Bowlers from the St. Paul and surrounding area have something to celebrate after returning from a national level competition with gold medal honours. The five-member team did the province proud by capturing the first place position in the senior division at the National Championship of Master Bowlers.
The national five-pin bowling tournament took place in the city of Gatineau, Quebec from June 28 to July 2, and included teams from eight Canadian provinces. St. Paul resident Georgette Lafreniere described the tournament as large and eventful, since there were three divisions of competition and many teams competing in each from around the country.
Lafreniere was one of the members of the team, which also included, Rollie Poitras of St. Paul, Doris Kissel of Bonnyville, Marty Bush of Edmonton, Rick Westoby of Lethbridge and coach Cisco Beyersbergen.
“It was a wonderful competition,” Lafreniere said. “We all worked together and we were one unit.”
The tournament was overall a great accomplishment for the team and their ability to come together as a group and work together was one of the main reasons for their first place finish Lafreniere said.
“The tournament was successful overall,” Lafreniere said. “We had two bowlers who were able to score over 300 and that was Rollie and Marty.”
In addition to her team’s first place finish in the senior division Lafreniere also collected another gold medal while at the event. She received gold in the singles category for the best most pins over average. At last year’s national competition, Lafreniere received a bronze medal in the event and was very happy for the improvement up to the first place title.
The team played a total of 21 games at the tournament and took on each of the seven other competing teams from around Canada three times. The competition came down to a close battle between Team Alberta and Team Quebec. Alberta was able to come out with the victory with a total overall score of 118.5 points with Quebec coming in a close second with 117 points overall.
During the tournament, Team Alberta was the only team able to end the tournament with a positive pins over average in the senior division. Other Alberta teams were also in action at the championships. The Alberta ladies team in the tournament division took silver in their competition.
