Geoff Pershick’s great run at the 2011 Bowls World Cup is over 1 game shy of a medal. After a heroic run in the group stage winning 9 of 11, and knocking the reigning world cup champ out of the playoff round, Geoff fell short against Australian Brett Wilkie who will play James Talbot of Ireland tomorrow at April 20, 9am. The other Men’s semi-final is Ian Merrien from Guernsey vs Graeme Archer of Scotland. I’m watching this game right now via Bowls Australia’s website http://www.bowlsaustralia.com.au/index.php?id=33 On the women’s side, SF1 just finished and sees New Zealands Jo Edwards knock off the Malaysian Emma Firyana Saroji and will wait to see her final opponent to be determined today at 2pm. Alison Merrien from Guernsey goes up against vs Claire Johnston from Scotland in that match in Warilla NSW Australia. The remaining semi-final and final matches of the World Cup can be seen live through the Bowls Australia site for $5 each. Great Bowling to come, Enjoy!
Playoffs for Pershick
Canada’s Geoff Pershick has advanced to the 2011 Bowls World Cup playoffs. Heading into yesterdays last game of the round robin Canada, Australia and Guernsey were all within reach of a birth in the playoffs.
With a straight sets win over the reigning World Cup Champion Leif Selby, Geoff has completed the round robin with a record of 9-2 with a set differential of +10. The loss for the Aussie proved a costly one as Guernsey’s Ian Merrien (8-3 +9set diff.) Leapfrogged Leif (8-3 +6 set diff.) for 3rd in the group and the last playoff position. Scotlands Graeme Archer (Group 1 winner) and Ireland’s James Talbot (Group 2 winner) now await their semi-final opposition to be determined by a playoff round featuring Canada vs. Australia’s Bret Wilkie and Guernsey taking on New Zealand’s Shannon Mcllroy.
Playoffs are set to take place at 12:30pm today in Warilla NSW Australia and the Semi’s start tomorrow.
Go Get’em Geoff!
for complete results: http://www.worldbowlsltd.co.uk/mainresults.php
Pershick on a Roll!
Geoff Pershick is on a roll at the Bowls World Cup in Warilla NSW Australia. Heading into this morning’s 11th and final round of the round robin Geoff has a chance to knock the defending champ out of contention.
At 10:30am Sunday morning Geoff will fight to keep his World Cup hopes alive against the home town favourite and #1 in the World Leif Selby. The Aussie beat Canada’s Vincent Mai in last years Semi-Final before taking out his fellow Countryman Anthony Kiepe to capture last years title. Both men have racked up 16 points over their first 10 games and trailing Scotland, this mornings final round will see the winner move on to the playoffs and the loser hit the showers.
After Winning his first 6 straight Geoff is heading into the final round with an impressive 8 – 2 record with his only losses against Scotland’s Graeme Archer and Malaysia’s Fairuz Abd Jabal.
Mary Wright who is representing Canada in the women’s field has fallen short of a shot at the finals. With 3 games remaining and a record of 2-6 it’s mathematically impossible to make the Semi’s.
On the Junior side, Kelly McKerihen on Canada has finished in 5th position behind 4th place South Africa’s Tracey-Lee Botha whom Kelly defeated in the last game of the round robin. With the same 6-4 record Tracey-Lee moves onto the semi-finals with a +4 set diff. compared to Kelly’s -2. (Noteable wins for Kelly came against Scotland, Ireland, Australia and South Africa)
Jon Pituley who played on the Mens side of the World Junior Cup had a rough go this year dropping all 7 of his games with 3 of those losses coming by way of extra ends.
Best of Luck to Canada’s Geoff Pershick in this mornings must win, round robin final!
For a complete list of results go to http://www.worldbowlsltd.co.uk/mainresults.php
The Game
Bowls is a game with a bad rap of being an “Old Man Sport”. True, the vast majority of current bowlers are getting up there in years but in the powerhouse nations more and more young people are falling in love with a game that has taken others 60+ years to discover. Bowls is an exciting, and at times, incredibly competitive game that can be played and enjoyed by all ages, both indoors and outdoors.
Outdoor Bowls is usually played on a 126′ square green covered in perfectly levelled and manicured grass (or artificial grass). The green is divided into playing areas called rinks which are about 5 metres wide and run the length of the green. Surrounding the green is a ditch, and a bank upon which markers indicate the boundaries and centre? lines of each rink.
Players deliver their bowls alternately from a mat at one end on the center-line of the rink, towards a small white ball called the jack (aka. the White or the Kitty) at the other end placed on the center-line. Bowls (which weigh about 1.5 kg each) are shaped so that they do not run in a straight line, but take a curved path (bias) towards the jack. Therefore, a bowl can be delivered either forehand or backhand.
The aim of the game is to get one or more bowls closer to the jack than the oppositions bowls ? one point is scored for each counting bowl. After playing all the bowls in one direction, and agreeing the score, the direction of play is reversed ? the next end is played back down the rink in the opposite direction. Every game consists of a series of ends and the winner can either be the one who has scored the most shots after a specified number of ends or the first to reach a designated score.
The art of this game is to be able to deliver bowls consistently close to the jack or the aiming point which is usually over a distance of 21 ? 35 metres from the mat.
The game can be played as singles, or in teams of pairs (2 players per side), triples (3 players), or fours (a team of four is also known as a rink). In the team games each member has a particular role to play, such as in fours:
The first to play or lead, places the mat, delivers the jack and centres it before attempting to bowl as close as possible to the jack.
The second plays after the lead.
The third may be called upon to play different types of shots in order to score more, or to place bowls tactically to protect an advantage. The third also determines the number of shots scored, measuring if required.
The skip is in overall charge of the rink, directs the other players on choice of shots and tries to build the “head” of bowls to his or her advantage.
The normal game formats are as follows:
In Singles, the two opponents deliver four bowls alternately. The first to reach 21 shots is the winner.
For Pairs, the players deliver four bowls each alternatively against their opposing team. The team scoring the most shots after 10-18 ends (depending on the competition rules) is the winner.
In the Triples game, the lead, second and skip deliver three bowls each alternatively against their opposing team, for 18 ends. However there are many permitted variations. Matches may be men only, women only or mixed. The game is reasonably simple but like most sports, to play well consistently demands determination, concentration and practice.
Youth Movement at MLS
Congratulations to the MLS Sportsplex and Andy Caldwell of the Peterborough LBC for organizing an incredibly successful day of lawnbowls for a crew of 34 high school students from the Peterborough area. With decreasing membership across the country, and Peterborough’s beautiful new clubhouse getting closer and closer to completion, the MLS Sportsplex served as a perfect venue to introduce the large group to the game. I was on hand to tell the group about my bowls story, how I got into the game, making the National Team, playing internationally and my plans for the future in the game. The bus showed up at 10:30 am and after a quick introduction to the game the gang got right down to business. Split up into teams of 6 each student took turns discovering the game while their peers looked on with curiousity. It was great to hear the encouragement from those waiting for their turn, and all the kids had a good laugh at the occasional wrong bias or pineapple. The shift from goofing around at a weird new game to intense competition was amazing when Dan Milligan announced that Pizza was on the way, and the team who managed the most bowls within a set distance would get to line up first for their lunch. 3 ends later the team that got to eat first had racked up an impressive 28/36 bowls within 3m of the jack. After lunch it was awesome to see a group of 12 of the students rush back onto the greens to get some practice in before the next game Dan had in store.
Having a roll-up with the Peterborough youth
The group was incredibly enthusiastic and many of them picked it up quite quickly. During my talk with the group I was amazed at the level of respect the group had. I remember being in school and how there were always those few kids in the class who were never paying attention and would test even the most experienced speaker. This group seemed genuinely interested with what we had to say and I hope that we tweaked their interest enough to give the game a chance in the coming season. It’s the hopes of MLS, Peterborough LBC and hopefully every bowler out there, that this day at MLS was exciting for the kids and will be enough to prompt other clubs to arrange similar outings with the co-operation of schools in their area. It is my understanding, that with help from Mario Battista that the kids will again be exposed to the game at their school playing short-mat and hopefully short mat will become a part of their phys-ed program.
Thanks to all those involved in making yesterday a great day and for those interested, photos of the day can be found at http://bit.ly/eKNTq4 and for more info on Mario Battista’s efforts with youth programs click http://bit.ly/fyZEgC Questions and Comments are incouraged!
Jack Length
Below is a copy of an e-mail received from BCB concerning Jack Length Rule 23.5.1. We think this is excellent news for Bowls in Canada. It keeps us in line with international play and allows for a greater variance in potential playing surface. We’d love hear your comments on this;
Email:
“Bowlers
Subject: Jack Length
Rule 23.5.1 of the new Laws of the Sport of Bowls, Crystal Mark 2nd Edition, 2011 gives National Authorities the discretion to change the minimum jack length from 23 m to 21 m.
After careful consideration, Bowls Canada Boulingrin, the National Authority for Canada, has decided to change the minimum jack length from 23 m to 21 m for all play in Canada. This decision leads to a number of other changes to distances set out in the Laws, as further detailed in rules 23.5.1 to 23.5.3, and will necessitate changes to the positioning of “hog line markers” at clubs across the country.
For safety reasons in particular, an exemption will apply for the Pacific Indoor Bowls Club and the Qualicum Indoor venue, which may continue to use a minimum jack length of 23 m.
Bowls Canada Boulingrin
March 2011″
Feathers Ruffled @ Bowls In Canada
Feathers have been ruffled! At the High Performance Training/ Selection Camp in Arizona this past January, new Team Canada coach Lachlan Tighe borrowed the title of Keith F. Bell’s book “If You Want to Soar With the Eagles, Don’t Fly With the Turkey’s” when asked about playing in Jitney and Club level tournaments. This quote made it’s way to a facebook group called “Bowls in Canada” and has many of it’s members up in arms at the coach’s statement. Many feel betrayed and insulted being called a “turkey” and enraged that the new Aussie coach might be implying that the High Performance Athletes can do nothing but lose if they associate with anyone but their own. At the risk of sounding like a kiss-ass I feel I should try to clear things up a bit… The direct quote from coach at camp was “If you want to soar with the eagles (the cream of the crop on the world stage) don’t fly with the turkey’s (everyone else).” This is the title of a Keith F. Bell novel illustrating 76 rules for outperforming the competition. It’s my opinion that coach intended no insult to those who are not of an elite caliber, but merely tried to stress the importance of purposeful practice for High Performance athletes over playing games. That was the major focus of this years camp which saw athletes perform 4 straight days of drills, and maybe 12 ends of “game type scenarios.” Of course it is our duty as ambassadors of the National Team to encourage all bowlers to become the best they can be, but in order to *WIN* Team Canada must perform at an optimal level. In order to stay at that optimal level, a decision has to be made to choose training over playing games. There’s no question I love playing games just as much as the next guy, but this year with Adelaide in my sights, I will be spending a lot less time with the “turkeys” and a lot more time training to be the best I can and bring home Gold in December.
The Boys Are Back
Team Canada at 2011 Tiger Bowls
The 2011 Tiger Bowls tour has come to a close and the Boys are back in town. Above Greg, Jake, Darryl and Dylan pose at the HKFC indoor surface before commencing play in the Cup Section qualifier day 2 of Tiger Bowls. After a slow start in their first game day 1, the boys came into their own and won their next 4 games acquiring a total 25 of a possible 40 skins for the round. That performance earned them 19th position and a spot in the Cup Qulaifier heading into the 2nd day. After 3 games on day 2 Team Canada was seriously in the hunt for a birth in the semi-finals having scored 18 of a possible 24 skins off the likes of Australia-B and the top seed in the group VLBC-B. Unfortunately the team fell short in the last 2 games of the qualifier missing out on the semi finals. Congratulations to the events organizer Jacky Wong who won this years Tiger Bowls with his China-A team.
The China Tour portion of this years Tiger Bowls tour took place once again at Bijashan Park in prosperous Shenzhen China. Despite less than optimal green speeds of 7 and 9 seconds from the A green to B green, team Canada came out of the gates guns blazing with a dominating 21-4 performance over another Aussie squad. The team went 2 and 1 on the day and on Day 2 came up against an impressive American squad and despite being down 5 with 2 to play Canada would not quit scoring 1 in the 11th and played their best end of the game in the 12th and final end. Up 4 shots with 4 bowls to come, Greg drew his first to make it 5. The American skip missed narrow on a drive attempt and the green held his bowl up and past a seemingly easy target on his last bowl dropping a 5 to the Canadians for the win by 1 point. In the 7th and last game of the round robin, the boys came up against #2 in the world Safuan Said and with a record of 4 wins and 2 losses knew they needed a win for a chance at top 2 in the group and a birth in the quarter finals. This game was by far the best the team played all week bowling over 50% as a team and a notable 63% by lead Darryl Fitzgerald. Despite an excellent effort the team could only muster a tie against the very strong Malaysians who ended up losing to the Champion South African team in the semi-finals. Well done to South Africa and runners up Netherlands who put on a very entertaining Final!
Winners
Why Bowl? What is it that you want out of each and every game? The first image that comes to my mind is our team atop the podium, our team hoisting the trophy above our heads and our team with a gold medal clasped between our teeth. Winning is what we all strive for whether we’re competing at an international level or playing in a weekday jitney. The following is a list provided by Lachlan Tighe, which illustrates everything it takes to be a winner. How to plan like a winner, think like a winner, act like a winner, and train to be a winner.
Team Canada – TigerBowls 2011 Video
Team Canada heads to Hong Kong next week for the 2011 Tiger Bowls Invitational. Here is a preview of the team training at the sports complex in Scarborough. Check back here at Gregorbowls for updates as they happen from the tournament. Good luck team!