Once again, the Pinehurst Club is honored to be the holder of the prized trophy awarded to the winner of the match that has been held since 1988.
Pinehurst won by an 18-14 score. Williamsburg bowlers will return to Pinehurst in September of 2005 in an effort to recapture the trophy.
A Little History
The game of lawn bowling is thought by some to have been played as early as 1066 by the Normans. The oldest known bowling green, located in Southampton, England, dates at least to 1299, with some greens claiming to be older.
Henry VIII, himself a bowler, banned the sport in 1511 among the lower classes and levied a fee of 100 pounds on any private bowling green to ensure that only the wealthy could play. Williamsburg has had a bowling green since 1632 and another was built in 1670 at what is now Bowling Green, Va.
After the American Revolution, the sport virtually disappeared from the United States, possibly because it was so closely identified with England.
The game was once again introduced into the U.S. in 1876 and the American Lawn Bowls Association was founded in 1915. Pinehurst has had a bowling green since the 1920s and was the site of the U.S. Championships in 2003.
Southeast Division Success
Six Pinehurst lawn bowlers competed in Sarasota, Fla., recently in an effort to represent the Southeast Division in the U.S. Championships planned for October in Sun City, Ariz.
A three-game 21-end playoff was needed to determine the best pairs’ representative for the division in the finals.
Burl Roller of Pinehurst and his partner Bob Patterson defeated George Tucker of Pinehurst and his partner Ron Buck in the finals. The playoff game ended in a tie, which forced a third game to determine the winner and representative for the Southeast.
The singles matches started immediately after the pairs, and Tucker bounced back nicely from his runner-up finish to capture the overall winner in the singles play. He didn’t lose any games during the singles, joining Roller and Patterson as the representatives for the Southeast team for men.
In the women’s division, Margo Pelliccio and Jackie Tucker came in runner-up in the pairs and Barbara Roller edged out Jackie Tucker in singles by one point on the last bowl. All of these competitors are from the Pinehurst Country Club.
Forty-eight division champions will bowl off for the title of U.S. champion in men’s and women’s pairs and singles. Only 24 men and 24 women earned the right to compete in the championships.
