McDonald helps team win aggregate title

It wasn’t the brass ring she originally was reaching for, but it made for a nice bauble all the same.
Local bowler Dixie McDonald shook off a knee injury suffered during singles’ competition to help the Sunset Country team capture its first aggregate title in a decade at the provincial bowling championships in Dryden last week.
“It’s not exactly what I was aiming for, but at least the week wasn’t a total write-off,” said a pleased McDonald, the only local participant at the provincials, about bringing back a championship banner to hang on the wall of Plaza Lanes.
“It’s especially impressive considering we lose so many bowlers from our zone because they have to go elsewhere to attend university,” she noted. “That’s not a problem in the zones where the universities are right there.
“I’m certainly proud to have been part of this team. ”
The aggregate crown was based on the overall results of each zone’s three ladies and three men’s singles bowlers combined with those on their ladies’, men’s, and mixed teams.
McDonald qualified in both the singles and ladies’ team competition in her first appearance at the Northern Ontario showdown after many years of making it to both the provincial and national stage while bowling out of Manitoba.
Sitting third after four of her 10 singles matches last Thursday, a trip to the nationals in Vancouver, B.C. next month was within reach for McDonald. But a misstep in the seventh game threw a monkey wrench into her travel plans.
“I injured my knee and was taking painkillers the rest of the weekend,” said McDonald, who wound up finishing in eighth place in the singles competition with a 235 average despite the mishap.
McDonald, who ended up with a 215 average for the entire tournament, added her concerns heading into the event about the Dryden lanes using string pins rather than free falling ones did prove to be a factor.
“If you don’t throw a heavy [fast] ball, string pins are not to your advantage,” she explained. “You get better action with free falling pins.
“When there’s string pins, I start to press. And when I press, I start missing my spot,” she added. “But all alleys are going to string pins eventually, including Plaza Lanes [here], so I’ll just have to get past that.”
With McDonald and a fellow teammate struggling to find their mark, Sunset Country failed to make any noise in the ladies’ team competition, where McDonald thought before the tournament her best chances lay.
“You win as a team and you lose as a team,” she reasoned afterwards. “I’ll take full responsibility. The two biggest shooters on the team had their troubles.
“It was the inexperienced bowlers who really came through for us,” she noted, then adding, “There’s always next year.”
McDonald’s competitive season will continue May 4 in Thunder Bay, where she’ll take part in the provincial roll-offs for the TSN Pins Game series.
If she advances, McDonald will assure herself some television time as a participant in the national showdown, which will be broadcast later this year on TSN.