Youth provincial five pin bowling tournament in Hat this weekend

By JAMES TUBB on February 10, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The sound of pins falling will be raining in the hat this weekend.

The Medicine Hat Five Pin Bowling Association and Panama Lanes are hosting the Youth Challenge five-pin provincials on Friday and Saturday.

There will be 24 teams of five bowlers between three divisions, boys, girls and mixed competing in the tournament. Each bowler will also have their individual stats tracked for the boys and girls singles division.

George Mucciarone, president of Medicine Hat Five Pin Bowling Association, said he is looking forward to seeing the kids compete again after missing last season’s provincials due to COVID-19.

“It’s going to be nice to do it because it wasn’t held last year because of COVID, Mucciarone said. “It’s nice to get the kids excited to bowl again.”

The tournament is restricted to parents and bowlers to keep participants and spectators safe.

Teams will be competing simultaneously in both scratch and pins over average competitions.

The singles event is based on average. Mucciarone said pins over average is like a handicap in golf going towards a player’s score.

He said they introduced the pins over average so anyone could enjoy the tournament.

“We tried to make it inclusive for all levels of bowlers because you’re going to have six people going to nationals,” Mucciarone said. “So we want to have people get provincial experience and enjoy themselves, too.”

The top-three girls and three boys will compete at the National Championships in Calgary.

The South team includes bowlers from Medicine Hat and Lethbridge and they will take on teams from Calgary, Edmonton, North and Central Alberta.

Friday afternoon the tournament gets underway at 1:30 p.m. and finishes up Saturday afternoon with the last game starting at 4 p.m and a players-only banquet where the nationals qualifiers will be announced and team awards will be handed out.

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