Bantam girls collect one win

IROQUOIS–The Iroquois Lawn Bowling Club opened its season with a big to thank the participants of the Garry Banford Memorial Fishing Derby for the $1,000 donation to the club. 

“This was a wonderful surprise and very timely because the Iroquois Lawn Bowling Club needed financial support,” said Ron Beaupre in a press release to The Leader.

“Our club membership has dwindled over the last few years, and we are looking for people in the area to get out and give our game a try.” 

Play at the Iroquois lawn bowling court located next to the trailer park on Carman Road at Elizabeth Drive is three evenings a week, Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays beginning at 7 p.m. 

This location, affords a beautiful view of the St. Lawrence, and often enjoys a beautiful summer-time breeze off the water, making it an idyllic spot for the sport.

This year the club has plans to buy a set of bowls for juniors that will enable families to come out together for a game. 

The club is also encouraging local businesses to consider family days for their employees that would include golf, swimming, tennis and lawn bowling with picnic lunches at the Iroquois Lawn Bowling clubhouse.

Coffee clubs, school groups, service clubs and sports teams should consider coming out for a game just to have a new experience.

The Iroquois Ladies Lawn Bowling Club was organized in the old village on June 30, 1934. After the Seaway moved the town back from the river, the new court was built and maintained by the Village of Iroquois and later the amalgamated township of South Dundas.

However, when the Iroquois Golf Club was privatized, the greens keepers, who also maintained the lawn bowling green were no longer available. 

Although the club was able to hire the golf club staff for one year thanks to a 50 percent subsidy from the Township Recreation Department, the next year that subsidy was reduced by 33 percent. As a result the lawn bowlers hired one man to cut the court regularly. 

This year there is no financial support from the township, even though the court is still their property,” says Beaupre. “We are now left alone to find a way to pay for maintaining the green, which will cost about $4,000 this year. There are only three lights left in service, which will restrict our playing time early and late in the season.”

Beaupre explains that club has purchased mowers and yearly expenses are for fertilization, aeration, top dressing and insect (ant) control on the court. In addition there are the costs to maintain the motorized equipment and the sharpening of the mower blades ($200).

Lawn bowling is much like curling on grass. You pitch the bowl off to one side or the other, giving it just the right weight to get it near the “jack,” a small white ball. 

The bowl will curl a few feet just as it slows down. 

“After a few games, you will find yourself enjoying this game and the company of a group of very friendly people,” says Beaupre. “We have lots of extra sets of bowls, and we enjoy helping new members learn the game. Our court is in excellent condition thanks to the hard work of our club members.”

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It may not seem like it due to the cold winter weather, but spring is just around the corner and soccer with the South Dundas Soccer Association is not far behind.

Coming up on Saturday, March 7, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Iroquois Civic Centre, is the first of two registrations for this year’s soccer program in Iroquois.

Good news for all participants is that the fees for the 2015 season remain unchanged at $40 per child. For the $40 per player participants receive his/her shirt and lunch during the final tournament. 

In addition the $40 covers 10 weeks of fun, playing soccer and making new friends and it will all start this year on Saturday, May 23. 

The year end tournament will run July 24-25, and association president Phillip Blancher says some special events to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the South Dundas Soccer Association and the 15th anniversary of the World Cup Soccer finale weekend are in the works.

South Dundas soccer runs on Saturday mornings in Iroquois from 8 am. until 11 a.m. and this year’s program is available to youth born from 1997 to 2010 (the youngest). Soccer is offered in  five age divisions U-6 (5-6 years), U-8 (7-8 years), U-10 (9-10 years) U-13 (11-13 years) and U-18 (14-18 years).

The number of players in each age category determines the number of teams, and the Saturday morning schedule is a fixed schedule with the U-8 and U-10 playing at 8 a.m., the U-6 and U-13 at 9 a.m. and the U-18 at 10 a.m.

It is because player numbers determine team numbers, that it is so important that players are registered at one or the other of the two upcoming March registrations. (The second is Friday, March 27 from 6-9 p.m. at the Civic Centre in Iroquois). There is also a late fee of $20 per child.

“Last year we had just over 400 kids on 34 teams across the five divisions. We played a total of 253 games of soccer including the tournament games,” says Blancher of the very popular program.

Players participate in one hour sessions on Saturday mornings with the first half used to work on skills and the second half to play a game. Standings are kept, mainly to provide a seeding for the team in the final tournament. “It helps us to schedule for the year-end tournament. We try to balance it at the final tournament so that everyone can have some success and fun.”

Volunteers are a key to the success of the South Dundas Soccer Program. 

“We will have the canteen open if we can get enough volunteers to run it. We need volunteer parents and students for the canteen, to help with the fields and cutting the grass. While the school board and the municipality mow, it isn’t always optimum to when we need to use the field. We need people to line the fields, to set up and take down the nets, to set out the road cones to shut down the street and to coach.”

“We certainly have lots of volunteer hours for high school students who need to get their hours in. And of course, any help from anyone is greatly appreciated.”

Blancher says the program is run with the belief that everyone has the right to play. “It doesn’t matter if there is a disability, we will work with a player’s disability and make it their strength.”

The association also doesn’t allow cost to stand in the way of a child participating. Because the cost per player of $40 is bare bones, family discounts are not available. However, the South Dundas Soccer works with the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Program and the Upper Canada District School Board’s Champions for Kids, both programs available to provide financial assistance to families who need help.

“We also have some other funding sources to help out so that anyone who wants to play soccer can. Cost is not a factor. We have a cleat exchange to help out, and we hope to have it available at the registrations.”

Soccer cleats and shinguards are mandatory for all players this year.

Blancher is pleased that a number of sponsors have returned to the soccer field this year and it is thanks to these local businesses that registration fees remain low. Sponsors come on board to sponsor colours and so if their colour is red then they sponsor the red shirts in each age category that has a red team.

For the sponsorship, the sponsors get their logo on the back of the shirts, they are featured on the Associations’ website, in programs and in any form of press release.

“These sponsorships really help us out by offsetting some of our costs (like insurance),” says Blancher. “Because of the great sponsorships we had last year, we didn’t have to increase our fees this year. That is really great, and we are very appreciative of the community support we receive.”

To save time, registration and volunteer forms can be printed and filled out in advance from the Association’s website: www.southdundassoccer.org.  Cash or cheques are acceptable.

[…]

After an extended break in their schedule, the South Dundas Peewee B1 House Lions were back on the ice Friday night hosting to defeat the North Leeds Stars, 5-2. 

The Lions are currently sitting in third place on the East Division with a 1-1-2 record.

The Lions had opened a 3-0 lead going into the third period and needed a strong period to finish off the Stars, but would the schedule break hurt their legs late in the game. 

The Stars began using the body a lot more later in the game and a great  check in the neutral on Lions defenceman Devon Dumoulin actually led to the Lions next goal. 

After the hit, the puck went into the Star end zone. As the Stars defenders watched the check, Kendrew Byers and Max Garlough skated in alone and Byers wristed a shot home to extend the Lions lead to 4-0.

The Lions continued to press and Jaxon Weegar had two chances, the first on a shot from the slot that went wide and the second when Brady Smith kept the puck alive at the blue line, sent a pass down to Weegar who passed across the crease to a wide open Kurtis Markell whose shot was stopped by Stars goaltender Kaleb McCulloch.

The Lions jumped on the power play on a Stars tripping penalty and opened with some excellent passing which led to a few shots.

However, the Stars were the ones to capitalize when a Stars forward got the puck just right of the slot, and then backhanded a shot just inside the top corner to get the Stars on the board. 

The Stars did not let up and  40 seconds later a defenceman went end to end and buried a shot low in the net to make the score 4-2. 

Off the face off, the puck came into the Lions end and the Stars got another scoring chance before Jonah Bennis picked up the puck in his own end, went coast to coast and deked out the Stars goaltender to bury a backhand shot into the open net for a 5-2 Lions lead that they would close the game on.

The Lions starred the game a little on their heels and on one occasion Lions defenceman Sheridan Caines picked up the puck, passed it to Connor Dumoulin at the Stars blue line. Dumoulin drove the net and beat the goalie to open the scoring only a minute into the game

After a  few other scoring chances for Lions Lucas Bennis and Sam Gould (who was playing in his first game of the season as he just came off the injured list) it was Max Garlough who would be johnny-on-the-spot when Devon Dumoulin went end to end on a rush. Dumoulin had the puck knocked away right and it ended up in Garlough’s possession. One stride and a shot low to the glove side gave the Lions a 2-0 lead.

In the second, the Lions extended the lead to 3-0 when Devon Dumoulin went end to end and shot over the goalie’s trapper. 

Noah Keeler and Aden Casselman teamed up to help defend Lions goaltender Wesley Alexander as he was forced to make several big saves in the second period. 

The South Dundas Peewee B1 House Lions are next in action on home ice Saturday, November 17th at 2:30 p.m. when they host the

NGS Braves.

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