Frick Park Players win NED Pairs Playdowns… Head to Nationals
This past weekend the Frick Park Lawn Bowling Club hosted the 2022 NED Pairs Playdowns for an opportunity to advance to the National Championship being played in Sun City Arizona in early November.
It was a welcome affair after a two year hiatus due to Co-vid 19.
The women's bracket was not very dramatic as unfortunately there was only one team entered to play. The good news is they are two of the very best in the NED Division. Eileen Luba, a past National Champion hailing from FPLBC ,will be playing with Veronica Sum playing out of Essex Lawn Bowling Club in New Jersey. Veronica also serves as current USA Bowls President.
The men's side had 6 participating teams, 3 playing out of the host club and three others from various places in the division.
Maurice Lafond and Jerry Demielio play out of a new club in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Ryan Hatsu and Richard Marcus are from New York City's Central Park Club.
Scott Snyder is a NED member who is also President of Lakeland LBC in Florida but plays in Essex New Jersey during the summer. His partner Sven Berg is a 60 year veteran playing out of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Frick Park was represented by Richard Lockyer playing alongside Russell Sheldon, Ted Tragard and Gary Mosso as well as Maz Zankowski playing with Larry Stawartz.
A formidable field indeed!
Play was set up as a true round robin to be played over two and possibly a third day if required. The winner would be the team with the best record.
It was an unusually hot and very humid weekend for the competitors to vie with. Saturday was a very long day because 3 games were to be played to 16 end conclusions and the last bowl was rolled around 6p. Play began at 9am.
After day one, Gary and Ted sat atop the field at 3-0. Richard and Russ were a close second at 2-0-1.
As fate would have it those two teams were set to play the second and last match of the day on Sunday.
It was a winner take all affair.
Gary and Ted played their best match of the weekend and won the match to achieve the award that has eluded any men's pairs team playing out of Frick Park.
They will be the first team to represent the FPLBC Men's Division in the National Championship. It will be a daunting task, taking on the very best from the other divisions in the country but if this display was any indication the two upstarts have the fortitude and endurance to compete with anyone.
(Thanks to Ted Tragard for this post.)
