This is the post where we should all feel pretty darn proud of being members at Newport Harbor. 
Out of 32 total teams, 17 of them were partially or completely comprised of bowlers from our club.

Check out the full list of entrants and results here.

Saturday was a round-robin in each grouping with the group winner going on to compete on Saturday in the Cary-bracket and the 2nd place finisher going to the Macdonald.

8 of the 16 teams that came back on Sunday were Newport-based teams including two D-ranked teams who progressed to the Macdonald bracket and a C-ranked team who finished 4th in the Cary!

Huge thanks to the Long Beach Lawn Bowling Club for outstanding hospitality both days!

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Hermosa Beach hosted the SWWD rinks tournament this past Saturday. On the winning team were two Newport Members, Linda Roberts and Candy DeFazio.

Other Newport Bowlers who participated:
Anne Nunes, Mary Spease, Maryna Hyland, Sheila Conti, Doreen Mayo, Rita Greenberg, Norma Goodhart, Deb Gaal, Jan Hargraves, Diana Wenzel, Jane Blair, and Julie Buchanan.

Balboa Park in San Diego hosted the annual Mixed Triples and Wasserman Mixed Pairs tournaments this past weekend.

Charlie Herbert was on the winning team for the Triples on Saturday while Candy DeFazio took first-place in the Sunday Pairs.

Mixed Triples
1st: Charlie Herbert, Bob & Alice Birkinshaw
2nd: Steve Smith, Bill Brault, Annne Nunes

Other Newport Bowlers:
A Green: Steve Monfre, Lou Cohen, Shelley Cohen, Bill Buchanan
B Green: Fred Robles, Norma Goodhart, Ron Cetta

Wasserman Mixed Pairs
1st: Roger Teske, Candy DeFazio
4th: Anne Nunes, Bill Brault

Other Newport Bowlers:
A Green: Steve Monfre, Keno Shaw, Doreen Mayo, 
B Green: Lou Cohen, Shelley Cohen, 

Attention Club Tournament Bowlers,

Due to the rescheduling of a SW Tournament, the club's 2-Bowl Pairs event has been moved to Sunday, August 12th. 

The format is 3, 14-end matches with a blind-draw to determine teams. The sign-up sheet will be posted today on the bulletin board on the outside wall of the clubhouse.

This is a great opportunity for new bowlers to be introduced to tournament play!

Hello Newport Members,

Bruce Williams, our Greenskeeper, is having some maintenance work done on the far green (green closest to San Joaquin Hills Road) which should last a week.

Please be aware as no bowling will be permitted on that green until the work is completed.

In the meantime, all bowling will be conducted on the front green. Please be very careful not to practice, play, or even walk on the areas where there is visible damage to the green. Even though it's open for play, Bruce and Ramiro are working very hard to keep it in playing condition.

Thank you for your support in keeping our greens among the best in the country!

Newport Harbor played host to the Women's Singles qualifiers over the last two weekends and there were some terrific matches throughout.

Of particular note were the final matches to determine the winner for the Stripes division. Joanne Hedgespeth played Eva Lee twice, coming back from behind to win both times! At one point in the second match, Joanne was down 16-6. 

Congratulations to the winners, Flor Wright and Joanne Hedgespeth for moving on the National Championships in Florida.

Other Newport Harbor Members who played: Norma Goodhart, Linda Roberts, Julie Buchanan, and Rita Greenberg.

At the end of the two-weekend Men's Pairs playdowns, two teams move on to represent the SW at the National Championships. For the Stars bracket it was Newport Harbor's own, Dave Stennes and Mert Isaacman. For the Stripes bracket, Alan Ngo and James Chang.

The finals on the Stars side wasn't without a heavy dose of drama as the whole match came down the final bowls on the very last end. Congratulations to the winners and, especially, Dave and Mert.

I'd also like to give a shout out to the other Newport teams who competed right through to the final weekend. Ron Gill and Keith McCabe, unfortunately, had to bow out of the competition when a last-minute event prevented them from playing out but they had one of the most-fun matches I can recall seeing in some time. Playing against a formidable team, led by Scott Roberts, Ron and Keith were losing 4-14 halfway through but clawed their way back to force a 1-end playoff which they won.

Jimmer Wysopal and Herb Glazeroff also played extremely well with close, hard-fought matches throughout. Brian Stewart and Matt Bauchiero also played through to the second Saturday. All in all, Newport players had a terrific showing.

Check out the Bracket charts here to see the final results.

Please pardon a bit of a break from the fun news of tournaments and club events to allow me to relay some requests from Bruce Williams, our Greenskeeper.

Bruce and Romero have been working diligently to repair a number of spots on our greens where the grass has been worn down. The repair work is ongoing but especially important as preparation for an upcoming series of tournaments in August and September. If we all take a moment to look over the greens there are visible, common elements to these worn spots. 

- These spots are all within 2-meters of the ditch and mostly in the last 3-4 feet
- The locations for these spots correspond to a collective practice of raking bowls all the way back to these areas during our regular bowling practice, social bowls, and club tournaments.

Did you know that the US is the only country that employs the use of rakes to push bowls back into a pile? In other countries, the general practice is to place the mat at the location where the jack or the majority of the bowls finished on the previous end. They also gently kick the bowls back to a common location.

Because bowlers have grown so accustomed to raking the bowls back to the same spots every time, we've seen a gradual erosion of the grass-density in those places. This is by no means a problem affecting only NHLBC but can be seen on many of the greens in the SW and greater US.

What Bruce has asked of the bowlers at the club is to please not rake the bowls all the way back behind the 2-meter mark so we can protect that delicate area of the greens and maintain a truly consistent playing surface for years to come.

I'd also like to point out that playing different mat positions and jack-lengths will actually help improve our skill-level as we grow more and more accustomed to playing varying positions on the green.

Please join me in helping Bruce and Romero maintain our world-class greens by completely avoiding patches where the grass is visibly thinned or bare. You can help by spreading the word at social bowls for those who may not be reading the blog.

- Please don't rake bowls back behind the 2 meter mark.
- When practicing, please make a point of choosing a rink with the least amount of wear and tear.
- Please don't walk on the bare sections of the green.
- Please make an effort to place mats well-away from the bare spots to prevent bowls and people from standing in those delicate locations.



Thank you! 

It was hot out. Really hot. But that didn't stop a whole bunch of crazy bowlers from battling it out for the President's Cup Triples. 

As always, thank you to Chuck Muser for organizing! We hope you won your mahjong game!

Here's how the day finished:

1) Chris Gaal, Jim White, Dave Phillips
2) Steve Monfre, Ben Shaw, Jim Olsen
3) Keno Shaw, Jim Lyons, Mike Long
4) Tad Dutch, Bill Buchanan, Steve Peterson