Well the Fat Lady was hitting the high notes on Friday! Without four of our Team Captains Jim Woodcock, John Costa, Lynne Missin and Clay Lingo in the pit, the Playoffs were an evening of high drama and upsets.

The evenings first game was a duel for last place and the dreaded Wooden Spoon. Once again Winning Colors with Michelle the Italian back in town rolled some beautiful balls, but typically were only able to score one point at time as the Ramones, with Carla, Chris Cattich and substitutes Deborah Garcia and Rupert, successfully knocked their potential extra points into the back wall. Fabulous accuracy by both Carla and Deb set the Ramones up for a 12-7 win and a fifth place finish for the season.

The second match of the night was between our Second and Third place teams, Checkered Napkins and Trinity Plus. Coach Conor lead his original team of Moshia, Sheryl and Matt against the Captainless Checkered Napkins in what started as a rout with Trinity up 10-2 very early in the game. But Checkered Napkins with Chris Cattich substituting for the missing Jim Woodcock quickly pulled themselves together and fought back with their usual competitive spirit and nearly tied the game. Unfortunately their rally was just a bit too late and Bobby, Kris and Jim Leon  finally succumbed to the relentless Celtic drive 12-10. It was quite a moment when first year Captain Conor Pullman and his team realized they will be playing in the Championship match.

Our final match up of the evening pitted John Costa’s first place Mangiamos against Rupert’s fourth place BBCs. Unfortunately unlike the lucky Trinity Plus, having their original team altogether didn’t do the trick as Captain Rupert leading Ted, Susan and Barb displayed nowhere near their usual level of skill. The Mangiamos with Jack, Kay and substitutes Matt Coates, Jim Leon (both doing double duty) continued their relentless drive and secured their well-earned spot in the Championship round with a 12-3 win.

The Championship Game, Award Ceremony and Victory Dinner will be held Friday September 6. Hors d’Oeuvres and Cocktails (Champagne?) at 6:30 and Game at 7pm. At the conclusion of the game we will have the Award Ceremony. Please send RSVPs by Friday August 30th.

Our final regular season game concluded August 9th. It was the most competitive night yet, and we all heard the lion roar when John Costa and his Mangiamo’s destroyed the perfect record of the King Jim Woodcock and the Checkered Napkins.

However, we all know the show isn’t over until the fat lady sings and anything can happen during the playoffs. Tonight Game One will kick off promptly at 6:30 between our 5th and 6th place teams, the Ramones and Winning Colors, with the loser earning this season’s Wooden Spoon.

Results of the final League games are attached below.

Final Standings, Regular Season

If the win loss record is the same, standings are determined by Total Points Scored (TPS)

#6WINNING COLORS – 1 win, 4 loss TPS 38

#5RAMONES – 2 win, 3 loss, TPS 48

#4BBC’S – 2 win, 3 loss,

#3 TRINITY PLUS – 3 win, 2 loss,

#2 CHECKERED NAPKINS – 4 win, 1 loss, TPS 52

#1MANGIAMO – 4 win, 1 loss TPS 59

6:30 pm- Team 6 Winning Colors plays Team 5 Ramones – the loser is awarded the Wooden Spoon, game begins at 6:30 sharp!

7:15 pm- Team 3 Trinity Plus plays Team 2 Checkered Napkins – winner advances to Championship

8:00 pm- Team 4 BBC’s plays Team 1 Mangiamo – winner advances to Championship

The Championship Game, Award Ceremony and Victory Dinner will be held in two weeks, Friday September 13.

Tonight is the final game in our regular season play. And we will be starting at 6:30 . Dress warm, it has been unusually cool here in Novato. Our dinner theme is Mediterranean Nights.

Following are the results from Round 4 and the standings.

Going into our final game the standings are:

WINLOSS

Checkered Napkins40

Mangiamo31

Trinity Plus22

BBC’s13

Ramones13

Winning Colors13

Well we all tried hard, but despite my repeated warnings and an incredibly valiant effort by the Ramones, the Checkered Napkins were once again victorious. That game was an epic battle, back and forth and back and forth, point by point, the Ramones led by Clay Lingo and assisted by Deborah, Chris Cattich, Taylor and the stalwart Carl ocassionally tied Jim Woodcock’s Checkered Napkin’s, with the amazing Kris Costa, Bobby and Jim Leon. Though the Ramones never took the lead, they were never far behind and in the end, were barely defeated losing by only 1 point.

The Checkered Napkins are going into tonight’s game with a perfect record. There is just one more chance and the pressure is on John Costa and his Mangiamos, Mary Alderete, Jack Campbell and Kay Missin. Until Round 4, the Mangiamos also retained a perfect record, but it was destroyed when Winning Colors finally came alive and won their first game of the season. Once again it was a closely fought match with constant need of the tape measure and a more than a few courtside discussions. However, Lynne Missin inspired her girls, Chris, Leslie and substitute Jasmine to play to their full potential and with a score of 12-11  the Mangiamos were defeated by a single point.

The final game of the night was barely different than the first two, with both teams the BBC’s and Trinity Plus holding matching records leading into game 4 it was a battle of equals, once again fought point by point until the conclusion. Conor’s Trinity Plus teammates, Matt, Sheryl and Brad, won 12-10 over the BBC’s captained (harangued) by Rupert and ably supported by Ted, Susan and the ever competitive Barb.

First game tonight is  Checkered Napkins playing Mangiamo, promptly at 6:30

Following are the results from Round 3 and this Friday’s menu, All American BBQ.

Pay Attention players, I warned you several weeks ago, that if we all didn’t improve our level of play Jim Woodcock and his Checkered Napkins would run away with the entire season. And here they stand after 3 rounds tied neck and neck with John Costa’s Mangiamo. Go John, Mary, Jack and Kay, congratulations for holding your standings at the top of the League!  It will not be until the final round of regular season play that these two stalwarts will face off.

Meanwhile this Friday’s upcoming games give both the Ramones and  Winning Colors the chance to upset these perfect standings. Clay Lingo’s Ramones may actually be up to the challenge if Round 3 was any indication when the Ramones soundly beat Winning Colors with Carl, Carla and Chris, chalking point after point on the board. Unfortunately Winning Colors named after the one of only three fillies to ever win the Derby, has not been a particularly apt name for Lynne Missin’s all girl team, who are at the very bottom of league standings.

As mentioned Trinity Plus with Captain Conor missing in action was soundly beaten by Mangiamo, despite some excellent play by the seasoned Matt Coates and his older brother Brad. Even the highly competitive Moshia couldn’t put enough points on the board to save the game. Our newest substitute English Dan was an important part of the valiant though futile effort.

Finally the stalwart BBC’s actually played the most closely fought game of the evening with Captain Rupert despite his exhortations to team members Barb (roll em straight), Susan (roll em with style) and Ted (just roll em) losing to the near perfect form of Checkered Napkins. Jim, Jim, Kris and Bobby have been an unbeatable combination (so far) with great placement, pool style play and an amazing long distance game. They are the ones to watch!

Standings after three rounds are:

WINSLOSS

MANGIAMO30

CHECKERED NAPKIN30

BBC’S12

TRINITY PLUS12

RAMONES12

WINNING COLORS03

Our second season got off to a good start with our usual combination of good weather, good food and great fun. Many of you were missed and I hope we see you this Friday for Round 2. Luckily we had some terrific substitutes or perhaps I should call the ringers (Nellie!) who together were responsible for bowling a fair number of points for their teams.

Once again Captain Jim (Season one’s winning captain) led his new team Checkered Napkins to a stunning 12- 4 win against the all girl team Winning Colors captained by his wife Lynne Missin. Lynne, please put something in his wine before he runs away with the season, again!

Success was also achieved by our league’s newest captain Conor and his team Trinity Plus who managed to defeat Clay Lingo and the Ramones in a closely fought game  12-10. The nights final game was won by team Mangiamo who defeated last year’s second place Captain Rupert and The BBC’s 12- 7

This Friday the first game begins promptly at 6:30.

NOTE: Captains, please check the schedule for your start times on Friday and be sure to have your team ready to play. Contact your players and arrange substitutes as needed.

Teams are as Follows, be ready to provide Team names by end of this evening. We will also be offering the opportunity to sign up for Bocce League shirts, produced by Velocitees, approximately $20.00 each.

Team 1 Conor, Moshia, Sheryl, Matt

Team 2 Clay, Carla, Carl, Chris Cattich

Team 3Lynne, Michelle, Leslie, Chris Coates

Team 4Rupert, Teddy, Susie, Barb

Team 5 John, Mary, Jack, Kay

Team 6Jim, Kris, Jim Leon, Bobby 

Game 1 5:30Team Conor plays Team Clay

Game 26:15Team Lynne plays Team Jim

Game 37:00Team Rupert plays Team John

The Wooden Spoon

After a challenging season of 6 games, with just one win, this team ended up in last place. Losing by never more than just a few points, they didn’t give up but battled bravely to the end in each and every game. More than most teams, these players were evenly skilled, sharing scoring duties across the roster. Defeated by La Famiglia in last Friday’s playoffs, the recipients of this year’s Wooden Spoon award are:

Captain Jack Campbell

Susan Chaney

Sheryl Landry

Jim Leon

The Workers

We also have a few special awards this season to recognize excellence in all of the parts that must come together to create a successful League. Many people contributed to all of our enjoyment in this inaugural season, but we want to mention a few stand out contributions:

Conor Pullman, for excellence in substituting both as a player and as an important organizer of each match he attended. Conor has earned the CBL 2012 Top Scoring substitute.

While the game is the reason we are all here, the food and drink have contributed so much to our enjoyment. While we all did our share contributing dishes to each menu, once again we have two people whose excellence  must be recognized.

Kris Costa for many the wonderful dishes she brings each and every game, is awarded the CBL 2012 Best Eggs.

We all rush from work to be apart of our Friday events, but once again we have someone who when he wasn’t bowling was an integral part of our enjoyment, Matt Coates was here for set up and breakdown each game, but most importantly manned the grill  to produce fabulous dinners each Friday, For his hard work and culinary skill Matt is awarded the CBL 2012 BBQ Master.

Now there was one team we all laughed at the moment the names were drawn from the hat. With all women crew and a male captain, not known for his tact, it was assumed they would be lucky to win a single game. But they surprised us all, winning every single one of their regular season games. The Ramones with Leslie de Giere, Kris Costa and a substitute in every match including Lori Burke, Taylor Missin and Brad Coates, were led by a formidible captain Clay Lingo to first place in regular season play. To recognize excellence in Coaching, and a surprising flair for the game, this award goes to Clay Lingo, CBL 2012 Best Coach.

Our final special award goes to a woman who has been an absolute joy to have as part of our League. Though she couldn’t be here tonight, at every other game night she was thrilled to be here, she was happy win or lose, she was competitive as hell, and could certainly roll the ball. For all round excellence, Barb Kutchinski is awarded the CBL 2012 Most Inspirational.

Finally, our main award of tonight for the Championship of the 2012 Campbell Bocce league

Goombas, captain Rupert, Matt Coates, Bobby Corso, Carl Alderete

Record -4^th place going into the playoffs with  2 wins and three losses

Game 1, lost 3- 16 to la famiglia

Game 2, won 12-8 to the woodies

Game 3, lost 3-12 to Ramones

Game 4, lost 11-12 to Rock & Rolls

Game 5, won 12-11 to the workers

Playoffs, defeated #1 seeded Ramones 12-9, for a place in the Championship

Woodies, captain Jim Woodcock, Ted Lusher, Tami, And substitutes, Brenden, Bob Mardis., Jen & Joe Hunter, Conor Pullman, Jim Prall

Record -3^rd place going into the playoffs with three wins and two losses

Game 1, won 16- 10 to the workers

Game 2, lost 8-12 to the Goombas

Game 3, lost 4-12 to Rock & Rolls

Game 4, won 12-0 to la famiglia

Game 5, won 12-2 to the Ramones

Playoffs, defeated #2 seeded Rock & Rolls 12-10, for a place in the Championship

And the winner is THE WOODIES

GOOMBAS

CAPTAIN RUPERT DEPHILLIPS

MATT COATES

CARL ALDERETE

BOBBY CORSO

LA FAMIGLIA

CAPTAIN JOHN COSTA

MOISHE SMITH

CARLA BROUILLETTE

BARB KUTSCHINSKI

THE WORKERS

CAPTAIN JACK CAMPBELL

JIM LEON

SUSAN CHANEY

CHERYL LANDI

WOODIES

CAPTAIN JIM WOODCOCK

TAMMY TSARK

STEVE PRESS

TED LUSHER

ROCK & ROLLS

CAPTAIN LYNNE MISSIN

CHRIS CATTICH

CHRIS COATES

MICHELLE SMITH

RAMONES

CAPTAIN CLAY LINGO

KRIS COSTA

MARY ALDERETE

LESLIE DEGIERE