A strong performance helped capture bronze for one local bowling team recently.

Local bowlers Rick Bowser, Trevor Hustins, Danielle MacIntyre and Vivian Cullen made their way through an 18 team field at the 2017 Inter-Provincial 5 pin bowling National Championships in Calgary, Alberta, a short while ago and took out British Columbia to earn the bronze medal in the Inter-Provincial Team Challenge pins-over-average tournament.

"It was a huge event," says Bowser. "I think there were 32 lanes all being used at one time. We all had our lane assignments going in and everyone seemed to bowl very well with minimal mistakes. We're just local bowlers, and we knew we'd be going up against stiff competition, and we did. Our team really bonded together and our coach Al really helped us out. By the end of Saturday, we won our division, which was really impressive."

The group finished 6-2 through the round robin to capture first overall in their group. They met the second seed from the B group in the semifinals, where they ran into a Newfoundland team that seemed unbeatable. The Newfie's were the only team to post a score over 1000 at the tourney, and it came in the semifinal match.

"I'd have to say the whole thing was just unbelievable," says Hustins. "I never thought we'd make is that far so it was really special. After we went up against a red hot Newfie team, finishing with a bronze didn't seem too bad. We just went out and bowled as we needed to and it worked out well."

The event was scored by pins over average format so each player competes against their own average score and points are awarded depending on which side of the average a player bowls.

"I was hoping we'd make the medal round, and we did," adds coach Al Lightfoot. "I was very proud of them because they did very well. I'm also glad we got killed rather than lose a squeaker in the playoffs."