Local bowlers snap banner drought

The drought is finally over!
For the first time since the 1992-93 season, a contingent of local bowlers brought home the banner from the annual aggregate bowling tournament that pits Fort Frances against Atikokan, Dryden, and Kenora.

Hosted this year by Atikokan over the weekend, Fort Frances literally bowled over the competition—earning 52 points overall compared to 26 for runner-up Dryden.
Atikokan finished in third place with 25 points, followed by Kenora with 17.
“It’s been a long haul waiting to win,” enthused longtime bowler Carolyn Stamarski, who was on the mixed handicap team which captured first place in its division.
“Everybody did so well. It was very exciting,” she added.
Stamarski noted the Fort Frances contingent had come close to the top prize in many previous years, including losing out by just one point last year in Dryden, but finally broke through this past weekend.
“A couple of times, we thought we had it, but just barely missed,” she recalled.
Stamarski’s husband, Rick, who helped both the mixed handicap and men’s scratch teams to first-place finishes on the weekend, echoed his wife, noting it was a scenario of “close but no cigar.”
“We were close lots of times, we just didn’t make it,” he reiterated.
Rick Stamarski was on the local contingent the last time it brought home the aggregate banner 17 years ago, and felt relieved to have gotten his hands on another one.
“It was great, just like this one, but we didn’t have to wait as long [between wins],” he remarked.
“This is tremendous.”
Toni Benning, another longtime bowler, said many of the same bowlers attend the tournament from year to year, so there is a social aspect to the tournament, as well.
“It’s always good to see everybody from the different towns because you see people from year-to-year and you make friends,” she explained.
“It’s a fun tournament to go to.”
But the teams put friendships aside when it comes time to take the lanes—as the squad from Fort Frances showed.
“We had double the points of the other teams,” noted Benning. “It was pretty convincing.
“We had a lot of good single bowlers and that really contributed,” she explained.
Local teams were victorious in four of the six divisions, also including mixed scratch and men’s handicap.
As well, Fort Frances took top honours in men’s singles for both the scratch and handicap divisions.
Bob Petawanaqueb recorded the highest seven-game score of the tournament in men’s scratch, racking up 1,668 pins in total.
Vernon Tattrie of Atikokan had the high single-game score (340), but finished 55 points behind Petawanaqueb over the course of the tournament to take second place.
Jeff Watts, competing in his first aggregate for Fort Frances, finished third in men’s singles (scratch) with a 1,601 total.
Three other Fort Frances men—Gerry Rousseau (1,523), Bill Plumridge (1,496), and Mike Behan (1,469)—finished sixth, seventh, and ninth, respectively.
Meanwhile, Fort Frances men Don Wood, Rick Stamarski, and Bryan Patterson swept the top three singles positions in the handicap division.
Among the ladies, Dixie McDonald finished third overall in singles with a 1,509 total.
Carla Hanzuk, meanwhile, earned the seventh and ninth positions while bowling for the ladies’ scratch and mixed scratch teams (1,407 and 1,399 respectively).
Patti Fraser of Fort Frances was second in the ladies’ handicap singles.
The local mixed scratch team, featuring McDonald, Hanzuk, Plumridge, Tom Hebert, and Ken Dick, eked out the narrowest win—taking first place in their division by a mere 34 pins over runner-up Dryden (6,837-6,803).
The men’s scratch team—comprised of Petawanaqueb, Watts, Rousseau, Behan, and Rick Stamarski—also had a tough battle on their hands, going down to the wire to edge second-place Atikokan by just 57 pins (7,583-7,526).
The ladies’ scratch team, which included McDonald, Hanzuk, Benning, Brenda Hanzuk, and Jeannie Townson, wasn’t as fortunate, finishing in second place well behind Kenora (6,766-6,370).
In the handicap division, the men’s team of Wood, Dave Robar, Darren Robb, Rich Walton, and Terry Wilson, captured top honours by just over 100 pins against second-place Atikokan.
The handicap mixed team—Nancy and Len Noonan, the Stamarskis, and Patterson—enjoyed the widest margin of victory, topping second-place Atikokan 7,903-7777.
Finally, the local ladies’ handicap team, comprised of Fraser, Barb Rousseau, Monique Ribey, June Wood, and Shirley Jensson, totalled 7,497 to finish in fourth place behind Dryden (8,264), Kenora (7,763), and Atikokan (7,706).