Sunday, August 14 was a golden day for the Meaford lawn bowling team of Brad Tichbourne, Jill Calvert-Goetz, Wendy Calvert-Morris, and Owen Tichbourne, as they topped the province in the Novice Mixed Combo Fours Lawn Bowling Championship held in Woodstock on the weekend.
This tournament has an unusual and challenging format. Some games are played with all four together and some in pairs. In the case of Meaford, their pairs teams were Brad with Owen and Wendy with Jill. The Pairs competitions are Australian Rules format where both players take a turn bowling first. The Meaford team was up for the challenge.
On Saturday, they played two 10-end round robin games of Fours and each Pair played two games. By the end of the day Meaford had won one Fours game and Wendy and Jill had won one of the Pairs games. They finished the day in 10th place of 14 district representative teams. Undaunted, they moved up quickly in the rankings on Sunday. They won their first Fours game and both pairs won their first Pairs games, moving them up to 8th place. After winning the next Fours game, Meaford was tied for 4th leading into the final Pairs competition. When both Meaford pairs won their games, they were in a three-way tie for first place. Winning a five-end tie-breaker game resulted in a bye to the final.
They took an early lead in the game against the Balmy Beach Lawn Bowling Club from Toronto, gaining a controversial point in the first end, but by the fifth and final end, it came down to the last throw of their opponent skip. The bowl needed to hit the “jack” (target ball) and roll with it into the ditch at the end of the green. The attempt was unsuccessful and as a result, the Meaford Novice Fours Team captured the gold.
The club will be looking for more success from these individuals as they have impressed with podium and top-four finishes at local, district, and provincial competitions previously.
