North American Challenge

About the North American Challenge

2018 Schedule

NOTE: End-by-end results are available here beginning
October 11th.

The North American Challenge (NAC) is a bowls matchup between the United States of America and Canada.
The NAC is played bi-annually in even years with locations alternating between the USA and Canada. First being held in 1995, the tournament is sanctioned by World Bowls as an international event. Each country fields two teams: a Jarvis team and a Folkins team. The teams are named after Dick Folkins, a legendary American bowler, and Graham Jarvis, a long time international contender for Canada.
The NAC is played over a three-day period with two days of pre-event practice. Two games are played each day with pairs and triples played first followed by singles and fours. There are seven trophies to be claimed:

Top Men’s Folkins Team
Top Women’s Folkins Team
Top Men’s Jarvis Team
Top Women’s Jarvis Team
Top Combined (men & women) Folkins Team
Top Combined (men & women) Jarvis Team
Top Overall Team

Format

Each country fields a Folkins team and a Jarvis team, each made up of 5 men and 5 women. Each gender specific squad plays the 2 squads from the opposing country. The better finishing squads of each country then play in the 3rd round of their discipline, while the lower finishing squads play.

The order of play is the International standard, with each 5 player squad playing 3 matches of Pairs and Triples in the first disciplines, followed by the second disciplines of 3 matches of Singles and Fours.

Round 1-US Folkins vs Canadian Folkins by gender; US Jarvis vs Canadian Jarvis by gender
Round 2 - US Folkins vs Canadian Jarvis by gender; US Jarvis vs Canadian Folkins by gender
Round 3 - Described above, high squad plays high, and low plays low.

Overall there are 48 matches over 3 days of play, each player bowling in 6 matches. There are 7 trophies, all determined by most wins, with plus points as the tiebreaker: