Wass takes the 2026 Indoor Championship

2026 BC Provincial Men’s Indoor Singles Tournament

Once again, the Pacific Indoor Bowling Club stepped up to host the cream of our men’s indoor singles bowlers. This year the tournament attracted the most registrants ever, with 32 bowlers signing up to compete. The level of skill displayed across the board was world class despite the variance in experience levels. We had first year bowlers holding their own against 20+ year veterans.

This draw with 32 bowlers was even more of a challenge than the 20-bowler draw for the women’s tournament 2 weeks prior. The bowlers were randomly assigned to 4 separate sections of 8 bowlers each, and then randomly allocated to play against 4 of their competitors in their section. With 64 sectional games to be played we had to schedule 5 rounds of play on both the Friday and Saturday, as well as a final round of Sectional play (for 12 bowlers) before the playoffs on the Sunday. The top ranked bowler in each section went through to the playoffs and the next four highest ranked bowlers across all sections were also promoted to the playoffs.

The playoff results are as follows:

Quarter Finals:

• Gavin Clifford (winner) versus George Sit
• Vincent Mai (winner) versus Nolan Atkins
• Alan Wass (winner) versus Brent Knudslien
• Craig Peterson (winner) versus James MacGowan

Semi Finals:

• Gavin Clifford (winner) versus Vincent Mai
• Alan Wass (winner) versus Craig Peterson

Bronze Medal Game:

• Craig Peterson (Bronze) versus Vincent Mai

Final:

• Alan Wass (Gold) versus Gavin Clifford (Silver)

Some interesting points to note in this tournament. Unlike the women’s tournament, few of the Sectional games were decided in a tie breaker. On the other hand, both the semi final games and the Bronze medal game required tiebreakers to determine the winners, demonstrating the competitiveness of the finalists. Craig Peterson deserves special mention. Craig was the only one of the finalists who had to play his last sectional game on the Sunday morning which, including the playoffs, meant he had to play 4 back-to-back games, including 2 tie breakers! Add to that he is a first-year bowler competing for Provincial Bronze against the ultimate veteran in Vince Mai. With players like this entering the arena, our sport is in safe hands. The Gold Medal final between Alan and Gavin was itself a game worth watching. Alan, now a 2-time gold medalist in this tournament, against Gavin who, until now, had never medaled in a Provincial tournament. Both these gentlemen will be representing BC at the Nationals later this year. Make us proud guys!

Thanks and congratulations to everyone who did their part to make this tournament such a success, including the host club, the convenor, umpires, volunteer markers, kitchen staff and, of course, the bowlers.

Watch the SEMI-FINAL and FINAL games on PIBC’s YouTube feed.