“It is humbling to meet my match as I am so used to winning gold,” said Randy Fred about his silver medal at the Blind Bowls Association of Canada Visually Impaired Lawn Bowling Canadian Championship held in Winnipeg July 21 to 25.
“My two games against Binh Vo, who won the gold were very exciting games. Each game came down to the very last ball of each game. In the first, Binh beat me out with his last ball. In the second game I was one foot short on the last ball,” explained Fred. “I will beat him the next time we play,” said the competitor.
The medal qualifies Fred to attend a lawn bowling competition in South Africa next May.
He will need to raise nearly $10,000 for himself and his director to enter the tournament.
Fred is very grateful to Tseshaht Band members for assisting with costs for the Winnipeg tournament. They raised money through a looney-twoonie auction on Aboriginal Day.
“I must thank everyone who donated items and purchased tickets for the auction,” he said.
“I am also grateful to my brother, Clinton, who was very generous with helping me out.”
He also thanks the Nananimo Visually Impaired Lawn Bowling Club and BC Blind Sports & Recreation Association to contributing towards costs for him and his director, Tom Williams.
“I really do need to thank Tom Williams for agreeing to be my director on such short notice. We did pretty good for our first time playing together as a team,” Randy explained.
Randy was also presented with the Bob Giesbrecht Memorial Plaque for the most aggregate points.
“This is a very humbling award for me,” he explained, “because Bob was an excellent lawn bowler. Despite his age and ailments, he never gave up in any game and he always impressed me. I miss the great competition Bob gave me whenever we played.”
Fred’s next goal is to win the 2011 BBAC Canadian Championship, following it up with the 2012 World Championship.
He encourages everyone to seriously consider trying out lawn bowling.
“All you really need to lawn bowl is to enjoy laughter and fun. It is a great game and I wish I started playing at a much younger age.”
