Rosetown-area bowlers capture provincial title, advance to nationals
By David McIver
A bowling team made up mainly of Rosetown bowlers won the Rising Star provincial tournament in Regina on Feb. 14-15 and will move on to the national championship.
Darion Jones of Rosetown, Walter Fernets of Biggar, Jerry King of Kindersley — both of whom bowl in Rosetown — and Leonard Lapierre of Lashburn, along with coach Bill Shkolny of Rosetown, represented the West Sask. zone at the provincial tournament.
A team, which includes three men who bowl here, won the B side of the Rising Star provincial championship held in Regina on Feb. 14-15. Coach Bill Shkolny (L) of Rosetown, Leonard Lapierre of Lashburn, Jerry King of Kindersley, Walter Fernets of Biggar and Darion Jones of Rosetown posed after their win. Photo courtesy of Darion Jones
They advanced from the B side to defeat the A-side winners and claim the overall championship.
In doing so, they qualified for the national tournament in Winnipeg on April 23-27.
Lapierre played on a team last year that won the Rising Star national tournament, which was held in Saskatoon, Jones said.
“He’s going back to defend the title,” he said.
Lapierre achieved the best pins-over-average score at the provincial tournament and also won the pins-over-average stepladder for singles, Jones said. The stepladder event is not for a medal and is held only for a cash prize and bragging rights, he said.
The West Sask. team had an eventful journey to the tournament win.
“We had a pretty decent first day,” Jones said. They finished the four games that day tied for third.
That set them up for Day 2, he said. They had “a really good” first game, taking five of six points from the opposing team in the match-play format.
They followed that with “another good game,” but had “a pretty stumbly” final game, which put them in third place, he said.
They finished third in their pool on the B side. South Sask. was first and Saskatoon second, Jones said. They had to beat both teams — including defeating South Sask. twice — to win the B side.
They then played the A-side-winning East Sask. team for the provincial championship and the right to advance to Winnipeg, Jones said.
The East Sask. team “kind of stumbled off the start. I don’t know if it was bad luck for them or what happened. We were able to link together some marks and take the win,” he said.