4 going into the last end and we tried to kill the end and failed to do so…the best team won.” Team Stuart-Sheppard took the ‘W’ and the tournament.
This article is taken from the November Newsletter written by editor Henry Kowalski. Photos are also by Henry with some additional ones by Bill Arthur.
Taking the field in this mixed triples tournament sponsored by Senior Helpers were 16 squads. In round one the eight teams from Cobourg would square off against the visitors: three from Ottawa, two each from Kingston and Lindsay and one from Oshawa. They would play four ten-end games to see who was tops. In the first skirmish Cobourg took five of the eight games.
The home town teams continued to fare well in round two. The Terry Bradshaw, Mike Place and Peter Stuart-Sheppard teams were unbeaten. The only visitor at 2-0 was Ottawa’s Ric Choma. He drew Bradshaw (Bell/ Nan Hendren substituting for Mounce) in round three and ran into a buzzsaw losing 23-4. Round three also featured another battle of the undefeateds. Stuart-Sheppard (Bill McCollam/ Sheri Perkins) took on Place (Terry Dyche/Jan Skillen) and eased to a 15-5 win. That set up the game for all the marbles.
Bradshaw -v- Stuart-Sheppard (Mounce was back as lead for Bradshaw). The match was played on mat four which was very swingy from both sides and proved to be a handful. Sheppard and McCollam were first to find the line at the very edge of the mat. That got them off to a jack rabbit start and a commanding lead. Peter recounts that “the match settled down to a series of tightly packed heads, jack movements, great draws and strategic bowls.” The Bradshaw trio got a bit back but were thwarted from putting up the big-scoring ends they needed. Terry says “we needed 4 going into the last end and we tried to kill the end and failed to do so…the best team won.” Team Stuart-Sheppard took the ‘W’ and the tournament.
This article is taken from the November Newsletter written by editor Henry Kowalski. Photos are also by Henry with some additional ones by Bill Arthur.
