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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1989-03-01, Page 18• A Page 18 Times -Advocate, March 1, 1989 _ new London Tigers' team GiIson ex ect�n good year with expecting By Wayne Proctor EXETER - The new London Ti- gers have high expectations going into their firstyear according to General Manager Bolt Gilson. The team finished in first place when it was in Glens Falls and Gilson ex= pects to do as well this year. Gilson was in town recently to speak at the Exeter Lions. Sports Celebrity Dinner at the South Hu- ron Rec Centre. "I will be disappointed if we don't average 4,000 a game attendance at Labatt Park," said Gilson. Gilson, who is new to the Tiger organization, said he has already had an indication of what type of player fans can expect and he expects the team to be strong in centre field, catcher and pitching. One of those pitchers hoping for a chance is Mike Lumley, of Lu - can, who was recently drafted by the Tigers. "Mike Lumley will likely start the the year in "A" ball in Lakeland and if things work out as planned he has a good chance to move up to London in June. We expect a lot of... - great things from Mike. He is a great kid and he should have a great year and has a great attitude." Lumley left last week for spring training in Lakeland. At the end of last season the Ti- gers decided to move their "AA" team from Glens Falls New York after some intense negotiations with the Tigers, Gilson, a long- time Tiger fan, and others con- vinced them to move to London. The London Tigers will play in the Eastern Baseball League, which is just two steps below the major- league level. The step of "AA" ball for the Tigers is the Toledo Mud Hens and from there it is on to the big league. London is one of eight teams in the Eastern League. The Albany, (New York) Yankees, Reading (Pennsylvania) Phillies, Canton (Ohio) Indians, Williamsport (Pennsylvania) Mariners, New Brit- ain (Connecticut) Red Sox, Harris- burg (Pennsylvania) Pirates and Haggerstown (Maryland) Orioles. He added that the quality of base- ball should be very good because Roger Clemens and Matt Nokes are just two of many players wha played in the league recently and have gone on to star in the Major Leagues. Gilson is going into the season with a just a few reservations. He thought the idea of having a Tiger Panther's lose - The South Huron District High School Junior Boys' basketball team fell short in their semi-final playoff bid to Stratford's Northwestern 71-32 at South Huron. Here, Pete McAl- lister, of South Huron, gets the ball stripped away by a Huskies' player. Panthers advance to finals By Michelle Ellison EXETER - Last week, South Hu- ron District High School's senior girls volleyball team attended two tournaments at Stratford Northwest- ern Secondary School. On Tuesday, thc girls picked up five of six wins in a regular -season lr nrirr tolimament. The Panthers played well against the Goderich Vikings taking two easy victories 15-8 and 15-10. The girls next opponent was F.E. Madill. The Panthers claimed the first game 15-10 with little difficul- • ty. The second game brought some the Panthers bur they '-''"•c amc away With a 17-16 victory. The Panthers only loss of the day came in the first game against St. Marys when South Huron was de- feated 15-13. The Panthers came hack, howev- er, to thump the Salukis 15-3. On Thursday, the Panthers attend- ed the qualifying Huron -Perth tour- nament at Northwestern. This tow ilanient qualified the top five times to attend the final Huron - Perth tournament. South Huron came away with a perfect 8-0 record to place first. The Panthers defeated Norwell 15- 3 and 15-9, St. Michael's 15-5 and 15-9, L istowei 15-13 and 15-10 and Clinton 15-12 and 15-11. _, Jw gis 3-.. dv.anced to the final Huron -Perth tournament yesterday (Tuesday) in Listowel. Mini Hawks split pair HURON PARK - The Stephen Township Mini Black Hawk Atoms split their two games last week. They were edged 1-0 by St. Marys "at the Stephen Township Arena in an exhibition game on Thursday and on Saturday they blanked Blyth 4-0 in Blyth. On Thursday, St. Marys scored the first and only goal of thc game on a mad scramble in front of the Mini Hawk net. It was an excellent hack -and -forth game with neither team giving the other one an inch. 'the !its[ period against Blyth was scoreless, but Billy Connor opened the scoring , with his first of two, from goalie Tom Connor, in the team in London was great because of all the Tiger fans in the area be- cause Lohdon is half -way between Toronto and Detroit, he thought the loyalties might be split down the middle. Gilson, who is a long-time friend of Exeter Mayor Bruce Shaw, said the Tigers are planning an Exeter night down at the Labatt Park, to- wards the middle of the season. A number of other special days are planned as well. ,They include, Senior Citizen's night April 10, Button Day April 15, Seat Cushion Day May 6, Mug Day May 27, Ce- lebrity Autograph Day June 25 two appearances by the San Diego Chicken and former Londoner Ted Giannoulas, celebrating his 15th birthday, June 29-30, Fan -Player Photo Day July 16, Pennant Day July 16, an appearance by the clown prince of baseball Max Patkin, who appeared in the movie Bull Durham August 14 and Fan Appreciation Day August 20, just to mention a few. Other special nights are planned. And a long season it will be. The team plays 140 games in 146 days which doesn't leave a lot of free time. In addition the team will play 16 pre -season games in Florida. The season gets underway April 7 at Labbatt Park when the Tigers take the fieldgainst Albany. Gilson also feels having a profes- sional baseball team in London will do a lot for the area. "It really puts London on the big - league map," he'said. "The econom- ic development that will go on in the area is tremendous and we have heard nothing but positive things from London City council and busi- nesses because of the large amount of Tiger fans in the area. Rob Thompson, of Sarnia, will be a coach for the new London team. He was also in Exeter to . speak at the Celebrity Dinner. Thompson, 25, was an up-and- coming catcher in the Tiger organi- zation and played one year of "A" ball in Lakeland but an injury forced him out of action and into the coaching ranks. He is the youngest coach in the history of the Tigers'• organization. He said he is very ex- cited about having a team in Lon- don as well because it is so close to his home. At the dinner Thompson spoke about new manager Chris Cham- bliss and what he will mean to the young players. He said if the players can't show commitment to play for a guy like Chambliss they will have an even harder time for a major-league manager. London Tigers - Bob Gilson, right, of the new London Tigers, and coach Rob Thompson, said they expect Mike Lumley of Lucan to be in a London uniform by June. They said they also are planning an Exeter night in Labatt Park later in the season. Petite Ringette sweep quarter -final series against Mitchell MITCHELL- Exeter Petite Rin- gctte team swept their quarter -final, best two of three series with a com- manding 9-0 win over Mitchell, Saturday. The local girls managed four goals in the first half. Danielle Miners accounted for two of the goals, with Cara Gardner assisting on. both. Sonya Lawrence and Judi Wilson each added singles, while assists went to Wilson Miners and Amy Edwards. Exeter's Cheryl Wein, started the second half scoirng on a pass from Wilson and Miners, at 14:21. Jo - Dee Rowe set up Gardner for her lone goal at 13:48. Two minutes later Lawrence whipped one on on a free pass. At the 11 minutes mark, only 28 seconds after Lawrence's ef- fort, Miners struck again with Gard- ner and Rowe assisting. Miners rounded out the scoring with 6:14 left. Teresa Stire and Heather Davies added the final as- sists. Exeter took advantage of three power play situations and dominat- ed for most of the game. Jana Webster got the shut out for Exeter, after playing a very strong game. Later, the Petites played a fun games against their parents. Both teams were shy players, but were able to play a tight game that ended in a; 5-5 tic. Amy Edwards played a great game in net for the Petites, saving many shots. Pa Wilson and Ma Gardner handled the net well for the parents. Tonya Richt, one of the Petite Refs, helped the parents with two goals and the assists went to Pa Stire and coaches Alan Hodgert and Rambo Miners. Pa Stire was successful on two shorts and Pa Edwards was "lucky" on one. The parents showed their girls some great moves over the 40 mintucs of play. The Petites got three goals from Cara Gardner and singles from Jana Webster and Danielle Miners. As- sisting on the goals were Judi Wil- son, Cheryl Wein, Heather Davies, Sonya Lawrence, Teresa Stire and coach Michelle Hodgert. The Petite team will play Forest in the semi-final round, in Hensall, Friday at 7:30 p.m. and again at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Team circus gets back to racing after slow -start KIRKTON - Team circus has been plagued by less than ideal rac- ing conditions and machine set up this alleged winter, but, has gotten it together these last few weeks. Team circus returned home Sun- day night February 12th from the Canadian World Series at Waterford, Ontario victorious in a total of sev- en classes along with one second and three thirds. On Saturday at Waterford Brian Eickmeicr riding his Phazer won B and C Improved stock. Due to Tre- vor Edwards work commitment he drove the tatters Yamaha XLV to victory in one class and placed sec- ond and third in two others. Sunday Edwards returned to the line up and nailed down first in D stock, first in C stock and third in B stock. Eickmeicr won first in both C and B improved stock and third in A improved stock on his 1985 Phazer. The team has been wanting to run in some oval and Le Mans races as they usually do every winter, but, due too low prize money and ex- treme travelling distances they have stayed on the maximum speed ice drags. The Bruce Peninsula Snowmobile Racing Association hosted the On- tario championships this past week- end. The boys proved that they are definitely a team! After racing was over on Saturday, Brian Eickmeier Atom Broncos eliminate Lambeth in series 3-1 LAMBETH - The Exeter Atom Broncos eliminated Lambeth three - game -to -one in the best -of -five playoff series, winning the deciding game 5-2 in Lambcth last Wednes- day night. In the next series, Ridgetown took a 2-0 lead after winning the opening game 3-1 and 4-0 in the second game. Exeter's Chris McDonald opened the scoring against Lambeth at 3:03 of the first period. Eric Clay picked up the only assist. Lambeth got that back with only 16 seconds gone in the second and Exeter took the lead for good with 36 seconds left in the second when Chad Gilfillan connected from Clay and Brent Urlin. second... In thc third period, Andy Glavin scored his 34th goal of the year, from Ken Dcsjardines and Billy Connor. Later, Billy Connor got his sec- ond unassisted and Pres Lavicr rounded out the scoring with an un- assisted goal. Tom Connor record his seventh shutout of the year for the Mini 1lawks. Hern helps club to title BURLINGTON - London's Skat, ing Club Novice Precision skating team Ice Picks, which includes Ex- eter's Kelly Hern, finished second at the Western Ontario sectional championships on the weekend in Burlington. As a result of their good show- ing, the team qualified for the Ca- nadian Championship in Edmonton Alberta, April 5-11. London's pre -novice Ice Magic was fourth, while the London- Ilderton senior team, Synchronici- ty, was fourth also. Exeter added three more tallies in the final frame. Jeff Sararas scored from Adam Hern, McDonald scored from Adam Jean and Hem and Ben Guenther scored from Sararas. In game one of the Ridgctown series, Exeter's Rob Lynn scored first, from Urlin and Sararas in the second period, but Ridgctown scored with less than a minute to play in the second to tic the game and took command in the second with a pair of unanswered goals. In game two, Ridgctown's Josh Fralcigh turned aside all shots fired at him by Exeter players in record- ing the shutout, while they scored twice in the first and second periods to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. was overall high point leader with Trevor Edwards close behind in fourth. This was managed with each of our drivers only running one sled. The driver in the second point po- sition was running three machines and only eight points back of Eick- mcicr. After a short meeting the two team drivers decided to pool their efforts and guarantee the over- all high point, championship for the good of the team. The strategy proved to be correct as using two machines instead of one Eickmcicr maintained his lead over thc nearest competitor who had used the three sleds on both days. Eickmeicr finished off the weekend with 275 points, Edwards, still rid- ing, but, in only two classes Sun- day maintained his forth overall standing! Crew members Mike Kclls and Rob Baxter, as well as help from Bob and Gerry Edwards were pushed to the limit as thc multiple classes and torque converter trouble with Eickmeier's machine and carburetor jetting caused grief _with Edwards sled. Full team effort prevailed and they came out overall high point leaders and also high points overall for improved stock! Bringing home the high points trophy sponsored by CFOS radio station in Owen Sound, a lawn mowcr from Clairs Small Engines Wiarton, jacket from Kendall Oil and snowboots from Tindall Shoes Wiarton, as well as, much appre- ciated cash. The team was cstactic with their accomplishments and their racing sponsors Royal City Cycle, Guelph, Aarcor Equipment Kirk - ton, B & K Tire and Battery Brod- hagcn, Reynolds Fabricating, Van Moorsel Insulation Mitchell, Roe - tin Runners of Burford, Signs and Shirts, Hensall, Vcals Meats and MacLcans from Exeter. Also a special thanks to the Ex- eter TA and the St. Marys Journal for their faithful newspaper cover - All you need to remember about home comfort is Serving from Lucan to Blyth SYSTEMS BY LENNOX INSTALLED BY PA ILEY' of Hensel! Ltd. • ti43 HEATING AND AIR CONDITIONING —We re proud to be your Lennox Dealer 11LN`.�ALt `,_. MAIN ST. EXE I ER NOM 1S0 235-1520. ' Sa dfite & ,4r tie Audio. & Video_ 126 MAIN ST. 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