Rolling, Rolling, Rolling Down By The River

The Ontario Bowl's season really started this weekend.
Oh, we had the X(ceptional)  Games in Niagara Falls and James Gardens with that dandy artificial carpet offered a preview performance but the Open Gates were prevalent from Barrie in the north to Leamington in the south.
I made the trip to the St Marys Classic Open Fours. A beautiful town on the Thames River filled with limestone buildings.
So did a strong field of competitors , many using this event to ready for the upcoming Provincial Fours play downs. Steve McKerihen, David Anderson, John Devonshire and Fred Wallbank captured the tournament and the $400 first prize. They were but a few of  National Team caliber bowlers out for a dry day and a dry run to the Districts. A calculated guess makes that number to be 20 of the 64 players on hand to be either current or former wearers of the Canadian uniform.
I had a first hand view of  why the McKerihen rink is a consistent Provincial winner. They don't take one bowl off. Every shot is important, they are on the same page in strategy and they don't give up big ends. They are serious but they enjoy playing a competitive game in each others company. Did I mentioned they are all skilled bowlers.
Malcolm Whyte, Trevor Whyte, Dave Ball and Dave Falconer from Burlington were the other 3 game winners showing early season finesse.
The tournament format was an interesting change. It is not surprising that creative thinking emits from the McLellans, Larry and James, of 'The Stone Town'. They are always thinking of a different way to approach the game and experiment to see if it makes it better.
I like the altered format.
It is a form of preliminary play to establish the playoff teams. The concept is to group like ability teams together for a competitive finale. Thus every team has an opportunity to win a prize in the last round of the day.
I believe I have grasped how it was run. We will see if I can explain it so you understand.
The McLellan Matrix
Sixteen teams and the usual draw for your opponent. After the first round the 8 winners are ranked - one to eight with the opponent draw being 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5  in the 2nd game. The same procedure for the 8 losing teams in the 1st round.
After the 2nd game the teams are now ranked again and placed in 4 groups of 4 teams. 'A' group is the 2 win 0 loss teams ranked by the win plus system - ie #1 Team X 2W +28, #2 Team Y 2W + 27 et cetera.
Follow the same process for establishing Group 'B' and Group 'C' the 1W 1L teams and Group 'D' the 0W 2L teams. This time #1 will play #4 and #2 vs #3 in game three. There is a reward for being a higher ranked team by theoretically getting an 'easier' opponent.
The prize money was distributed to the top two teams in Group 'A' and the top team in the other 3 groups.
Opportunity right to the last game and equitable opponents seems to me to be a solid base of operation.

Larry also announced at the start of the day a time schedule to keep the day moving at a good pace.
The next round would start 20 minutes after the last teams finished their game.
Boy, do I ever agree with this. People often tell me they don't play golf because it takes too long.
Well we won't get them at a bowls tournament either then. Mind you I relish the day with the the interaction with fellow participants, but we still can do that and finish prior to 5 PM. If I noted the time correctly this tournament with a start time of 9:30 AM, 3 X 14 ends finished shortly after 4:00 PM. You can get on your way if need be or sit back and catch up with the talk of the greens.
Speaking of noteworthy news, Chris Johnson has attended 26 Blue Rodeo Concerts. Wouldn't you think he would change the colour of his bowls?
We are really on our 2010 way.

Coming up, Our expatriates are winging their way home.