Canadian Lawn Bowling Championships: Quebecers focus on future while New Brunswick bowler makes history

The 2007 Laura Dewald Canadian Lawn Bowling Championships was held from Aug. 20 to 25 at three lawn bowling clubs in the region — Westmount, St. Lambert and Verdun. The Westmount Lawn Bowling club was the primary host, holding the opening ceremonies, the majority of the matches, and the championship rounds.

Over 150 of Canada's top lawn bowlers attended the championships, having earned the right to represent their province by winning their provincial playdowns.

Unfortunately, for local participants, Quebec’s lawn bowling team failed to win a medal. In both the men’s singles and men’s pairs, Quebec lost close contests in the bronze medal matchup. Instead of dwelling on what could have been, the members of the Quebec team insist that there is optimism for the future.

In the men’s singles, John Devlin just missed out on a bronze medal, losing 21-18 to Ron Geniole from Ontario’s A team.

“In the end it came down to one bowl and I came up a little narrow,” Devlin said with a smile on his face and a post-game beer in his hand. “I went for the game instead of the tie”.

For those of you, who don’t know what lawn bowling is, imagine a summer-time version of curling. It is played on grass instead of ice, and uses bowls (asymmetrical balls) instead of stones.

Players compete with one another in teams of four (Four’s), two (pairs), or one-on-one (singles). The object of the sport is to roll a ball as close as possible to a tiny white ball (called a jack) located on the opposite side of the turf. Since the bowl is asymmetrical, it has a bias which you have to compensate for when you take aim. Devlin felt he overcompensated this time.

Devlin is no stranger to this event, he has bowled for 31 years and this was his 10 Canadian championship. His trophy case already sports two bronze medals from the singles event and one silver medal in the Four’s.

Despite just missing out this time around, Devlin is optimistically looking to the future for the one colour that he is still missing.

“I’ll be back for the elusive gold”, he said.

Other Quebecers share the same sentiment. The future, they believe, will be bright for Quebec’s grass gladiators.

Rosie Parsonsbrown, the only Westmount Club member on the Quebec team, competed in the women’s singles event.

“The future looks good for Quebec,” she said. “We have a core of younger and inexperienced bowlers who are hungry for wins”.

This was Parsonsbrown’s first Canadian championship, and she has only been bowling for five years. She finished out of medal contention with two wins and six losses during the round robin. Still, she is certain that she will do better in future competitions.

“This tournament was an amazing experience, my learning curve was steep. Next time, I will definitely be standing here with a medal”, she said.

But does experience play a large factor in this sport?

“Yes, experience counts for a lot in this game in terms of your shot selection and the confidence you have in your different shots. I was playing against people with 25 years experience,” she said.

Experience may matter, but don’t tell that to Chad Trites.

Recently, numerous reporters have written about lawn bowling’s potential as a youth sport. Accordingly, Richard Menear, the tournament organizer says that “it is the intent of Bowls Canada, to find and introduce younger players to the sport”. Well, if this years Championship was anything to go by, the results of their efforts appear to be coming to fruition. The youth movement in lawn bowling is picking up pace.

Trites, one of the tournaments youngest competitors, took home one of its biggest trophies. A 20-year-old from Moncton, New Brunswick, Trites soundly beat Hiren Bhartu of BC, 21-9 in the gold medal men’s singles match. It was his province’s first gold medal ever.

During round robin play the day before, he beat Bhartu by only a single point 21-20.

“This was my first Canadian championship, and honestly, I came into this with a goal of simply not coming in last” he tells me as he politely removes the hip-hop styled Yankees cap he had been wearing sideways on his head.

Trites may be a new star in lawn bowling circles, but he says that he isn’t here to make friends.

“I don’t bowl for fun or social activity, just for competition” he says.

Although he is young, Trites is by no means an amateur bowler.

“I first started when I was 10. So I have been playing for 10 years. But also, my mom, brother and sister all bowl as well,” Trites said. In fact, his younger brother Chris Trites, 17, just won the singles gold in the Canadian junior championships which took place from Aug. 8 to11 in Prince Edward Island.

Clearly, bowling is a family hobby which has become quite successful for them.

What does the Trites hope to do with his ability?

“I would love to compete in some international competitions. If I could play for the national team, that would be great,” he says.

Bowls Canada and the Westmount Bowling Club certainly hope his win paves the way for the continued growth of the sport amongst the younger demographic.

“We welcome anybody, especially young people to join our club,” said Irene Menear, player and co-chair of the Westmount tournament organizing committee. “Even though it’s September, we can still train you”.

For now, Team Quebec will have to wait until next year to improve their results.

As for Trites — “I just want to go home and shower” he says with a smile.