The YC&AC Lawn Bowls Section held its Opening Day Tournament on July 4, approximately two months later than usual owing to the coronavirus situation. The Opening Day Tournament is a mixed handicap event played for the Don Helm Memorial Trophy.
In advance of the tournament, the entrants were seeded according to handicap and drawn into teams of three making eight teams of Triples. These teams were then drawn into two Pools of four teams on the day of the tournament. Last year’s winners (when we played Pairs), Marcel Niederhauser and Tomohiro Hamada, made the draw.
And on the sound of the bell, in muggy, slightly blustery conditions, we were off.
Three players per team …
Three woods each …
Four ends per match.
After the three Pool matches, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers were calculated for each Pool based on Win/Loss/Draw/Score record and a final round was played between the like-placed teams in each Pool.
In the battle for the Wooden Spoon, Team George Ishiguro beat Team Makoto Honjo by a whopping 10 points to 0, meaning Team Honjo picked up the neon green leis for last place.
In the match to decide third place, Team Kazuko Yasuda beat Team Marcel Niederhauser by 6 points to 3, claiming the fuchsia leis in lieu of bronze medals.
In the final, by the remarkable act of rolling in four comeback woods in the last end, Team Toshiaki Arai beat Team Alex Hendy by 6 points to 5.
Congratulations to the winners and to everyone involved for a great day of lawn bowls. You can read the full results in the table below (click to enlarge) — with thanks to Kaz as always for the immaculate paperwork. Thanks also to Saad and Yasuda-san for the photographs, to Head Groundsman Eric for the excellent condition of the Green, and to Mini for polishing the Cup.
Lawn Bowls 