BARRHEAD – A group of Barrhead and Fort Assiniboine residents used their affinity for knocking things down to bring home a medal from the Canada 55 Plus games in Kamloops.
Last week, Bessie Stevens, Glen and Marge Thompson, Vern Kalmbach and Wayne Sheren earned the bronze medal in the 65 plus category after three days of team competition in five-pin bowling.
In the 55 Plus Gams, a bowling team competes in the age category of its youngest member. Stevens is the eldest statesman of the group at 84.
It was the second trip to the Canada 55 Games for Stevens, competing in golf in the 2018 Summer Games in St. John, New Brunswick.
The Thompsons and Sharen are from Fort Assiniboine, while Stevens and Kalmbach are from Barrhead.
The team qualified for the Canada 55 Plus Games earlier at the Edmonton Alberta 55 Plus Winter Games in early April by winning silver.
Although the team has known each other for several years and have bowled with and against each other in different configurations, Stevens said they only recently joined forces to form a team.
The team left for Kamloops on the morning of Monday, Aug. 23, from Fort Assiniboine, in a mini two-vehicle caravan, getting there late in the evening.
After registering for their event the next day, the team took the opportunity to rest in their hotel rooms, which were difficult to come by as the event attracted upwards of 3,000 competitors.
Which turned out to be a bit problematic for Stevens, noting a mistake in her hotel room reservation had her doing some room hopping over her five-day stay.
"It might not have been a great omen," she said, adding the team got off to a rough start.
The competition started for the squad (dubbed by games officials as Alberta 2) at 10 a.m. on Aug. 25. In their first game, the team was on the minus side of the ledger, scoring a -64. In their second game, they improved their play, but not enough to be on the plus side, finishing with a -27, giving them a combined total of -91.
"In competitions like these, they use the Points over Average scoring system," Stevens explained.
Under the system, each bowler is given a handicap or a number to which it is believed they should be able to meet. If they score above that number, they end up on the plus side of the ledger, but if they don't they are given a negative number.
On the second day, Aug. 26, their performance improved drastically. In the first game Alberta 2, scored a +48, followed by +105 and +84 games ending up with a two-day total of +146.
Unfortunately, on the final day of the competition, they couldn't capitalize on the momentum, finishing with a combined -95 in their last game for a three-day, a six-game total of +51.
Stevens said that regrettably, due to the extreme heat, which stayed above 30 degrees Celsius for their entire time in Kamloops, they opted to stay inside their hotel rooms, leaving only to bowl or eat.
Canada 55 Plus Games athletes were given free city transit passes and discounts to many of the city's attractions.
"But it was just too hot," she said, joking that she is glad she opted to go to the games in bowling.
Stevens also qualified to compete in golf after she won gold at the Alberta 55 Plus Summer Games in Peace River in June.
"I was talking to one of the girls who competed in golf," she said. "While the temperature at the in-town golf course they played at was in the mid-30s, the other one on the top of the hill was over 40."
