The Lakeview Lawn Bowling Club, Bell Lawn Bowling Club and Oakmont Lawn Bowling Club hosted Arizona Week Jan. 13-18. Lawn bowlers came from all over North America to participate, and this year, the talk of the town was Laura Seed, who flew in from Toronto to capture the $1,000 paycheck in the Salisbury Singles Tournament.

Arizona Week is made up of three events, each lasting two days of intense competition: The Arizona Mixed Rinks (two men and two women on a team); the Salisbury Singles (only one lawn bowler of either gender competing against another lawn bowler); and lastly, the Darrell Jones Memorial Open Pairs (two lawn bowlers of any gender combination).

The first event, the Arizona Mixed Rinks, was won by an American team that is not unfamiliar with winning this event. In fact, Ron Rollick, Bob Perry, Betsy Lauryssen and Sharon Perry won this event two years ago. In the finals, the Rollick team edged out an American-Canadian team made up of Jean English, Steve Bezanson, Joe Herber and Lorraine Bezanson to claim the $800 prize money donated by Tim and Amy Nixon (The Nixon Group), supporters of lawn bowling.

The skip of the team, Ron Rollick, recently returned from Cyprus where he had won a bronze medal representing the U.S., said, “We’re so happy to be able to win this tournament again, and we’re very grateful to Tim and Amy Nixon for their sponsorship.”

Next came the Singles. This year, there were 48 entries to vie for the $1,000 that Peggy Salisbury has donated in honor of her late husband George (“Champ”). Salisbury, a centenarian residing at Royal Oaks Lifetime Community, has been a long-time sponsor of this event.

Laura Seed, a newly-retired pulmonary function technologist from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, flew in on Friday, competed on Saturday, won the $1,000 prize money on Tuesday and returned to Toronto the following Monday after having competed in all three events and being in the prize money in two events.

In the gold-medal game, Seed encountered Pete Lenchuk, the president of Mountainview and Fairway Lawn-Bowling clubs. Lenchuk made a valiant effort, but he was no match against the 23-year-lawn-bowling veteran from Ontario, Canada. On winning the $1,000 jackpot, Seed gushed excitedly, “It was a great tournament...great competition...met so many great players...very proud to have won. Hope to come back next year. Many thanks to Peggy Salisbury and the organizers. Job well done!”

To cap off the week came the inaugural Darrell Jones Memorial Open Pairs. Darrell Jones was also a many-time U.S. champion. After he passed away in 2021, his widow, Rosanne Jones, decided to take over the sponsorship of this highly-acclaimed tournament.

The pot of $500 for first place was noticeably sweetened by the eleventh-hour donation of $1,000 to the winning team. Charlie Herbert, the reigning U.S. champion in Men’s Singles, was a friend of Darrell and Rosanne Jones and he wanted to honor Darrell with this one-time donation.

With the $1,500 first-place prize in their sight, the 64 competitors battled for two days, and when the dust had settled, the gold-medal game was between a husband-and-wife team — John and Barbara Lee — from California, and a seasoned Canadian team — Steve Bezanson and Mike Wagner — the 2018 U.S. Open champions. Steve Bezanson has the proverbial shoebox full of medals and his lead, Mike Wagner, has won this tournament before, and he, too, has Canadian medals of every color. Bezanson and Wagner won the tournament handily.

The next prestigious lawn-bowling event is the South Central Division Open, Feb. 17-22.