North American Challenge
A USLBA-Sponsored Tournament
The North American Challenge is one of three tournaments sponsored by the USLBA:
| National Championships |
North American Challenge |
U.S. Open |
|---|
Click here for a website dedicated to the 2010 North American Challenge..
Schedule
In recent years this event has been held in even-numbered years. The 2012 competition will be held in Victoria, British Columbia, September 19-22.
Background
In 1993 Ed Quo (USA) and Margaret Fettes (Canada) discussed the possibility of a Canada vs USA international lawn bowls event. The conversations led to the North American Challenge, first played in 1995 at Sun City, AZ.
The initial games were teams of five men and five women. The contest evolved into two teams of ten men and ten women from each country. The ten-player teams are divided into two five-member squads designated Folkins and Jarvis in honor of two great bowlers, Dick Folkins (USA) and Graham Jarvis (Canada).
The NAC Manual was initiated by John Stewart (USA) and approved by Bowls Canada and the USLBA. The games were played annually until 2008 when a biennial format was adopted at the suggestion of Laura Dewald (Canada). Games alternate between greens in the U.S. and Canada.
The first event in 1995 was co-chaired by Gil Stephan and Charlotte O'Keefe. Gil has been the NAC Chairman for the USLBA ever since. For Canada the games are now overseen by Bowls Canada Boulingrin's High Performance Program.
The Game Format
Each country fields teams of ten women and ten men. Competing separately are two squads of five women and five men. Each squad plays the two teams from the opposing country. The top and bottom ranked teams of each country then play in a final.
The first sets of games are Pairs and Triples; the second sets are Singles and Fours. For each set of games (Singles, Pairs, Triples, Fours) there is a women's and men's winning squad. Winning sets determines the national winner. The North American Challenge is played over three days.