Rose, Moore team up for mixed pairs provincials

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This article was published 15/07/2017 (3220 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rod Rose was adamant about playing in the lawn bowling mixed pairs provincial championship.

The problem was he needed a partner.

It took some convincing — OK, maybe not too much — but Chris Moore decided to team up with Rose for the event. She is after all, the two-time defending club champ at the Wheat City Lawn Bowling Club.

In fact, a playoff was needed to decide last year’s victor with Moore getting the better of Rose.

“Chris is one of our better bowlers in the club so I’m fortunate enough to be bowling with her and not against her,” Rose said with a slight chuckle. “I’m just happy that she was able to commit to play with me this weekend.

The pair opened the six-team event at their home club on Friday with a 29-12 win over another Brandon team, Kevin and Kathy Foley, but followed it up by losing 29-13 to Brandon’s Peter and Beverly Reiss

Their opening 18-end match against the Foleys marked the first time Moore, 68, and Rose, 55, had ever bowled together.

Neither of them have to worry about coaching the other up or telling them what to do. Instead, they offer advice while trying to play off one another.

“I don’t have to tell Chris anything,” Rose said. “She can read the green as well as anybody out there. She’s got her weight down and she teaches me lots too.

“It’s a team event so we can feed off each other.”

Rose also has his strengths, Moore noted.

“He draws very well and came through when he had to make pressure shots,” Moore said. “He’s very calm and doesn’t get excited and I think that helps other people to stay calm as well — like me.”

Neither Moore nor Rose have been playing competitively lawn bowling long. Moore played in her youth but took up the activity about 10 years ago. Rose estimates he has been making his way out to the Wheat City club for 15 years.

“When I retired I was looking for some other activities besides golfing to do in the summer and that’s how I got into it,” Moore said. “I came out and everybody was very friendly and welcoming.

“After a couple of years coming every second night or third night I liked the game a lot and started to bowl a lot more.”

Now she bowls four or five times a week, as does Rose.

Both Brandonites have competed at multiple past provincial championships but have never been able to get to the national stage.

This year’s Canadian mixed pairs championship will be held from Sept. 14 to 19 in Point Claire, Que., and Rose would love nothing more than to be able to represent his home province.

“Ever since I started bowling it’s been a dream of mine to make it out of Manitoba and be a provincial champion,” he said. “If it was hockey and it was the Stanley Cup it’d be kind of like that feeling. I’ll never win the Stanley Cup but hopefully I can do well this weekend and have an opportunity to represent Manitoba in the mixed in Quebec. It would be a great experience.”

Moore isn’t letting the thought of advancing to nationals get to her too much, especially with a trio of veteran Winnipeg teams in the field.

“It’s pretty tough competition from those Winnipeg teams,” Moore said. “They bowl indoors in the winter and start the season earlier … but we’ll see what happens.”

Still, she can’t help but wonder what it would be like to be in Quebec.

“It would be a pretty awesome experience, I think, to play on the kind of greens and against the kind of opposition that you would find at a national level,” Moore added. “I’m sure we’d both be pretty excited to do that.”

In Friday’s other games: Ed and Sandra Mulholland knocked off Bob and Betty Wallegham 25-7; Jerome Kirby and Elaine Jones beat the Reiss duo 17-13; Kirby and Jones got past the Mullhollands 18-13; and the Walleghams got the better of the Foleys, winning 20-11.

Action continues today with draws at 8:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 o’clock. If necessary, a playoff will be held Sunday at 8:30 a.m.

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