ednesday, August 3, 1994 - North Shore News Tk 2, . SIDELINES MARATHON SWIM- MING... Endurance athlete Shane Collins moved one stroke closer to swimming the English Channel last weekend when he successfully crossed Georgia Strait. The West Vancouver swim- mer finished the crossing in tO hours and 50 minutes, qualify- ing him to challenge the English Channel. The Channel Association, the governing body and safety monitor for Channel swims, dictates that swimmers must have a tQ- hour open-water swim, with- out a wetsuil, to their credit before attempting the England to France crossing. Last Friday's Strait crossing by Collins was his third attempt of the 29-kilometre (18 miles) distance. Last year, in the fourth annual Save the Strait Marathon, he was pulled from choppy seas after 5.5 hours. Undaunted, Collins returned a week later and defeated the crossing in 12 hours and 20 minutes. According to escort skipper Jim Shortreed, the first thing that Collins wanted to do when he emerged from the water on Friday was to get an ice-cream cone and a burger. “He climbed out of the water, shivered for 20 minutes then started locking for a food out- let.” MOUNTAIN BIKE CLINIC... Two clinics for mountain bikers are being held at Grouse Mountain this month, The courses, led by former Olympic cyclist and coach Peg Hill and CBC “Cycle!” show instructor Joan Jones, begin on Saturday, Aug. 6 (women only) and on Saturday, Aug. 13 (co-ed). The one-day clinics focus on developing technical mountain bike skills. For more informa- tion call the Extreme Mountainbike People Society at 327-2547. TENNIS... West Vancouver tennis player Chris Santeso fought off a nagging finger injury to claim the men’s open singles title at the K-Swiss Staniey Park Open on Sunday. The 18-year-old’s 6-4, 6-4 tri- umph over Californian Mike Chinchiole marked the return of a homegrown champ after a four-year drought. Santoso's first Grand Prix title almost didn’t happened fol- lowing a spiil in his opening round match against Jerry Turik. Tied at 4-4 in the decid- ing set, Santoso crashed into the back fence trying to return a deep shot, jamming his mid- dle finger on his racquet hand in the process. Holding on to his racquet with just three fin- gers, he managed to win the next two games and the match. “That night a doctor friend of the family’s drilled through his fingernail to relieve the pressure.” recalled Santoso’s coach Brett Hebden. Still srnarting from the injury. the young player went on to defeat former Staniey Park champ Mike Tammen and Vancouver's 6°5" Ryan Reber, who had earlier beat the tournament's No. | seed. NEWS photo Mike Wakatied THE SUSSEX Martlsts recently visited the West Vancouver Lawn Bowling Club as part of the English team’s bowls tour of Vancouver. Here, Martlets player George Jerram stands in front of his team. In addition to playing in West Vancouver, the Martiets also played exhibition: matches in North Vancouver, Richmond, New Westminster and Vancouver before flying home. Valley of winners Two Lynn Valley baseball teams qualify to represent B.C. WHITE ROCK pulled a win out of the fire by scoring two runs int the bottom of the sev- enth inning to defeat Lyan Valley 3-2 and claim the Junior Little League Provincial Championship title last week. THE HOT BOX By Kevin Gillies However, both teams will repre- sent B.C. at the Canadian Championships next weekend because White Rock is automatical- ly entered as host of the tourna- ment. By virtue of their reaching the final, Lynn Valley will fill the B.C. representative slot. Lynn Valley lost twice to the White Rock team despite out-hit- ting them 21-16 for the two games. The losses were Lynn Valiey’s first of the year. Ciinton Hosford struck out six while going the distance for the North Shore squad. With one out in the top of the third, Lileyd Haggard singled, followed by Brian Briscoe who also singled. Hosford then sin- gled over second base to drive in the game's first run. Blake Anderson then hit a sacrifice fly to centre. bringing in Lynn Valley's second run. White Rock scored one in the fifth and the 2-1! score carried into the final inning. White Rock's Clayton Fisher opened the bottom of the seventh with a waik and see- ond baseman Jamie Gill reuched first base when Lynn Valley short- stop Briscoe couldn't get a handle on the ball after a great pick-up. White Rock shortstop Ryan Samson hit a singie and was fol- lowed by David Harriman who crunched one over the heads of the drawn-in outfield for the win. - The Canadian Championships start with Quebee meeting Lynn Valley this Saturday, Aug. 6 at [1 a.m. The tournament's final will be played on Saturday, Aug. 13. After Quebec, Lynn Valley plays White Rock at 6 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 7; the Maritimes at 3 p.m., Monday, Aug. 8; the Prairies at noon, Tuesday. Aug. 9; and Ontario at 3 p.m.. Wednesday, Aug. 10. The two teams with the best records after the round-robin will play in the final. All games are at South Surrey Athletic Park on 20th Ave. and 148th St. Lynn Valley qualified for the provincial championships with a 7- 4 win over North Van Central last month in the Hongkong Bank of Canada-sponsored District 5 jusior division championships. MAJOR LITTLE LEAGUE The Lynn Valley Major Little League team moved one step closer to repeating as Canadian champs as they knocked off Laritz in two straight games at the provincial championships last weekend in Quesnel. Last year the team won the national title and represented Canada at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The team is now preparing to icave for the nationals in Calgary on Friday. In the best-of-three final series against the Victoria team, Lynn Valley wasted no time, winning the | first pame 5-1 and the second, 5-3. The first atempi to play the open- ing final-series game was called off after two innings due to rain. Lynn Valley was ahead 1-0 at the time. Tyler Lentsch drove in three runs in the opening game, and pitched the lust inning for Lynn Valley. Chris Kerr was on the mouad for the first four innings, before Marc Reulepti came in as relief. Despile stranding (1 runners in the second game, the defending provincial champs hung on for the win, in large part to a full-game pitching performance by Gerald Goch-Koldyk. Most of Lynn Valley's runs came on passed bails. The Narth Shore team qualified for the final series against the Victoria-area team with a 6-4 win over Whalley on Friday night. The win avenged an earlier loss to Whalley and sent the Surrey team hone. Cody Swansborough and Goch-Koldyk shared the pitching duties with Swansborough and Michaei Winstanley cach hitting homenuns. Whalley loaded the bases in the fifth with the score 6-4 for Lynn Valley but were shut out by the locals. Lynn Valley got to Whalley by beating Beaver Valley 13-6 Thursday night. The pitching was shared by Swansborough, Rouleau and Lentsch. The team is coached by Grant Kerr and managed by Klaus Heck. West Vancouver-Cypress Hills (WVCH) 14- and 15-year-olds came close to being provincial champs, but it wasn’t to be as the North Shore team lost a 6-4 heart- breaker to Victoria Drive last week at the provincial championships at Killarney Park in East Vancouver. West Van had beaten early tour- nament favorites Dunbar 2-1, but a loss to Whalley (6-2) and the loss to Victoria Drive knocked the team out of contention. * mk Photo gubmitted FOR THE second year in a row, the Lynn Valley Little League 12-year-old all-stars will represent 8.C. at the national level.