May was a busy month around the Southwest for tournaments and kicked off with the Katy Stone singles in Long Beach with a win by Anne Nunes.

The next day was another tremendously successful Newport Classic, with special thanks going to all the sponsors for the event and especially Lou and Shelley Cohen for all their hard work and effort.

A couple weeks later, after all the Open Houses and celebrations of the wonderful Mothers out there, Laguna Woods hosted the Mixed Pairs event. Big congratulations go out to Ron Cetta for taking home the 1st place spot on the A green. 

The day after the mixed pairs were the Novice Singles events for women and men, both held at Newport Harbor. Julie Buchanan took home the top spot for the Ladies. 

The month finished up with the annual Disney Pairs tournament in Beverly Hills over Memorial Day weekend where Anne Nunes finished second overall.

June's already off to a strong start with the Women's pairs and Men's singles playdowns to decide the Southwest representatives for the National Championships in those events.

by Mike Ruggles

​What a fantastic Memorial Day weekend! It started on Saturday with our 2-bowl triples tournament and concluded on Monday with another successful session of "holiday bowls". And the feedback has been phenomenal. 


The President's Cup 2-bowl pairs had 30 entrants competing on 10 teams established randomly via a blind draw. As usual, we played four 10-end games with a maximum number of 7 plus points available per game. When all was said and done the winning team of Bruce Williams, Norma Goodhart and Paul Gadbut finished with 3 wins, 1 tie and 15 plus points. This win scores each bowler 100 points towards our "bowler of the year" competition. Second place went to George Petyo, Randy Hatfield and Jim Lyons with 3 wins, 1 loss and 17 plus points (80 bowler of the year points each). And third place went to Jimmer Wysopal, Diana Wenzel and Don Stewart with 3 wins, 1 loss and 4 plus points (70 bowler of the year points each). 

The next club tournaments are on Saturday June 22 (President Cup's Pairs) followed two weeks later on Sunday July 7 (Vet-Novice Triples).  Please mark your calendars. 

On Memorial Day we held our latest edition of "holiday bowls". The weather was perfect and the turnout  very impressive (34 bowlers on 8 rinks). Our next "holiday bowls" event will be held on Thursday July 4. As a reminder, all tournaments and "holiday bowls" events begin at 9am. 


Thank you to EVERYONE who participated. Our success at every level is simply a reflection on our membership as a whole. 

On Saturday, May 11th, Newport Harbor Lawn Bowling Club will hold it's annual Visitors' Day from 8am-8pm.

Everyone is welcome as we'll be kicking the day off with a pancake breakfast at 8am. As visitors arrive they'll be welcomed in with a tour of the facility, an introduction to the game of bowls inside our clubhouse, and instruction on the basics out on the front green.

For current club members, please help spread the word for the event and we'd love to see as many of you as possible come out to play on the far green. In addition to the pancake breakfast there will be pizza for lunch and maybe even some grilling for dinner. Come on out and enjoy some food, have fun, and welcome the prospective new members who will be coming through.

As always, if anyone has questions about Visitors' Day, or the club, they should be directed to info@newportharborlbc.com.

​

For those who don't know, Steve Monfre has moved back to New Jersey after spending the last couple of years here in the Newport/Irvine area. I think it would be pretty hard to find someone who brought as much humor, helpfulness, and overall positivity to the club in such a short amount of time. I know I speak for a lot of people when I say I'm better for knowing him. He was always one of the first ones helping set up and among the last ones breaking down whatever was happening on a given day.

It just seemed that if there was something happening at the club from social bowls to tournaments and winter league, Steve was in the middle of it with his Wisconsin drawl heard far and wide. (Seriously, man, you were pretty loud on the greens with your information sharing)  I'll also have echoes of Brian Stewart chanting, "Mon-Fray! Mon-Fray!" every time he made a killer shot on Monday nights forever (as I am sure Steve will too).

In all seriousness, though, as I've seen word spread that Steve moved back east, the news has only been met with a touch of sadness and a recognition that he was nothing but great to the club and everyone in it during his time with us. 

Steve, on behalf of everyone at Newport Harbor Lawn Bowling Club, we wish you and your family all the best my friend and we hope to see you again sooner rather than later.

Employing a revised format for the annual club singles tournament, there could be no doubt about this year's champion - Matt Bauchiero who went 7-0 on the day.

Splitting time between bowling and watching what would become an historic Master's Golf Tournament, a full field of 24 bowlers competed in the event. 

The top 4 finishers on the day:

1st - Matt Bauchiero 7-0
2nd - Randy Hatfield 6-1
3rd - Fred Robles 5-2 +17 pts
4th - Jane Blair 5-2 +15 pts

Thanks to everyone who came out to play and to Mike Ruggles for running the tournament. Also a special thanks to the extra help provided by Maryna Hyland and Jim White.