It was a cold, blustering day when 40 competitors, some 17 of them past or present international players, descended on the Santa Monica bowling green on Sunday, March 16 to play this annual, keenly competitive tournament.

As in past years, 10 players were invited from all over Southern California by the captains representing USA [Tony Baer], Europe [Phil Dunn], South Africa [Ray Spiro] and Rest of the World [Ian Ho]; "nationality" meaning the nationality of each player before he/she was 21 years.

Each team played 3 matches of 12 ends each with Quinell scoring showing the points aggregated throughout the day.

In the first match Europe started strongly by beating South Africa 34 to 28 while the Rest of the World did well to win over USA 33-29.

After an excellent lunch hosted by Dixie and Rosanna, the cold wind gave way to blissful sunshine and all the teams responded by playing the most exciting "tight" ends and competitive play you will see anywhere in the USA.

In the second leg, the Rest of World, especially their Rinks team, came on strong to beat South Africa by 34 to 27 while the USA and Europe teams fought to a draw at 31 points each.

In the final leg, USA really pulled out all the stops to beat South Africa by 43-18 points, thereby moving from third to first place in the overall standings; meanwhile, the Rest of World beat Europe by 34-28 points leaving the Rest of the World to finish second overall [$200 prize] and Europe in third place [$100 prize].

Congratulations to USA for winning for the second year running [$1000 prize]; their team was comprised of Tony Baer (captain), Chris Booth, Bill Brandt, Harry Dickinson, Loren Dion, Rosa Gandara, Anne Nunes, Jim Olsen, Bill Reidy and Michael Siddall.

Once again, we are most grateful to the Beckley family for so generously sponsoring this tournament.