QUEBEC BLIND LAWN BOWLING ASSOCIATION

Blind Lawn Bowling began in Quebec in 1990 at the Westmount Lawn Bowling Club, devotedly organized by Joan McKay of Beaconsfield and John Carlin of Verdun. As a result was born the Quebec Blind Lawn Bowling Association (QBLBA), with Irene Lambert as its first president. Bob Gandey was instrumental in securing a government grant to cover the cost of bowls and equipment.

Coaches were recruited and trained to direct the blind bowlers. Each bowler was matched with a director to guide his or her position on the mat, direction and judgment of distance. “Aim at one o’clock” is one of the guidelines frequently heard. And “good shot” almost as often! Play was begun on Wednesday afternoons, followed by a sociable cup of tea. The program blossomed so that in the following year the club provided six provincial trophies, designed by Joan McKay, to be won by the blind bowlers. In due course, Monday nights were added to the bowlers’ weekly agenda. And, subsequently, other trophies were added.

In August of 1993, members of the QBLBA entered their first national competition, in Halifax, winning silver in pairs and bronze in the women’s singles. Since then, members of the QBLBA have taken part in national competitions every year, and for many of those years, Bob Gandey was a key fund raiser, coach, and assistant team manager, with Joan McKay as manager and guiding force.

In 1995, the national competition came to the Beaconsfield and Pointe Claire clubs, with some fifty bowlers from all over Canada competing in singles and pairs. A QBLBA bowler, Ron Pelletier, as one of the medal winners, went on to the international competition in England.

Lawn bowling for the visually impaired and blind began in Scotland over thirty years ago. In July, 1998, a group of twenty Scottish bowlers came to compete for a week against a team from the QBLBA. That same summer, Ron Pelletier won the silver medal in the International Blind Bowlers’ Tournament in South Africa, accompanied by his coach, Shirley Ahern. Joan McKay also traveled to South Africa, as Canadian Team Manager, and it was while she was en route home that she died in New York City.

The blind bowlers have done well at all levels of competition -- provincial, national, international, and world, including the 2000 nationals in Vancouver, when Ron Pelletier won gold, and Louis Van Volsen, also a QBLBA bowler, won silver.

Norma Lunan joined the QBLBA as a coach in 1994. She was Ron Pelletier’s coach when he won his first Canadian bronze medal in Saskatoon the summer of that year. She was later elected treasurer, and WAS the team manager assisted by her sister Claire Sargent who also directed Ron Pelletier when he won the Canadian gold medal in Vancouver in the millennium year. Norma and Claire retired from their respective positions in the fall of 2003.

Among the awards available now is a Provincial trophy named in honor of Joan MacKay, and club trophies honoring Bob Gandey and former QBLBA president, Dayle Miller, both of whom died in 2000. This year, the Joan MacKay trophy was once again won by Ron Pelletier on July 17th while the Dayle Miller trophy was won by Gordy Crann. Joan McKay, Bob Gandey, and Herb Linder are commemorated in a rose garden at the Beaconsfield Lawn Bowling Club. The garden was created by the city of Beaconsfield in 2001, and dedicated in a special ceremony on Canada Day, and once again on the club’s anniversary, by Mayor Roy Kemp.

The QBLBA continues its activities from late May until mid-September on Monday nights at the Westmount Lawn Bowling Club and also on Monday nights and Wednesday afternoons at the Beaconsfield Lawn Bowling Club.

If you are visually impaired or blind and would like to participate in a great outdoors sport, or if you are a sighted bowler who would like to offer your services to the QBLBA, please click on the link below to contact our president or call for information.

Lucio D’Intino
Tel: (514) 487-2808