Photo Courtesy HJ's Five-Pin Bowling

By Tanner Smith

Five-Pin Bowling

Peace Region to represent Alberta at the Canadian Open Bowling Championship

May 23, 2024 | 3:35 PM

The 2024 Canadian Open Bowling Championship will be getting underway in Ottawa starting on Wednesday, May 29.

The tournament will then run until Saturday, June 1, and will feature, for the first time in the 50-year history of the tournament, an Alberta Men’s Team from northern Alberta.

HJ’s Five-Pin Bowling owner and coach of the men’s team Gerald Hafner says the team won the right to represent Alberta back in March when they won provincials.

Hafner called the opportunity “a dream come true” for himself and his team, especially when “we have people from Grande Prairie flying down.”

“There’s this old fellow Bobby McIntosh is the name. He’s been a bowler for (a while, and) he’s 67 years old, and he’s watched the three Tomkins boys when they were five and six-years-old, so as soon as we won (provincials) his wife said ‘you got to go’.”

Meaningful Mementos

Remembering Someone You've Lost at Christmas

Dec 03, 2024

Seasonal Sorrow

How Do You Get Through The Holidays When You're Grieving?

Nov 01, 2024

Upcoming Events at Oliver's

Grief & Loss and Estate Planning Seminars

Oct 02, 2024

Hafner added that historically, Team Alberta has been “pretty famous for tying one on at these tournaments.” However, that won’t be the case as his team is focused on “finishing the job.”

“Their mindset is we’re not done yet right? Yes we won provincials, but we’re just not done yet. So it’s going to be head down, butt up, let’s go in there and continue to do what we did. They’ve bought into what I was doing as a coach. I’ve known these guys for many, many years and it was easy to tell them what I’m thinking, if I thought they were struggling or whatever as a coach.”

The team has remained active since provincials, according to Hanfer, with guys participating in different cash tournaments around the province and popping into HJ’s every now and again to throw some balls and keep the muscle memory.

The tournament will kick off officially on Tuesday. May 28 with an opening ceremony but bowling gets started on Wednesday, May 29 and will be done in a round-robin style.

“We have 18 games to bowl. We have to bowl each province twice, and then we do what’s called the Step Ladder; the top four teams, four will bowl three, then the winner will bowl two and then the winner of that will bowl the top team for the gold. The boy’s mentality is let’s go out there and be first in the round robin so we only have one more game left.”

A live stream of the tournament will be put on by the Canadian Five-Pin Bowling Association, while HJ’s Five-Pin bowling will have its own, which residents can watch through their social media page.

Anyone interested in seeing all team rosters or the tournament schedule can follow either of the links provided.

Hafner concluded by saying he and his team are so thankful for all the support they received from the Peace region, even outside of the bowling community, and are going to try and make all their supporters proud.

Team Alberta’s men’s team will open up the tournament against Sasketchewan on Wednesday morning.