The pins didn't stand a chance at this year's Master Bowlers Association of Canada (MBAC) National Championships, as more than 100 of the country's best bowlers gathered in the Lower Mainland to battle it out on the lanes.
B.C. hosted this annual tournament for the first time since 2016, with the athletes spending several days competing at Abbotsford's Galaxy Bowl, Surrey's Scottsdale Lanes, Port Coquitlam's PoCo Bowl, and Vancouver's Grandview Lanes.
However, it wasn't all spares and strikes, with the tournament also suffering from one major gutter ball moment, explained tournament co-chair Jo-Anne Borgford.
Road work being done by Asara Construction near Galaxy Bowl suffered a delay, which brought the Abbotsford portion of nationals to a halt.
According to a notice distributed by the construction company, work crews were partnering with the City of Abbotsford to temporarily shut down the water supply from 10 p.m. on Tuesday, June 24, to 6 a.m. on Wednesday, June 25.
However, when Galaxy Bowl management opened the Abbotsford facility on Wednesday morning, they discovered that the water supply was still unavailable even after 8 a.m.
Unfortunately, things were already in motion by this time, explained Borgford.
"By the time he discovered that the water was not on when he opened his centre, I already had 48 bowlers, plus guests, travelling on buses from Surrey to Abbotsford to compete," Borgford said. "That kind of threw a wrench into my day."
She explained that it wasn't a simple matter of waiting for the water supply to be turned back on so that the competitors could be properly accommodated.
"We didn't know when the water would come back on. If we knew it would be back on in an hour or two, we could've had those bowlers wait somewhere," she said.
With the uncertainty in front of them, Borgford and her tournament co-chair, Joan Ritchie, had to take swift action to relocate the tournament women competitors who were in limbo in Abbotsford.
"I could not continue my tournament without having these people bowl their games," Borgford said. "We were very lucky that we were able to get a hold of the bus people to come back and get the bowlers."
However, this last-minute change resulted in some significant costs and more than a few headaches.
"The bus cost alone was quite large," Borgford said, explaining that getting the buses to return to Abbotsford and take the teams to other lanes cost approximately $3,600.
While the competitors were on yet another long bus ride, tournament workers were scrambling to rearrange the events to fit in this new batch of athletes.
"The schedule is very tight, and they're very long days," Borgford said.
Eventually, tournament management was able to sort out all of the games and the water supply returned to Galaxy Bowl at approximately 11 a.m., but the chain of unfortunate consequences was not quite done, with the festive Hollywood North social event planned for all of the competitors later that evening also being affected.
"The most unfortunate thing is that because of that switch, not only did it completely mess up everyone's schedule, but it also meant that most of the tournament ladies who had gone to Galaxy were done so late that they weren't able to attend the evening fun," Borgford said.
In total, about 30 to 40 athletes were unable to join in on the festivities that night.
"It was the worst day for that to happen."
But despite this massive hiccup, Borgford said that the rest of the tournament went much more smoothly.
"Overall, I think it was a success. We managed to get through, and everybody managed to bowl."
When it was all said and done, the following B.C. competitors had some shiny new medals to show off:
鈥� Jordon Schuss, tournament mens singles (gold)
鈥� Kyle Young, tournament mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Derek Orne, tournament mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Allen Burn, tournament mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Tim Flack, tournament mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Stu Ryan, tournament mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Nigel Borgford, teaching mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Trevor Rachwalski, teaching mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Lucas Fehr, teaching mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Howie Price, teaching mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Rick King, teaching mens teams (bronze)
鈥� Meagan Jewell, teaching womens singles (bronze), teaching womens teams (silver)
鈥� Tanya Arnouse, teaching womens teams (silver)
鈥� Catie Gagnon, teaching womens teams (silver)
鈥� Helen Dalin, teaching womens teams (silver)
鈥� Nicole Borne, teaching womens teams (silver)
鈥� Ken Tyers, seniors singles (silver)
It was a performance that made Borgford proud of her fellow B.C. competitors, especially with the B.C. athletes being awarded the most improved bowlers title.
"We had a very bad year last year but a much better one this year," Borgford said.
With nationals now wrapped up, the competitors will get a much-needed summer break before returning to regular league bowling in the fall.
