Sadler Memorial Trophy Winners
Donna Blackstock (third), Mitch O’Brien (skip), Karen Evans (lead)

Oak Bay entered four teams for the Sadler Memorial Mixed Triples tournament at Gordon Head LBC in the evenings of July 24-26, including the overall winning trio of Mitch O’Brien (Skip) Donna Blackstock (third) and Karen Evans (lead).

Because 28 teams entered and only one green is available at Gordon Head, there were two sub-tournaments – one for the 4:00 p.m. teams  and one for the 6:30 p.m. teams. Prizes were awarded to both groups and the overall winner decided on “best of the best”.

Teams were limited to 21 points maximum per game. Mitch & Co. scored the maximum on each round in their afternoon fixtures and had a better record than the best of the evening players and so won the trophy.

Lots of prizes were awarded: best team, next-best three-game winner, best two-game winner and best one-game winner in both the afternoon and the evening sessions; eight prizes among 28 teams, so chances of winning a prize were good.

Dave Mackey presents umpire Louise Mason with her 10-year service award

Part way through the tournament there was a surprise and very welcome presentation to Louise Mason, long term member of OBLBC. Louise was honoured with a ten-year service award as an umpire.

When interviewed by your reporter about his team’s success, Mitch was clearly following the format of Hockey Night in Canada interviews (“It wasn’t me. I couldn’t have done it without those other guys. “) “Donna and Karen were a pretty special front-end pair”, he said, which is indeed a true statement. He did have a 2018 National Pairs champion on his team in Karen Evans; and Donna Blackstock was a member of the senior triples team that won the Provincial title in 2019 and went on to contest the national championship in Montreal in 2019, where they won silver, missing out on gold by a single shot.

Donna said that, although they did win all of their games, they had to fight back from deficits. Any special moments? “We were four down and took the jack back to go two up. Then Mitch put in three more counters for a nine-point swing.” (Donna, too, is indulging in the “It was the other guys” HNiC formula. When pressed, she admitted it was her bowl that struck the jack.)

Who else from OBLBC got into the prize money? Lee Millar, whom we may think of as one of our own, defected to join a pair from Gordon Head to get the two-game winner prize in the afternoon games.

And David Anderson took his team to best of the two-game winners in the evening. Your reporter can report in needless detail on that team’s fortunes. . .

Cathy Denny (lead), David Anderson (skip), Chris Slade (vice)

For me, all games have a story, and our three games had their moments. We scored the maximum in games one and three, including an 8-point end in one of them. (One of our players, who shall be nameless, let the side down by getting only two shots while the other two team members got three. There was defensive talk.  “But I put one at the back for insurance!” Yeah maybe, but we could’a got a perfect 9! 🙂 )

In game two we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with an eventual loss against William Whitelaw, Steve Foster and Wendy Leaman.

That game had some early drama. . . While waiting for the second game to start, my phone rang., “Mr. Slade, an alarm has gone off in your house. We are entering your house now. You have left the balcony doors open. Everything seems OK.”

I tell myself that nothing can put me off my game, but you wonder. Surely William & Co. wouldn’t arrange a burglary to put me off balance? No, this is lawn bowling. Sure, we are all competitive, but there is a code of etiquette. But then, there is no specific rule that says, “Thou shalt not arrange a burglary at thine opponent’s house.” 🙂

Nevertheless, we are confidently off to an early lead getting to 8-4 after seven ends. Then slowly William &Co. catch up to 11 -11 after 12 ends. And we lost the last two. Was I wondering in those final two ends, “I left my computer on the kitchen table, I hope it’s there when I get back.” (It was.)

Perhaps the simple version of the story is that we were just outbowled in game two.

 For those who stayed around at the end, in hopes of winning the raffle, the prizes were many; not only sizeable cash awards but a seemingly inexhaustible supply of bottles of wine. And the food was plentiful and good, as I was assured it always is at Gordon Head. They did a great job looking after us all.

(For the unembellished facts about this tournament, you can see all the winners in the report on the GHLBC website.)