Trail bowler Tim Flack is making a long awaited return to the 5-Pin Master Bowlers Association national championship in Edmonton, July 1-5.
The Glenmerry Bowl athlete finished in the top-6 in B.C. this year despite competing in just four of the six qualifying tournaments.
“This will be my second Master Nationals,” said Flack. “The way it works is it’s match play. So we play against the bowler that’s against us and we also play as a team, province against province.”
At 21, Flack competed in the 2015 Master championship in Hamilton as a rookie. Now, at 28 and a few more years experience, his expectations are high this time around.
“It’s really competitive,” said Flack. “But we have a pretty good team this year.”
During the qualifying season in B.C., Flack bowled to second place at Brechin Lanes in Nanaimo with a total pinfall of 2,306, that included rolling up scores of 367 and 363 in two of his eight games.
He placed fifth at Duncan Lanes in Duncan and fifth again at Scottsdale Lanes in Surrey despite bowling the high score, 373. He maintained the same position at Scottsdale at the following qualifier.
Masters Bowlers Association of BC take the aggregate of your top four scores to pick who is going to the nationals, and Flack finished sixth overall with a total of 8,213 and an average of 257.
Mike Elder was the top bowler with an aggregate of 8,850 and will play singles at the Masters. The next five play as Team BC and include Bob Herman, Kevin Heisler, Bailey Lawson, Jordon Schuss and Flack.
Team BC will compete over four days and face each province three times at host bowling centre Bonnie Doon for the national competition.
Former competitive bowler and national champion Ron Sandnes says COVID did not help the bowling world at all, but is hopeful for the future.
“One of the things COVID really hurt was 5-pin bowling on the national scale, because we have gone two years without a national open and without a national masters,” said Sandnes. “This year is kind of making a slow comeback, and they didn’t have the numbers of bowlers enter even this year, but I think by next year you will see a big increase.”
The Masters national bowling championship will be live streamed, go to www.mbacnationals.com for more information.