Another year of 5 pin bowling has commenced in the Hamilton area as bowlers have continued their bowling prowess at other locations since the closing of historic Sherwood Centre. Sherwood was the home of various leagues during the week and most of those leagues have continued on at Mountain Lanes, University Lanes and Waterdown Lanes. The Hamilton 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association embarks on its 55th year as an association, the longest serving association of the 14 zones affiliated with the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association. As we are into November already, let’s recap some of the action on the lanes!
LEAGUE UPDATES:
The competitive Thursday Night Mixed League has moved to Mountain Lanes and the scores being recorded from this league are red hot. There are currently nine bowlers averaging over the 250 mark with Mitch Davies leading the pack at a 279 pace. Davies is followed closely by Francois Talbot’s 277 average and Dave Birkby’s 272 clip. Rounding out the top 10 are Matt Houston (265), Dave Bentley (264), newcomers Aaron Gallant (263) and Jason Davidson-Thoms (262), Martin Talbot (258), Matt Wieland (255) with Ross Varlow and Shawn Barrow tied for the 10th spot at 248. Francois Talbot leads the league with a huge 391 scratch single game with Mitch Davies potting a 382 and Brian Nicholson firing a 380 scorcher. Talbot also leads the high scratch triple race with a 1014 set followed closely by Matt Houston’s 1010 and Mitch Davies’ 1007. The quartet of Mitch Davies, Matt Houston, Don Harada and Robert McDougall currently sit in a slim 1st place lead in the team standings with a narrow half (0.5) point lead over Team Birkby (Dave Birkby, Dave Bentley, Jim Davies and Aaron Gallant). If you want to see some of the best in Hamilton, swing by this league on a Thursday night and take in some of the action!
Gord Winger from the Friday Night Mixed League at Mountain Lanes reports some high scores from their league. Russ Ruggles leads the average race with a 226 average and Heather Komadowski leads all females with a 180 average. High triple leaders are Ryan Gibson at 763 for the men and Deb Billard’s 598 for the females. Cory Davies ripped home a 292 single to lead the way while Billard’s 267 game leads the females. Some other bowlers from this league have had some great results including many bowlers who have bowled at least 100 pins over their average. They include Daniel Bertrand firing home a 273, Dave Winger’s 218, Ann Primmer’s 238, Bob Primmer’s 263 and Deb Billard’s 267. Topping the 700 triples list is the aforementioned Russ Ruggles 790, Cory Davies with a wild 759 and Dave Page’s blistering 744. We look forward more high scores incoming from this league as the season progresses.
The Friday Night Lights League has moved to University Lanes in Dundas with league secretary Mike Johns providing some high scores from their league. Guy Vernon, the 2018 Ontario Senior’s Single champion sits atop the league with a 251 average. Eric Ridgeway has powered his way to a 240 average with Ryan Lupton sitting in the bronze medal position for men with a 226 average. Leading the average race in the female category is league president Kristi Fraser at 233. Helen Fletcher (203) and Kelli Ridgeway (172) finish up the top 3 for the ladies. Vernon’s 361 single scratch game is good enough for tops in the league followed by Lupton’s 330 and Ridgeway gutting out a 321 single. Fraser fired a 305 single followed closely by Fletcher’s 264 and Mackenzie Graham’s 264. Team Glover currently are the kings of this league as they sit 1st in the team standings. Team Glover, comprised of Guy Vernon, Mark Glover Jr., Andrew McQuaid and Kristi Fraser has another narrow one (1) point lead over Team Overtime (Mike Johns, Kara O’Donnell, Lauren Mair, Lisa Moning).
No scores have been reported from the Monday Men’s Beach League at Mountain Lanes, but there is one bowler there worthy of some attention. Dave Birkby bowled an incredible 1038 scratch triple with games of 297, 316 and 425. Birkby’s 1038 is the highest triple recorded thus far out of all the leagues so we look forward to seeing if his mark will be broken. Amazing bowling Dave!
TOURNAMENT UPDATES:
The first stop of the Club Tour was held on Thanksgiving Weekend at NEB’s Funworld in Oshawa. For those who aren’t aware of what Club Tour is, this tour attracts many of the top bowlers in the Ontario region. It also attracts bowlers from Quebec and the United States and top prize for winning the tournament is a cool $4,000. All bowlers bowled an eight (8) game qualifier and the top 28 from the qualifying made the playoff round. The playoff round is a two (2) game total score with the winners advancing. Hamilton qualifiers included Mitch Davies (qualifying 5th with a score of 2052), Francois Talbot (9th with a 2036 score), Krista Derkach (10th with a 2028), Martin Talbot (17th at 2012) and Jason Davidson-Thoms (28th, 1957). Krista Derkach and Francois Talbot made it to the round of 16 before losing out. Mitch Davies went on to win the Club Tour defeating Jason Davidson-Thoms, Walt Brooks, Randy Main, DJ Villeneuve and Erica Prieur in the finals. Congrats to Mitch on bringing home the $4,000!
The Youth Bowl Ontario Cup was held on October 14th, also at NEB’s. This tournament attracted 18 youth teams from all over the province in a five (5) game total score event. The team from Mountain Lanes of Jarrett Couchman, Alyssa Tabone, Katherine Bes, Talen McGraw and Abbey Dunn and Coach Dawn Terry finished 1st in the event with a total score of 5790, which was an astounding 284 pins ahead of the 2nd place team. This team was very consistent throughout the tournament posting scores of 1190, 1108, 1124, 1213, 1155. Well done team!
Also from the youth ranks, the 10th Annual Youth Fall Classic was held on November 4th at Stellar Lanes in Newmarket. This tournament featured a 24 person single elimination playoff format following the qualifying round. Jarrett Couchman ended up finishing 2nd in this event with blazing playoff scores of 294, 360, 279, 322 and 277. Some great bowling – well done Jarrett!
Another recent tournament was the YBC Zone Senior Singles Championships. This tournament was bowled at Echo Bowl in Brantford with Matthew Hounsome winning the boys’ title and Abbey Dunn taking home the crown for the girls. Hounsome fired an impressive 1347 for five (5)games (averaging 269) with Dunn shooting a 966. Hounsome and Dunn move on to the Provincial round in Kitchener. Good luck to Matthew and Abbey!
UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS
Some tournaments are coming soon within the Hamilton area. Come out and watch some great bowling or support the Hamilton zone through participation in these tournaments!
Youth Challenge – November 25th at University Lanes – 8:30 am Registration, 9:00 am Start, $40 entry fee.
Ontario Open Week 1 Qualifying – December 2nd at Waterdown Lanes – 8:30 am Registration, 9:00 am Start, $130 entry fee (regular), $75 entry fee (seniors)
Ontario Open Week 2 Qualifying – December 9th at Mountain Lanes – 8:15 am Registration, 8:30 am Start.
High-Low Doubles/Inter Provincials – January 6th at Mountain Lanes – 8:00 am Registration, 8:30 am Start, $11 entry fee (qualifying for this tournament currently going on through leagues).
Visit hamilton-5-pin-bowlers-association.local for the entire 2018-19 Tournament Schedule.
FUNDRAISING
Hamilton 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association is selling tickets to the Hamilton Bulldogs game vs. Guelph Storm on Saturday December 29th at 4:00 pm. Please see Norm Macdonald for further details.
Booster Club tickets are still available. Booster Club tournament is March 17th at University Lanes. Please see Gord Burns for further details. Further fundraising details will be released throughout the season.
Please see hamilton-5-pin-bowlers-association.local for updates!
H5 FLASHBACK
A new feature to the newsletter this year is the H5 Flashback section where we go back in history and take a look at how some of the Hamilton teams fared in Provincial and National competition. Each newsletter will feature one Hamilton team drawn at random and we will look back at how that team did.
This H5 flashback focuses on the 2004 Hamilton Men’s team competing in the 2004 Ontario Open Provincial Tournament. Hamilton usually puts forth strong teams in this tournament year after year and this team was no different consisting of Rogatien Rozon, Mirko Crljen, Mike Tuck Jr., Mike Bates and rookies Jeff Young and Chris Wilson, with Coach Ian Wilson finished 4th during the round robin portion of the tournament qualifying for the playoffs with a 9-6 record and 73 total points. Led by Mike Bates 250 average, everyone on this team averaged over 230 for the tournament, with Crljen leading the team in match wins with 10. The team shot a high score of 1443 vs. Tri-County in the 7th game of the tournament led by Bates 323, Tuck Jr’s 320 and Young’s 301. Unfortunately, the team lost in the first round of the stepladder running into a red hot York Simcoe squad who ended up defeating Hamilton 1473-1296 in the game. Rozon’s 286 and Tuck’s 278 led the way in the playoffs. Central Ontario would go on to defeat York Simcoe that year in the men’s division, but a strong effort was put forth by this Hamilton squad.
THE 11th FRAME PODCAST
Another new feature this year is the 11th Frame Podcast, a podcast where you can listen in to some of the happenings of 5 pin bowling on not only local levels, but also Provincial and even National levels. This exciting podcast brought to you by hosts Mike Johns and Kassie Bleses has had two episodes recorded and released thus far. Each episode deals with a topic or issue within the 5 pin bowling world and encourages some discussion revolving around that topic. Here is a recap of the first two episodes.
Episode 1 – Topic: The closure of Sherwood Centre and the results and impact it has had on the Hamilton and Ontario levels.
Episode 2 – Topic: Discussing some recent tournament results and also analyzing the results of the recent Ontario Open 5 Pin Bowling Survey with alternate suggestions put forward by Mitch Davies of how to improve the event structure in the future.
The podcast can be accessed on Facebook or Soundcloud. Listeners are invited to come up with some topics of their own to submit and also encouraged to be guests on the show if they would like. Have a listen and let the 11th Frame know your thoughts and opinions!
Email: the11thframepodcast@gmail.com
Podcast: on Facebook @ 11th Frame Podcast