Joey Payeur
Jeff Watts and Dallas Gervais plan to showcase their own version of “Pin-terest.”
The Fort Frances duo kicked off their stay at the 2016 Masters Bowling Association of Canada Nationals earlier today as they bowled the first six of what will wind up being 21 games over four days at the event being co-hosted by the B.C. communities of Surrey, Langley, and Cloverdale.
Watts is an old hand at this event—making it to the Masters Nationals for the sixth time.
He is playing for Northern Ontario in the Tournament Division after finishing fourth at the provincial qualifier earlier this year in Thunder Bay to earn one of the six available berths on the team.
“[This] week is about fun,” said Watts, 27. “It’s a pretty good group of guys I’m going with.
“We know we’re probably not going to win it,” he admitted. “We will probably come in last.
“We’re such a small province compared to others, but it will be a good vacation and nice to get away for a bit,” Watts added.
Watts won gold with Northern Ontario in 2010 in the Teaching Division, which uses a pins-over-average format rather than scratch scores to decide the winners, as is done in the Tournament Division.
He also has finished fifth in the singles category, which includes only the top qualifier out of each province, while his previous best finish in the Tournament Division is seventh.
“I would like to bowl better than my average,” Watts remarked. “A perfect game would mean a whole lot of cash so that would be nice.
“Every nationals I’ve played at, I’ve played pretty good,” he added.
Gervais, 20, is at the other end of the experience spectrum as he’s making his first Masters Nationals appearance competing with another Northern Ontario contingent in the Teaching Division.
“It’s exciting. I never made it past the provincial stage when I was with YBC,” enthused Gervais, who also will be competing in the men’s singles category in B.C.
“There’s a lot less pressure going into nationals than provincials because it’s the last step, and you can concentrate on your bowling and going and having fun,” he reasoned.
The youngest player on his team by what he estimated was about 20 years, Gervais will have no shortage of familiar faces surrounding him.
“They’ve all coached me at one time or another,” he chuckled.
“It will be nice to catch up with them and I think we can do decently if we each bowl our average.”
Watts, meanwhile, said having another Plaza Lanes bowler along to the nationals for the first time will be a positive.
“It’s good to see someone else step up and do well,” he remarked.
“Dallas is in his first year of Masters play. He’s young, which means he’s not going to break a leg or have a heart attack like other Masters players,” joked Watts.
“He’s a good shooter and I think he can bowl good out there.”
As well, neither bowler is worried about what might seem like an immense amount of alley time in a 96-hour span.
“To qualify to get to the nationals, we had to bowl 20 games over two days,” noted Gervais.
“This is pretty easy although it can get mentally tiring, for sure.”
