Grand Cove Lawn Bowling Club: July 2018

There were only 5 teams in the tournament this year but that didn't minimize the drama and excitement. The two Women's teams battled for almost 8 hours, each winning a 14 end game before the final 14 end game. When it was all over our GCLBA Women won the Novice Triples title over an experienced team from St Mary's, thanks in part to an 8 point end in the middle of the final. Our Women's team moves on to the Provincial Championships in Sarnia August 11th and 12th. Congrats to skip Shirley Bain, vice Linda Beattie and lead Gail Christie. The men's draw was even more exciting and ended 10 hours after it started. It was a 3 way tie after round robin play with each team having one win and one loss. Our Paul Wybrow, Les Hutton and Wayne Christie team defeated the team of Frank Johnson, Frank Beattie and Andy Davis in the first game before the Frank Johnson team defeated the visiting team from St Mary's. The St Mary's team then defeated the Paul Wybrow team setting up the three way tie breakers of 4 ends each. This time the Frank Johnson team defeated the Paul Wybrow team to set up the final 4 end tie breaker with St Mary's. The score was tied 2-2 after 4 ends before the GCLBA team of Frank Johnson, Frank Beattie and Andy Davis scored in an extra end. Our winning Men's team will join the Women in Sarnia in two weeks for the Provincial Championships. Thanks to all the fans who came out to support our teams, umpire Brian Whitfield for officiating and setting up the greens. District Chair, Kay Johns from Clinton for coordinating the tournament and putting in a long day. Scorekeepers and support team of Ken Clarke, Linda Clarke and Loretta Whitfield along with Mark Crawford on food again.

Here are a few photos from the event when our team was not in action:

Chair, Kay Johns organizing the teams before the first games

Handshakes after the second game when St Mary's clobbered our ladies

Success all starts with consistent, good form

Handshakes before the final when our ladies bounced back

Umpire Brian Whitfield looks on while Ken Clarke records the score

Les's good form in the game against St Mary's Men

Two thirds of our Men's Champions in this shot - Andy on left and Frank J on the bench

Champions Linda, Gail and skip Shirley

This was quite an experience for our novice men playing in this seniors tournament with some of the most experienced teams in the province. We were two and out but didn't embarrass ourselves and as I post this our Women are still alive heading to round four. I will post a link to the live OLBA results page so we can see how the women fare throughout today. I will add comments later (as always you can click on photos to enlarge them).

Here is the link to the results:

OLBA Senior Triples Results

Gail's video of parade:

Gail's video of parade