Western Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers' Association

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and staying safe! We are starting to come up with a good back to bowling plan! This includes team bubbles which I ha...ve been referring to as pods in which parents would be able to choose which bowlers are within this pod. Soon I will have an online registration where you can reserve your shift time and submit the names that will be in your pod. We will offer great promotions for filling your pod, especially with new bowlers who are preferably within your social circle or school cohort. We are hoping to return back to bowling the first weekend of OCTOBER! I will post a list of the protocols we will be taking to keep everyone as safe as possible. If you have any questions or concerns please PM me. Mandy Pickering See more

As of August 4th 2020 we are closed for at least another week to comply with Ontario Covid-19 rules for bowling centers, gyms, bars, and theaters. Information ...for league players will follow soon. We are just beginning to meet with league executives to determine their starting dates and explain under what restrictions members can play. As you can imagine we are eager to resume operating and have appreciated the enquiries about bowling availability and other expressions of support. Phone messages and emails will continue to be monitored.

With several areas of Ontario entering Stage 3, many of our bowling centres will be able to open! Please see the update below.

Below you will find an update on the remaining O5PBA events. A PDF version is also posted on the website!

An old friend contacted me late last week. He had lost my number so he reached out to a couple of mutual friends, the Barkers and the Pankoffs, to ask me to cal...l him. I was surprised because I hadn’t spoken to Walter Heeney in a couple of years. Walter doesn’t do Facebook, so I called. We talked about life and family for a short time and then he got down to the reason for reaching out. Fraser. Walter was aware of this Facebook group and the outpouring of love and respect that was shown here for Fraser and he wanted to ask me for a favour. Walt reminded me that we were coming up on the second anniversary of Fraser’s passing. It hadn’t occurred to me that the date was approaching and it surely doesn’t seem like 2 years already. Walter went on to tell me that the terms of Fraser’s Will were about to be finalized. He asked if I would tell you all about Fraser’s parting gift to the game he loved. Today at 12 noon at NEB’s Funworld in Oshawa Walter, on behalf of his friend Fraser, will officially donate $10,040 to the Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers Association. At the same time an additional $10,040 will be donated to the Master Bowlers Association of Ontario. This represents a sizeable portion of Fraser Hambly’s final estate and he has left it to the sport that he had already given so much to. A game, that in all honesty, owed him much yet he never asked anything from other than the competition and camaraderie it provided. Somehow, 2 years after his passing, the greatest 5 pin bowler of all time has found a way to continue to give back to the sport he loved. He is still thinking of the game and it’s players. Thinking of the organizations that provide the platform for the game’s best to compete with one another. Just as he did in life he is still trying to advance the cause of 5 pin bowling 2 years after his passing. Somehow, Fraser has found a way to add a chapter to the greatest legacy our game has ever known. Somehow, just as it did 2 years ago, thank you doesn’t seem to be quite enough.